There are actually solely three issues it’s good to know concerning the Boox Palma. One: it’s concerning the dimension of a smartphone. Two: it runs Android, with the Play Retailer. Three: it has an E Ink display. There are different specs and options I’ll get to, however that mixture — smartphone, Android, E Ink — is the Palma’s entire purpose for existence.
In a few months of utilizing the Palma, a $280 machine that has been on sale since final fall, that mixture has turned out to be precisely what I wanted. As a result of it’s smartphone-sized, with a 6.1-inch display and an general footprint only a smidge bigger than the Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus, I can maintain it in a single hand and slot in my pocket. As a result of it runs Android, I can obtain any app I want. And since it’s E Ink, the battery lasts someplace between 4 days and per week, the display is simple to take a look at even at the hours of darkness, and — and that is crucial half — most apps are simply terrible to make use of.
Certain, the Palma can technically obtain TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. It may well even, stutteringly, play movies from these apps. However due to E Ink’s low decision, sluggish refresh charge, and general black-and-white-ness, it’s a crummy sufficient expertise that I’m by no means tempted to take action. As a substitute, I discover myself doing the issues the Palma’s display is constructed for. This factor is initially an e-reader. It’s simply that, in contrast to all the opposite e-readers, this one helps you to learn in no matter app you want to make use of.
The primary app I downloaded onto the Palma was Amazon Kindle, which is the place all my digital books are. And earlier than you’re like, dude, why didn’t you simply purchase a Kindle, the second app I downloaded was Readwise Reader, an app for studying and organizing longform articles, PDFs, and absolutely anything else. Already, I’d achieved one thing no different e-reader gives. Then, I downloaded a few information apps, Flipboard, and the note-taking app Obsidian.
Two months later, these are nonetheless the apps I exploit most on the Palma. Boox preinstalls a couple of others, like a voice recorder and a music app, however I barely touched these. Who wants ‘em when I’ve Android! I downloaded Pocket Casts and Spotify as an alternative, and now my Palma is my iPod along with being my Kindle. Once I exit for espresso within the morning or to stroll the canine within the afternoon, solely the Palma comes with me.
I’ve been amazed by how a lot of my telephone exercise disappeared once I put all my listening and studying onto one other machine. I by no means observed how typically I’d dig my telephone out to alter songs, solely to get pulled in by a Slack message or a Gmail notification. (Come to think about it, because of the “Notification Mute” characteristic in Boox’s model of Android, I don’t suppose I’ve gotten a single notification the entire time I’ve had this factor.) Now that I’m bringing the Palma and never my telephone with me to the espresso store, I’m getting extra studying executed as a result of TikTok isn’t remotely tempting on this machine. I’m really offline more often than not — I’ll simply take it off Airplane mode to sync the assorted apps, then shut off the connection and return to studying. A tool that’s straightforward to have with me, that may technically do every part however solely makes it straightforward to do the stuff I need, has been every part I wished.
“It’s simply absolutely the good quantity of friction,” Craig Mod instructed me once I recounted my expertise with the Palma. Mod — a blogger, creator, and bookmaker who has been writing about digital studying for years — loves his Palma, too. He wrote a weblog publish about it in Could that received lots of people excited concerning the machine — he reckons he satisfied not less than a couple of hundred folks to purchase one. “You wouldn’t wish to go surf YouTube and be like, ‘All proper, let me watch MKBHD,’” he says. “But when I wanted to… I may pop into that for a second.”
“It’s simply absolutely the good quantity of friction”
That friction is a perform of the machine itself: E Ink screens simply don’t refresh quick sufficient to look good taking part in video. Serviceable in a pinch? Certain. However not adequate to essentially suck you in.
Like me, Mod mentioned the Palma’s mixture of dimension and display bought him on the machine. “It’s good one-handed, it’s not heavy, it’s not going to fall in your face in a bizarre method,” he mentioned. “You’ve received it in your hand together with your thumb on the amount controls, and you’ll simply undergo an article till you go to sleep.” Did I point out you’ll be able to set the Palma to flip pages once you press the amount buttons? Love that. Mod referred to as the Palma “a delicate lullaby of a reader.”
Matt Martin, the CEO of calendar startup Clockwise and one other new Palma proprietor, echoed the sentiment. “I aspire to learn extra,” he mentioned. “I aspire to not spend the half-hour earlier than mattress on Instagram Reels.” He downloaded the New York Instances app, Instapaper, Libby, and Kindle and mentioned he’s been studying extra and Reels-ing much less ever since.
“There’s the outdated anecdote we have been all taught in Psych 101,” Martin mentioned, “which is that bodily setting issues. I feel a separate machine issues right here: generally you’re studying, and also you’re in a sluggish part, and you’ve got that random thought, like, what was that factor I wished to purchase on Amazon? And also you’re there with out fascinated with it.” A tool just like the Palma provides simply sufficient friction to cease that practice earlier than it goes too far.
Mod has loved the Palma a lot that he desires Boox to go even additional. “I might like to have this factor as my most important driver,” he mentioned, “a lot greater than the dopamine on line casino iPhone the place it’s vying in your consideration each two seconds.” He additionally desires Boox to do away with the digicam on the again of the Palma, which, candidly, I’d fully forgotten about till he talked about it. I suppose it’s good to have in a pinch, however a point-and-shoot this isn’t.
Boox didn’t construct an ideal gadget right here. Not by any stretch. The plastic physique is a little bit flimsy, the display is ready fairly far behind the bezels, every part takes a half-second longer than it ought to, the display will be unresponsive at instances, and I want it will full-refresh the E Ink to take away ghosting a little bit extra typically. (There’s a devoted button for doing that final half, although, which helps.) For a $280 e-reader, I’d anticipate a little bit extra polish in each {hardware} and software program. Worst of all, the Palma runs Android 11, which is already wildly old-fashioned, and I’m not relying on Boox updating it quickly or ever. Greater than doubtless, my Palma will simply slowly cease working, app by app, over the following couple of years. That’s significantly irritating given how easy my wants are; for taking part in music and studying articles, there’s no purpose this shouldn’t final endlessly.
All Boox actually did was put collectively the fitting set of substances
All Boox actually did was put collectively the fitting set of substances — dimension, display, apps — into one thing that feels much less like a alternative for my smartphone and extra like a complement to it. I maintain discovering small new issues I like doing on the Palma relatively than my telephone; I’ve The New York Instances’ video games app on there now for some E Ink crosswords, and I simply put in the Roku app, as an illustration, so now it’s a backup distant management and a spot to plug in my headphones once I have to hear quietly.
This yr has been full of corporations attempting to overtake the best way we use our devices. Humane, Rabbit, and others have launched wild new sorts of gadgets, hoping we would discover new and various things to do with them. The Palma represents a a lot much less bold — however perhaps more likely — various: it simply tweaks the smartphone system, leaving what works however subtly altering the machine’s strengths and weaknesses. It’s not as vibrant, not as quick, not as frictionless. As a substitute, it’s quiet, easy, sane. And I find it irresistible for that.