Last week I posted about Onyx putting up a new listing on Amazon for a case that fits the Boox Palma, which seemed odd at the time since they’ve never sold the Palma on Amazon, but as I suspected, that is no longer the case.
Onyx is now selling the Boox Palma from their official Amazon store. The price is the same as it is everywhere else—$279 with free shipping. Shipping is still listed as a few weeks out on Amazon, but Onyx’s devices usually ship sooner than the estimate says.
Ever since the Palma first came out, Onyx has had a hard time keeping it in stock. They’ve been selling it on the B&H website since October and it’s always out of stock. They recently started selling it on Best Buy’s website too, but it’s rarely available to purchase.
Either Onyx vastly underestimated the popularity of the Palma or they’re having production issues. Even on their own website the shipping is currently delayed until around January 24th.
As first glance, you might mistake the Palma for a phone, but it’s not really a phone. It’s just a mini ereader shaped like a phone.
It has a 6.13-inch E Ink Carta 1200 screen with a resolution of 1648 x 824 (300 ppi), but unlike standard 6-inch ereaders it has a narrow screen ratio so it’s quite a bit smaller and easier to fit in a pocket.
The specs aren’t listed on the product page at Amazon yet, but the Palma has an octa-core CPU and it supports Boox’s Super Refresh technology so it scrolls and refreshes smoother than typical E Ink devices. It has 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage space, and there’s a microSD card slot as well.
It supports dual-band WiFi and Bluetooth 5.0. It has a rotation sensor, a light sensor, a built-in speaker, a microphone, a USB-C port, and there’s a 16MP camera with LED flash on the back. It has a frontlight with adjustable color temperature as well, and there are volume buttons along the side that can also be used as page buttons. The overall weight is listed at 170 grams and the device measures 159 x 80 x 8.0mm.
As is the case with all of Onyx’s devices, the Palma’s software is based on Android so it’s capable of installing apps from the Play Store, which helps add a lot of extra functionality.
So far they only have the black version listed on Amazon. There’s also a white version that might turn up at a later point. Either way it’s nice to see Onyx finally selling one of their smaller 6-inch models on Amazon. This is the first time that has happened since they launched their official Amazon store.
If it was a phone, I’d buy it in a heartbeat!