The Onyx Boox Palma is an e-reader that looks like a phone. The company announced the product in July, but it was considered a limited production run with only 250 units available. Within the first twelve hours, it was sold out, prompting Onyx Boox to release the Palma to the public with a wide release, so they have thousands of units to sell, starting today. The Palma is an e-reader that looks like a smartphone, so it is highly portable and fits in your pocket. It has a 6.11-inch screen and has full access to the Google Play Store to download millions of free and paid apps. You can order it today from the Good e-Reader Store for $279.99.
The Onyx Boox Palma features a 6.13-inch capacitive touchscreen display and utilizes E INK Carta 1200 for fast page refreshing. The resolution is 824 x 1648 with 300 PPI. The screen is flush with the bezel and protected by a layer of glass. The device colour scheme is a piano black on the front and back platting. It has two speakers, two microphones, a volume rocker (which can double as page-turn buttons), and an ambient light sensor to adjust the front-lit and colour temperature system based on the environment. It does not have a front-facing camera but does on the rear with a 16 MP snapper and LED light. A USB-C port will charge it and also transfer data.
Underneath the hood are a Qualcomm Octa-core processor, a staggering 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. It does have a MicroSD card, capable of an additional 1TB of storage. You can connect to the internet with Wi-Fi (2.4GHz + 5GHz) and have Bluetooth 5.0 for wireless earbuds or headphones to listen to audiobooks, music or podcasts. It is powered by a 3,950mAh Li-ion Polymer battery, which should be good enough for a couple of weeks of light reading or using Android apps. The dimensions are 159 x 80 x 8.0 mm and weighs 170 G.
The Palma uses Google Android 11 as the operating system and fully supports the Google Play Store, so you can download your favourite apps or discover new ones. Users will likely want to download their preferred e-reading ecosystem, such as Kindle, Kobo or Nook, and library apps like Libby or Hoopla. Since it has Google Play Services, you can also access all official Google apps such as Maps or Google Books.
Palma offers abundant storage space for your entire ebook collection. You can enjoy seamless reading by supporting 24 popular formats, including EPUB, MOBI, TXT, CBR, and more. Integrating third-party cloud storage services like Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive also grants you convenient access to your files online.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
