Onyx Boox Palma 2 Review – Best Portable eReader?

Review Date: February 2025 – Review unit purchased from Amazon

Overview

Onyx released the Boox Palma 2 in November of 2024 as a follow-up to the original Palma that came out in 2023 (at first the Palma was just an experiment that was released on a very limited basis, but then they did a full release a couple months later after they discovered people were actually interested in phone-sized ereaders).

In typical Onyx fashion, they only changed a few minor details with the new model. They added a fingerprint sensor and they’re using a slightly faster CPU now, and they updated the software to a newer version of Android (13), but that’s it for upgrades.

The Palma is an uncommon E Ink device. It has a 6.13″ E Ink Carta 1200 screen with 300 ppi, which sounds pretty standard, but the screen is a lot narrower than typical 6″ ereaders like the basic Kindle.

The hardware features are also vastly different than what you’d find on most ereaders. The Palma doesn’t just look like a phone, its feature-set is more phone-like too. It has 6GB of RAM, with 128GB of onboard storage, and there’s also a microSD card slot.

Other hardware features include a rotation sensor, a light sensor, it has an external speaker, dual microphones, there’s a USB-C port (with OTG support), and it has a 16MP rear camera with LED flash (which can also be used as a flashlight).

The Boox Palma 2 sells for $279.99 from Onyx’s official Amazon store. As of this writing, Onyx is still selling the 1st gen Palma as well, and it’s going for $245.99.

Boox Palma 2 Quick Review

Pros

• Phone-like form factor with the narrower screen makes it more pocketable and portable than other ereaders.
• More versatile than most ereaders with the Android 13 OS, and advanced hardware features (microSD card slot, fingerprint reader, speaker, camera, etc).
• The E Ink screen looks great, and the faster and smoother refreshing with BSR is a big step up from non-BSR devices.
• Volume buttons can be used as page-turn buttons, and there’s an extra “Smart” button that can be programmed to do all kinds of things.

Cons

• High price.
• It looks like a phone but it can’t actually be used as a phone since it lacks a SIM card slot.
• Complicated software; just about everything requires fiddling with settings (for instance, there are at least 3 separate settings you have to tweak to get music apps to play in the background without turning off).

Verdict

I really like the size and shape of the Palma for reading on the go, and it’s surprisingly responsive for an E Ink device thanks to the hardware upgrades and BSR, but it’s kind of a weird device that’s halfway between a phone and an ereader.

It doesn’t feel as nice as most modern phones because the casing is made out of plastic, and it’s kind of on the thick side, but the device feels lighter than a phone, and the textured back has a nice grippy feel.

It’s one of the most portable E Ink devices on the market (why isn’t that a more common feature when to comes to ereaders—they keep getting bigger instead of smaller), and I really like how the volume buttons can be used as page buttons, and they’re placed in a spot that’s comfortable to use with either hand.

While I really like the Palma’s form factor and overall performance, I ultimately decided to send it back because it’s just too expensive for my particular use case. I mostly just want to read Kindle ebooks and library ebooks; I don’t need 128GB of storage space, a camera, a fingerprint reader, and all the other extra features. If it could actually be used as a phone I would be fine with all that and the higher asking price, but as an ereader it’s just more than I need. Hopefully we’ll start to see more phone-sized ereaders like the Palma getting released in the near future.

Boox Palma 2 Video Review

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Boox Palma 2 Specs

• 6.13-inch E Ink Carta 1200 display.
• Resolution: 1648 x 824 (300 ppi).
• Capacitive touchscreen.
• Frontlight with warm and cool temperature control.
• OS: Android 13 with Google Play.
• CPU: Octa-core + BSR.
• 6GB RAM.
• 128GB storage space.
• MicroSD card slot.
• WiFi (2.4GHz + 5GHz).
• Bluetooth 5.1.
• 16MP rear camera with LED flash.
• USB-C port with OTG support.
• Battery: 3950mAh Li-ion Polymer.
• Rotation sensor.
• Light sensor.
• Fingerprint reader.
• Built-in speaker and mics.
• Text-to-Speech support.
• Supported document formats: PDF, CAJ, DJVU, CBR, CBZ, EPUB, EPUB3, AZW3, MOBI, TXT, DOC, DOCX, FB2, CHM, RTF, HTML, ZIP, PRC, PPT, PPTX.
• Dimensions: 159 x 80 x 8.0 mm.
• Weight: 170 grams.
• Price: $279 USD via Amazon.