BOOXPalma Mobile ePaper 6G 128G G-Sensor Front Light 16MP Rear Camera (White)

Liked it

I ended up returning it because it didn’t fit my needs, but nevertheless, I can appreciate a very fine product when I see one. I think it would fit most people. I’m a photographer so the lack of a camera or a high-quality camera is my dealbreaker.Software wise, top notch for its category. Runs off android and you can get whatever apps you want from the App Store, which sounds kinda intuitive considering this phone is to reduce distractions, but because it’s an E ink screen, you would naturally end up using the apps way less than you were on a regular phone.The quality is also really good. It came with a case in the box. Also, the screen is Matt and really, really nice to use. It has a camera in the back for document scanning, but I couldn’t find a camera app for just taking regular pictures.The price was also amazing. If it wasn’t for the lack of a camera for regular pictures, I would have stuck with it. And also, I guess coming from an iPhone you miss out on iMessages, but once again, probably a minor thing if you’re considering a phone like this.

UPDATE:I have more & more come to value the ability of the Boox line of ebook readers to access multiple sources of reading material. So I eventually acquired a Boox Poke5, which is a 6 inch ebook reader with the same form factor as the basic Kindle, but the Poke5 is a smidgen smaller. If you are interested in the Palma, you might check out the Poke5, which is unfortunately not available on Amazon but can be found at other retailers. The Poke5 does everything the Palma does, and is not materially larger. YMMV of course, but the Poke5 is about $100 cheaper, and almost as portable.EARLIER REVIEW:When I first started using the Palma, I didn't think I'd much like it. I have a Kobo Sage, and a couple of Kindles, including a 6 inch which is the portable option to the Palma. The 6 inch Kindle is better to read on, and portable to some extent, but since I don't normally use any kind of briefcase or manbag, the Kindle is only portable if I'm wearing cargo pants or a jacket, and even that can be a little clunky. The Palma fits easily into any pants pocket, front or back.I mainly use the Palma for short form reading on the go, and the ability to link to my iPhone hotspot makes it easy to retrieve articles from all of the the apps I use for short form reading: Instapaper, Omnivore, Readwise Reader, Feedly and Substack, and some but not all of the magazine apps I use. At this point the only book reading I do I use is on my Kindle or iPad, but the Palma, while not quite as good seems adequate - in addition to the Kindle and Kobo apps, I've found a couple of reading apps that work nicely for anything you've loaded onto the Palma: PocketBook, ReadEra, and the little File Folder app that is on the homepage of the Palma contains a Documents folder that turns out to invoke the Boox Neo Reader when you tap on one of the documents. (You can separately get the Neo Reader from the Play Store - it seems to be a little different app, though...)I have not engaged with the internet directly, and don't use the Palma for music or audiobooks since my iPhone is greatly superior for those purposes.PRO:1. I can combine all my reading on one e-ink device without worrying about dealing with DRM or sideloading - because it's all done via apps you've loaded from the Play Store. Of course, you can side load books sans DRM that you don't access through Kindle, Kobo, etc., and use the other ebook reader apps to read them. Pretty easy to import them into such apps.2. e-Ink visual comfort beats reading on a phone, and there's more reading space.3. I can link the Palma to my iPhone hotspot, so I can download items without having to find & join a public wifi.4. The NaviBall is great. Check it out.5. The experienced reading space is about 25% greater than on my iPhone 14 Pro (see below). And it seems only about 90% less than on my Kindle.6. Helps me avoid distracted attention to non-reading apps like email, texting etc.7. As far as I can tell, you can annotate within book apps, but not magazine apps. But this may be a function of the particular app rather than of the Palma. OTOH, it appears that the Share Sheet function operates in all of the apps.CON:1, The Palma interface is a bit complicated, although - or because - it can be optimized in several ways. The Palma relies on sideswipes to move back & forth between home pages, and about half the time I had to do multiple swipes. Fortunately, there are other options for page changing involving the function key (left side button) or the NaviBall.2. When reading within apps, the refresh is obvious but tolerable, but there are levels of refresh that you have some control over.3. The Palma allows you to set different pagination/scrolling for different apps. This is great when it works, but some apps don't play well so it's kind of hit or miss. Sometimes you can set up what you want from within the particular app.4. You will not be surprised to be told that there's not much point in trying to deal with pdfs on this device.OTHER:1. The Palma is about 2/3 the weight of my iPhone 14 Pro, and has more actual reading space. I bought the white Palma, which gives me an illusion of even more reading space since the white border appears as a normal page border in a book does.2. The key to the Palma for me was to do a deep dive into the interface options.All in all, this is a device that I don't really need. I thought about keeping because it's fun and convenient. Kind of reminds me of how neat the original Macintosh computers were. But reader, I returned it.

I absolutely love everything about the hardware and software in this device. It's so cool and it's great for users who want to be able to tinker with an e-reader that runs Android. However I have two complaints, neither of which are necessarily BOOX's fault:1. The small size of the screen isn't really optimal for reading books. I thought it would be fine, but in practice I find that I have to turn the page more frequently than I'd like to since there aren't that many words on each page. Holding it in horizontal mode helps, but it's still not great. In the future I'd love to see a version of this device that's just half an inch bigger, I think that would make a big difference.2. This device is not as useable as I had hoped for non-ebook apps. For example, I tried installing news apps like New York Times and Washington Post, but scrolling on those apps feels bad and tedious due to the nature of scrolling on an e-ink screen. I'm not really sure if there's anything BOOX could do about that. So just be aware that any apps that involve a lot of scrolling aren't going to be very pleasant to use on this device.

The media could not be loaded. This is a great device and I would have gladly continued using it had the screen not malfunctioned. Screen broke after 6 months of use - no drops or anything. Used this device for 5 months, then it sat on my desk for a few weeks and then I tried using it and saw lines horizontal and vertical blocking most of the screen. Support claims that external force is the cause which is not covered under warranty. As a number of reviewers have mentioned, the issue here is the screen is either faulty or is much more fragile than your average phone/kindle screens.The device was barely used, it was always in one place, unlike say my phone or Kindle and somehow the screen broke. This defect is not covered by warranty as per support and would require half the price of the device to fix.

It works well. The battery is pretty good and charges quickly. It was easy to set up and use right out of the box. I love how you can set your screensaver and its always on