There are actually solely three issues that you must find out about the Boox Palma. One: it’s concerning the measurement of a smartphone. Two: it runs Android, with the Play Retailer. Three: it has an E Ink display screen. There are different specs and options I’ll get to, however that mixture — smartphone, Android, E Ink — is the Palma’s entire motive for existence.
In a few months of utilizing the Palma, a $280 gadget 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 screen and an total 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 screen is straightforward to have a look at even at nighttime, 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 could possibly even, stutteringly, play movies from these apps. However due to E Ink’s low decision, sluggish refresh charge, and total 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 screen is constructed for. This factor is firstly an e-reader. It’s simply that, in contrast to all the opposite e-readers, this one permits you to learn in no matter app you want to make use of.
If you wish to hear extra about our ideas on the Palma, try this episode of The Vergecast.
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 affords. Then, I downloaded a few information apps, Flipboard, and the note-taking app Obsidian.
Two months later, these are nonetheless the apps I take advantage of most on the Palma. Boox preinstalls a number 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. After 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 cellphone exercise disappeared once I put all my listening and studying onto one other gadget. I by no means seen how typically I’d dig my cellphone out to vary songs, solely to get pulled in by a Slack message or a Gmail notification. (Come to consider it, due to the “Notification Mute” function 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 cellphone with me to the espresso store, I’m getting extra studying carried out as a result of TikTok isn’t remotely tempting on this gadget. I’m truly offline more often than not — I’ll simply take it off Airplane mode to sync the varied apps, then shut off the connection and return to studying. A tool that’s simple to have with me, that may technically do every little thing however solely makes it simple to do the stuff I would like, has been every little thing I needed.
“It’s simply absolutely the good quantity of friction,” Craig Mod informed me once I recounted my expertise with the Palma. Mod — a blogger, writer, and bookmaker who has been writing about digital studying for years — loves his Palma, too. He wrote a weblog put up about it in Could that obtained lots of people excited concerning the gadget — he reckons he satisfied at the least a number of hundred individuals 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 gadget itself: E Ink screens simply don’t refresh quick sufficient to look good taking part in video. Serviceable in a pinch? Certain. However not ok to essentially suck you in.
Like me, Mod stated the Palma’s mixture of measurement and display screen bought him on the gadget. “It’s good one-handed, it’s not heavy, it’s not going to fall in your face in a bizarre manner,” he stated. “You’ve obtained it in your hand along with your thumb on the quantity controls, and you’ll simply undergo an article till you go to sleep.” Did I point out you may set the Palma to flip pages once you press the quantity 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 stated. “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 stated he’s been studying extra and Reels-ing much less ever since.
“There’s the previous anecdote we had been all taught in Psych 101,” Martin stated, “which is that bodily setting issues. I believe a separate gadget 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 needed to purchase on Amazon? And also you’re there with out occupied 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 needs Boox to go even additional. “I might like to have this factor as my major driver,” he stated, “a lot greater than the dopamine on line casino iPhone the place it’s vying on your consideration each two seconds.” He additionally needs Boox to eliminate the digicam on the again of the Palma, which, candidly, I’d utterly 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 screen is ready fairly far behind the bezels, every little thing takes a half-second longer than it ought to, the display screen may be unresponsive at occasions, 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 count on a little bit extra polish in each {hardware} and software program. Worst of all, the Palma runs Android 11, which is already wildly outdated, and I’m not relying on Boox updating it quickly or ever. Greater than possible, my Palma will simply slowly cease working, app by app, over the subsequent couple of years. That’s notably irritating given how easy my wants are; for taking part in music and studying articles, there’s no motive this shouldn’t final eternally.
All Boox actually did was put collectively the correct set of elements
All Boox actually did was put collectively the correct set of elements — measurement, display screen, apps — into one thing that feels much less like a substitute for my smartphone and extra like a complement to it. I hold discovering small new issues I like doing on the Palma quite than my cellphone; 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 example, so now it’s a backup distant management and a spot to plug in my headphones once I must pay attention quietly.
This yr has been stuffed with corporations attempting to overtake the way in which we use our devices. Humane, Rabbit, and others have launched wild new sorts of gadgets, hoping we’d 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 gadget’s strengths and weaknesses. It’s not as shiny, not as quick, not as frictionless. As a substitute, it’s quiet, easy, sane. And I like it for that.