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Most eReaders have roughly book-shaped designs, which is great for reading, but not so great for fitting inside your pocket. The Onyx BOOX Palma is a bit different.
It features a 6.13 inch E Ink display with 300 pixels per inch and a phone-like design that should make it a much more pocketable device. The Onyx BOOX Palma is up for pre-order for $250 and it should begin shipping in August, 2023.
That price includes a protective case, and represents a $30 pre-order discount: the Onyx BOOX Palma is expected to have a retail price of $280.
The Palma may look like a phone, but it doesn’t have a cellular modem. What it does have is support for WiFi and Bluetooth 5.0, a Qualcomm octa-core processor, 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and “Onyx BOOX Super Refresh” software that allows uses to choose between faster or slower screen refresh rates depending on whether they want to prioritize animations or higher-quality imagery (since speeding up page refreshes on E Ink displays usually leads to ghosting, where some of the previous image bleeds through to the next frame).
While the device is clearly designed first and foremost for reading, it runs an Android 11-based operating system, which means you could also use it to run any Android apps you can find that play well wit E Ink displays.
With built-in speakers and Bluetooth support, you could also use it as a portable media player. And there are dual microphones that you could use to record voice memos or place calls over WiFi.
Other features include a rear camera for snapping photos (but no front camera for selfies or video calls), a set of customizable side buttons, and a touchscreen display with a front-light that supports brightness and color temperature adjustments. There’s a USB-C port for charging and data.
Unlike some Onyx BOOX devices, the Palma does not support stylus input.
This isn’t the first phone-sized device we’ve seen with an E Ink display. Xiaomi’s InkPalm and InkPalm Plus have been around for a few years. And there’s also the Hisense Hi Reader Pro, which launched last year. And Hisense has even been selling E Ink smartphones for a few years.
But most of those devices are designed primarily for the Chinese market, while Onyx BOOX devices tend to be sold worldwide.
Does the o/s still crash apps like it does on other Onyx Boox?
Too bad it doesn’t have GPS. I understand that the purpose here is to be an E-reader, but I’ve been on the lookout for a small E-ink android device that could be used for outdoor navigation (cycling, hiking, etc).
Hisense makes smartphones with E-Ink displays. There are even versions with color screens like the A7 CC.
Same Grant, want to be able to turn on, get fix and marker on screen then turn off for zero battery use while screen still shows map and last known location… wonderful for hiking
+1
It’s a shame that no cellular also typically implies no GPS 🫤
What we need is a fold phone that has e ink in the middle and normal phone screen on the front. I hear eink is quite compliant for folding. Maybe a xaiomi product on android 12.
Pen input for the fold out tablet for a pro model.
I wouldn’t buy this (in part because it’s too expensive), but it makes sense as a product. People are used to reading on a phone, and this is something that makes it a little easier on the eyes. My old Kobo Mini served a similar function, back when something with a 4 inch screen was phone-sized.
Personally I’d be a little wary of this. I put my Poke3 into an empty cargo pocket and somehow the screen still got all scratched up. Hopefully they use a different material on a device like this.
No complaints about the Onyx software though. I love being able to install Cool Reader and use it as the primary reader, and having a light web browser is good for getting books from sites like the Roy Glashan Library.
i need mainline linux
Completely agree.
https://www.pine64.org/pinenote/
Bigger for sure but runs Linux
I’m watching the pine note development closely, as I think it will be an excellent device, but pine64 themselves say that it’s not ready for prime-time yet. 🙁