Boox just lately added a brand new e-reader to its ranks. It’s referred to as the Palma and boasts an “eye-friendly” ePaper show that’s just lately been making rounds on-line. Priced at $280, it’s considerably costlier than Amazon’s $100 base Kindle mannequin, so I went into it with far more expectations than I did with a Kindle. However I’m afraid it didn’t do justice to its value.
Boox Palma
It is attempting to do an excessive amount of on the identical time.
Professionals
-
Sturdy physique -
Big, expandable storage -
Battery life is long-lasting
Cons
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No darkish mode -
No 3.5mm port -
Facet ratio makes it arduous to learn on it -
Interface is laggy
Boox Palma Design
Simply stowable.
Crucial factor you should learn about Palma’s design is that it seems like holding an iPhone in your palms. It’s 6 x 3 inches and has virtually the identical type issue as my historic iPhone 12 Professional Max. This 2:1 side ratio differs significantly from the 8:6 ratio on a Kindle.
I like how moveable the Palma is. Weighing solely 170g, it feels good and light-weight in your tote bag. I carried it with me to a few locations and forwards and backwards from work for round per week, and it didn’t weigh my workplace tote down. It has a slim 8mm profile, a modest plastic physique, and a sturdy exterior. Despite the fact that my Palma shipped with a protecting cowl, I didn’t use it with that. I attempted it for a couple of minutes however shortly ditched it because it added to the burden, made utilizing it much less ergonomic, and didn’t really feel essential. Although tiny, the Palma feels fairly sturdy and doesn’t want that additional safety. The again of the machine has a pretend paper-like look, which I dig.
Whereas I preferred that the Palma didn’t really feel flimsy sufficient to require a case, I did really feel just a little involved in regards to the absence of a water resistant ranking and the way that would result in a catastrophe if a spillage happens. The corporate claims its e-reader is “water-repellent,” however it’s not water resistant. Evaluate this to the excessive IPX8 water resistance ranking on the Kindle, and also you’ll understand what an enormous flaw that is.
The fitting aspect of the Palma hosts an influence button and a quantity rocker, and the left edge gives the SD card slot and a customizable perform button. The buttons are good and clicky, and I like how they add just a little pop of glitz to the in any other case bland physique. The perform button has been designed intelligently and given as much as three actions for a 1) short-press 2) double-click, and a 3) long-press. These actions embody taking a screenshot, placing the Palma into Sleep Mode, going to the following web page, the earlier web page, and so forth.
The underside of the e-reader sports activities a Sort-C charging port and a pair of speaker grilles. To my nice shock, the audio system are glorious. Although tinny and sharp like most cell phone audio system, their quantity is spectacular sufficient to fill a mid-sized room. I preferred placing the Palma on a shelf in my kitchen and listening to podcasts as I cooked. The sound of my cooking, together with my thunderous kitchen exhaust, had been each overpowered by the Palma’s audio system.
I’m additionally joyful in regards to the spectacular audio system as a result of the Palma doesn’t provide a 3.5mm port for a wired audio connection. So, your solely two choices are Bluetooth and audio system, and I largely discovered myself choosing the latter. If I had been somebody who drove, I might additionally see myself listening to audiobooks on its audio system within the automotive. If I ever eat content material the place I care about audio, I’d change to an excellent pair of buds.
Boox Palma Performance
Outdated OS however enormous storage.
Android 11 powers the Palma, which, contemplating we’re on Android 15 now, makes it extraordinarily outdated by way of the OS. Fortunately, the OS doesn’t considerably affect the reader’s day-to-day performance. Nonetheless, if you happen to want to use the Boox extra as a pill, you would possibly discover the outdated OS limiting you regarding app compatibility.
The processor on board is Qualcomm’s Octa-Core 2GHz with built-in graphics, 6GB reminiscence, a whopping 128GB storage, and an SD card slot. Amazon’s Kindle is 64GB, so the 128GB is straight away spectacular. Contemplating it’s expandable with the reminiscence card slot, it’s even higher, besides we haven’t been informed a most of what number of GBs the slot can provide.
The sunshine powering the E-Ink Carta 1200 show on the Palma known as Moon Gentle 2 and is chargeable for the eye-friendly mushy glow that illuminates the machine. The 6.13” display screen gives 300ppi and a decision of 824×1648 dots. I do know that the 6-inch measurement sounds just a little too tall for an e-reader and just a little too phone-like.
You additionally get a 16MP rear digicam with an LED flash. The flash additionally works as a reasonably vibrant and helpful flashlight if you swipe down on the Palma and faucet its icon within the management middle. Nonetheless, the digicam received’t fulfill your images wants. It solely exists for scanning paperwork.
Boox Palma Expertise
Dangerous at searching
To entry my e-book, I needed to obtain the Kindle app from the Google Play Retailer and join (and pay for) Kindle Unlimited. It value me round $12 a month however was easy to arrange. Studying my present learn, Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen, for per week made me really feel like this machine is confused between eager to be an e-reader and a cell phone. Personally, the two:1 side ratio didn’t work for me. It match too little on every web page and, consequently, concerned numerous scrolling and page-turning, which might have simply been averted with a extra book-like type issue. I attempted zooming out on my e-book just a little to suit extra textual content on a single web page, however that was uncomfortable, too, and I resorted to a font sufficiently big for my eyes.
The contact sensitivity isn’t what you get on a smartphone or pill, but it surely’s not dangerous. I did must re-tap a few instances after I tapped too frivolously out of behavior, however for probably the most half, it was high quality. To show a web page, I frivolously tapped or swiped the proper a part of the display screen.
One characteristic I seemed for as quickly as I received my palms on any machine was darkish mode, so it was unusual to see that I couldn’t discover a darkish mode setting. Throughout the complete testing interval, I felt that one thing essential was lacking, as if I nonetheless hadn’t totally settled into this new machine. I contacted Palma to ask whether or not I missed it, they usually confirmed that the mode doesn’t exist on it but.
Other than Palma’s e-reader capabilities, I imagine it wants extra processing energy to carry out different duties effectively. You need to use a browser and the Play Retailer as you want, which suggests you’ll be able to obtain video games, YouTube, Netflix, or another apps you don’t thoughts interacting with on a black-and-white e-ink show. However there was sufficient stutter and lag in day-to-day searching that I can’t think about utilizing it for even mild video games. I skilled pixel distortion whereas scrolling down at instances, typing was typically messy with the show always glitching and it will look as if it’s not quick sufficient to maintain up with my work move.
One of many greatest points with Palma is pixel persistence. I skilled extreme picture retention the place I’d see a really apparent picture of the final web page keep on my subsequent one. This can be a quite common drawback that’s pertinent to OLED shows. Whether or not it was typing on the Palma or switching between web sites, it was clear that the machine wasn’t quick sufficient to maintain up. Navigation improved after I switched to the ‘Ultrafast’ refresh mode out of the 4 (HD, Balanced, Quick, Ultrafast) offered, however nonetheless not sufficient to supply a clean, stutter-free searching expertise.
Whereas the digicam did an honest job capturing pictures, the OCR was poor, and I might as a substitute use my cellphone for scanning and studying paperwork. If I’d ever use the Palma for this job, I’d must make fairly a number of corrections to the OCR outcomes.
When it comes to gestures, I discovered the Palma very simple to get used to. It copies many gestures from iOS, similar to swiping proper from the left of the show to return or enabling a Nav Ball in Settings, which works precisely like Assistive Contact. After all, it additionally retains many Android features, similar to the underside navigation bar with icons similar to Residence, Again, and Recents.
The Palma’s battery life was glorious. It took rather less than two hours to cost totally after which fully refused to die. Every single day, I’d test the share after concluding my utilization for that day, and it will go down by a really small margin. Its 3950mAh battery will simply final you per week and a half if you happen to use it day by day for studying and searching.
Boox Palma Verdict
Attempting to put on too many hats.
The Palma tried to overperform in a lot of areas and, because of this, failed in some. If it caught to its job of being simply an e-reader, it might have been a extra spectacular machine and, ideally, value much less. Type factor-wise, it seems prefer it’s attempting very arduous to be a cellphone. Performance-wise, it needs to be a pill. I might have accepted the try-hard perspective, too, if it was cheaper. However for a steep value of $280, I don’t wish to pay for options I by no means requested for or don’t carry out that nicely. On high of that, some obvious flaws, such because the absence of water resistance, a darkish mode, and a 3.5mm port, are unacceptable if you’re setting me again round 300 bucks.
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