The Boox Palma 2 stays a Boox Palma. That is the most effective and worst factor about it. Slightly over a yr after Onyx shipped its first $279.99 smartphone-sized e-reader — a tool I like and use nearly daily — the corporate has launched its successor. And it’s, in each significant means, the identical actual factor.
On one stage, that is high-quality. Good, even! The Palma’s entire enchantment relies on its simplicity. By transport a tool roughly the dimensions of a smartphone, with entry to all of the apps within the Play Store and an E Ink display screen that’s straightforward to take a look at and takes days to empty the battery, Onyx discovered a successful combo. For anybody looking for a strategy to simply learn books, paperwork, and stuff from the net, there’s actually nothing fairly prefer it. For me, it turned not only a reader but in addition a strategy to play music and podcasts and even take fast notes, with out having to wade into the chaotic morass of my cellphone.
My greatest fear with the unique Palma was merely how lengthy it will final. It ran on an previous chip and Android 11, each of which had been woefully outdated even when it launched. The Palma 2 has a more moderen chip and Android 13, which implies you may most likely anticipate it to work and get safety updates for a minimum of a few years. I wouldn’t depend on something previous that, although — Onyx is significantly better at spitting out new units than updating its present ones.
About that new processor: Onyx calls it a “sooner octa-core CPU,” and I completely positively can not inform the distinction. It out-benchmarks the earlier mannequin, notably in graphics duties, however in use, I didn’t discover the development wherever. Apps nonetheless open somewhat slower than I’d like; web page turns work high-quality however sometimes faucets don’t register; God aid you for those who ever attempt to play a recreation or watch a video. I’m not particularly bothered by the shortage of efficiency improve, since “quick” will not be the purpose of this factor. But simply to place it in perspective: the unique Palma benchmarks like a strong midrange cellphone from 2017, and the Palma 2 checks like a strong midrange cellphone from 2019. The newest Pixel telephones from Google roughly triple the Palma 2’s scores. Boox upgraded the Palma, however solely from a extremely, actually previous cellphone to only a actually previous cellphone.
Everything else in regards to the Palma is similar, for higher and for worse. The 6.3-inch E Ink Carta show nonetheless seems good, and the plastic physique nonetheless feels fairly flimsy. It nonetheless has 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, each of that are a lot for this gadget’s functions. The 16-megapixel digital camera works okay for scanning paperwork and QR codes and nonetheless takes crappy footage in any other case. The energy button is somewhat greater than earlier than and now has a fingerprint reader for easier safety, which is good, nevertheless it’s somewhat sluggish and somewhat finicky, and do you even want a passcode on a Palma? (I don’t have one. Maybe I ought to.) My Palma 2’s battery lasts 4 to 5 days on a cost, similar to the previous one.
I’m torn between the Palma 2 being precisely what I wished and a little bit of a missed alternative. There’s a lot extra Onyx might do with this factor. It might have added a SIM slot and turned the Palma into a correct minimalist smartphone. It might have fastened the massive hole between the glass and the display screen, upgraded the supplies, and made an object worthy of that $280 price ticket. It might have refined the Palma’s tackle Android, cleansing up settings and eradicating pointless built-in apps to make it even less complicated. Or skip all that, ditch the digital camera, downgrade the storage, and discover a strategy to promote this factor for half the value.
Instead, the Palma is the Palma. If you have got the final one, you undoubtedly don’t want this one. If you don’t have both, get this one so it’ll final somewhat longer. Maybe this gadget will find yourself just like the Kindle: yr to yr, there’s often not a lot motive to improve, however once you break yours or depart it in a seat-back pocket someplace, there’s a solidly higher gadget ready to switch it. And very like the Kindle, it appears the Palma’s customers will at all times have greater ambitions for the product than its makers.
My actual hope is that the Palma will get some competitors. This mixture — smartphone measurement, E Ink display screen, Android apps — isn’t notably refined or proprietary, and there are many methods different corporations might do it higher. There are another choices on the market (right here’s Reddit thread discussing a few of them), however no one, together with Onyx, has executed one of these product justice but. I’d like to see somebody get it proper.
Until then, the Palma 2 will just do high-quality. It lets me learn my books and articles, shops my podcasts and my music, and makes it rattling close to unimaginable to get distracted by TikTok. Still a successful combo in my e-book.
Photography by David Pierce / The Verge
