12 months after yr, mannequin after mannequin, the Boox Palma will get a little bit nearer to the machine of my goals. Onyx, the corporate that makes it, discovered a formulation that is still both simple and delightful: it’s a gadget concerning the dimension of a smartphone, with entry to the total breadth of Android apps, however with an E Ink display that offers the Palma a way more targeted existence.
My Palma is sort of fully for 4 issues: studying (by way of Kindle and Readwise), listening (by way of Pocket Casts and Spotify), taking notes (by way of MyMind and Workflowy), and controlling my Roku TV. The Palma can do many issues, however it does just a few issues nicely. And the battery life is nice.
On paper, the new Palma 2 Pro is the primary to tick all of the packing containers. The new $399.99 device is the costliest Palma but, but additionally simply essentially the most high-tech. Most importantly, it has a SIM card slot for including (data-only) cell connectivity. It additionally has a colour display, a more moderen model of Android, a quicker processor, extra RAM, stylus assist, and a bunch of recent software program options. This might be the do-everything minimalist machine we’ve been ready for.
After testing the machine for some time, I’m sorry to report: it’s not. The thought stays an excellent one, and the SIM slot and pen assist have each made the Palma helpful in new methods. However one in all this machine’s “upgrades” is definitely such an enormous downgrade that I nearly instantly discovered myself utilizing the Palma 2 Professional lower than both of its predecessors. It’s such a obvious downside that I can’t suggest shopping for this machine in any respect; buy the Palma 2 instead. Or simply wait a little bit longer, and hope that Onyx figures out methods to give us all the fitting options on the identical time.
Let’s simply do that first: the issue is the display. The Palma 2 Professional has a 6.13-inch, colour display, based mostly on E Ink’s Kaleido 3 know-how. The Kaleido 3 tech is a couple of years outdated, and it’s primarily a colour filter layered over a regular black-and-white E Ink display.
Yow will discover Kaleido 3 screens in plenty of devices, none of which look superb, however lots of which look fantastic. The tech comes with a couple of inherent drawbacks, most notably its decision — 150ppi is just half as sharp as a contemporary black-and-white E Ink display — and its brightness. Amazon’s Kindle Colorsoft is predicated on Kaleido 3, simply to call one instance, however Amazon rebuilt the whole display stack to make it sharper, brighter, and extra correct. Amazon was very clear that it didn’t imagine Kaleido was adequate by itself.
Amazon was proper. The Palma 2 Professional’s display is a large number. It’s so dim that I’ve to show the machine’s mild up a lot greater than on earlier fashions simply to see textual content on the display. The decrease pixel density makes any small textual content primarily unreadable, and it nonetheless feels vaguely out of focus even once I’m simply studying textual content on a clean background. I’ve spent what seems like hours fidgeting with the Palma’s (many, many, means too many) show settings, and nonetheless can’t get it to the purpose I like taking a look at it.
And for what? Positive, the Palma 2 Professional renders issues in colour, however these issues appear like impressionist work relatively than sharp pictures. It supposedly helps 4,096 colours, however in observe turns most issues into some bizarre model of rust purple. The display is comparatively quick, which makes it enjoyable to pan and zoom across the pages of comedian books, however the ghosting impact is fairly tough and all the pieces simply seems to be fuzzy. In all my testing, there hasn’t been a single time I’ve been glad to have this colour display as a substitute of the sharper, brighter, extra nice black-and-white panel on the Palma 2.
It’s a disgrace the display is such a deal-breaker, too, as a result of the SIM slot is one of the best factor that ever occurred to the Boox Palma. I purchased a $20 pay as you go data-only SIM card, popped it into the slot on the backside of the machine, and by no means thought of connectivity once more. Because you’re unlikely to make use of this machine for lots of video streaming, a little bit information goes a good distance, and having my studying lists and podcast queues robotically up-to-date has solved one in all my few points with residing the Palma life.
I take advantage of the Palma as kind of a mix iPod / Kindle, however including cell connectivity means you need to use the Palma 2 Professional as a cellphone. It’s a surprisingly respectable one: the microphone sounds fairly good, although it’s not nice at cancelling background noise, and the speaker is just not nice however actually adequate.
The Palma will not be a cellphone for making cellphone calls (although some enterprising users appear to be proving in any other case), however you possibly can simply use the calling options of nearly any messaging app. I’m unsure I’d suggest this or any E Ink cellphone as an iPhone or Pixel substitute, however the Palma 2 is a good backup cellphone or weekend machine. And possibly, because it’s all that and a Kindle substitute, the $400 worth is a little bit simpler to abdomen. Perhaps.
So there’s the worst factor concerning the Palma 2 Professional, and one of the best factor about it. Every part else is just about par for the Palma course. It nonetheless feels a little bit plasticky and fragile. It nonetheless benchmarks like a midrange cellphone from 4 years in the past, and whereas the numbers are barely greater than the Palma 2, I don’t actually discover the distinction. The digicam remains to be extra for scanning QR codes than for making recollections. The battery nonetheless lasts the higher a part of every week.
Every part else is just about par for the Palma course
There are a few smaller however nonetheless good upgrades. It has 8GB of RAM and runs Android 15, each of that are nice indicators for the general longevity of the machine. (I’ve at all times frightened about how lengthy a Palma shall be helpful, given the everyday mixture of outdated chip and outdated software program.) The Palma 2 Professional additionally helps Onyx’s $46 InkSense stylus, which writes pretty easily and can be utilized for all the pieces from notes to truly writing your texts longhand if that’s your factor for some cause. It’s not one of the best stylus expertise I’ve ever had, however it works.
Apart from the mass of customization choices, Boox affords its typical set of built-in apps for studying, file-sharing, and some different issues. You’ll be able to safely ignore most or all of them, as I do. The AI Assistant app is a bit more pushy and arduous to disregard, and does threaten the Palma’s entire non-chaotic existence. With a little bit work, although, you possibly can nonetheless flip all of it off and get again to the belongings you wish to do.
In the end, the Palma — like most of Onyx’s many, many different Boox gadgets — is precisely the sum of all these components. The corporate doesn’t do lots of in-house components growth or supply large new concepts about software program. It’s as a substitute continually remixing components and spec sheets to try to discover the correct mix for the fitting machine. The Palma mixture (smartphone, E Ink, Play Retailer) stays a wonderful one. An information connection makes all three components higher. A colour display may, too. However not this one. This one despatched me proper again to the Palma 2. It’s black and white, and it solely works on Wi-Fi, however a minimum of it’s good to take a look at.
