As an unabashed fan of both e-ink technologies as well as reading, I regularly look for and upgrade my e-readers: going from the original Kindles, to the Kindle Voyager and Oasis1, to the Remarkable and Kindle Scribe and the Kobo devices. More recently, I’ve been intrigued by the advances in color e-ink screens2, as well as the increasing diversity of screen sizes and therefore form factors for e-readers as they cross into tablet territory.
I came across this glowing review of the BOOX Palma, an e-ink reader shaped like a phone and runs Android to boot. Other than the top-of-the-line display, though, the rest of the device has mediocre, if not outright below-average, technical specs compared to most smartphones: dinky camera, no biometrics nor cellular connectivity, crappy speakers, only 128GB of storage. Given its niche appeal, this is priced like a low-end phone, so it’s a matter of working within price constraints, rather than garnering massive profit margins.
That informal recommendation has a running thread with well over 100 comments, and there are other very positive reviews of this specific product since its launch a year ago. It’s enjoying a viral stint on Tiktok right now, which I suspect is driving an uptick in impulse purchases—to the point that Amazon posts a warning about how frequently the device is returned. The fervor piqued my curiosity enough to order one myself, though I’m more interested in how well e-ink displays work with Android with BOOX’s customizations and tweaks.
The primary reason for this excitement is that the Palma looks and works enough like a phone. It crosses over from being a dedicated reading device—in a time when long-form reading plays third, fourth fiddle to short-form videos—to replicating smartphone functionality, but within the technical confines of e-ink display tech. That is, while something like the Light Phone is purposely designed to be simple to avoid the trappings of addictive apps and behaviors, the Palma has full access to the Google Play store3. It emulates smartphone functionality, except that the monochromatic screen and shoddy refresh rates diminish the experience considerably. Scrolling through videos is a laggy and blurry mess, but that’s kinda the point; it’s resonant with the grayscale phone tweaks a few years ago, where people purposely tuned their phones to black and white to avoid getting sucked into the vibrant colors of distracting apps.
It’s the same idea behind the Daylight Computer4, smartwatches with cellular connectivity, the Freewrite typewriters, etc. Granted, these are all niche devices, but they all purposely limit functionality, to focus the user on a small handful of tasks. Unfortunately, since this type of product would always have a different scale than multifunctional phones and tablets, they incur higher manufacturing costs, to the point that they cost just as much, if not sometimes more, than the very capable devices they’re trying to replace. They’re thrust into the category of expensive luxury tech, even though the vast majority of these alternatives lag in hardware and software sophistication.
Making these tradeoffs, though, is an acknowledgment of the power of simplicity. Whereas the history of computing has tilted directionally towards complexity—to run software faster, to render more engaging content—this movement looks to remove features and curb our worst impulses. Much like parents keeping their kids off social media and smartphones for as long as possible: yes, some of our device addictions can be accomplished by willpower alone, but it’s a lot easier when the functionality is curtailed altogether.
Both of which seem discontinued at this point, despite a small contingent of e-reader fans who still pine for dedicated page flip buttons.↩
I tried out a BOOX Go Color 7 reader, but the dim screen and low-resolution tradeoffs weren’t worth it.↩
Which uses a Reflective LCD screen, different from e-ink even though they feature similar monochrome hues.↩