Onyx has officially released the Boox Palma 2 Pro, which isn’t a surprise at all since they already showed it off back in September at their IFA 2025 booth.
Some of the details were unclear then, but now we know the Boox Palma 2 Pro does indeed come with a hybrid SIM card slot (which supports two SIM cards or one SIM card and one microSD card), but it only supports data, so technically it’s still not a phone.
I wonder why Onyx didn’t just make it a phone too? One of their main competitors, Bigme, sells several E Ink Android phones, and some cost considerably less than the Palma 2 Pro.
One thing the Palma 2 Pro has the Bigme phones don’t have is stylus support. Onyx added support for their InkSense Plus Stylus, but of course the stylus is sold separately. It supports USI styluses, not EMR styli like the new Note Air5 C.
As expected, the Palma 2 Pro features a Kaleido 3 color E Ink screen. They didn’t release a Pro version with a black and white screen, so I guess that means the regular Palma 2 is going to be sticking around for a while. I reviewed the Palma 2 earlier this year and I really liked it. It’s good to see they’re keeping it around for those that don’t want color E Ink, and it’s $130 cheaper.
Other than that, it’s mostly the same as the Palma 2. They did increase the RAM to 8GB, and the software is based on Android 15 now instead of Android 13. It’s slightly thicker than the Palma 2 at 8.8mm (up from 8mm) and the weight has increased by a whopping 5 grams.
The Palma 2 Pro is available in white and black, and the price is $399 in the US. It’s now available to order from Onyx’s Amazon store, and it’s expected to start shipping in mid-November.
Boox Palma 2 Pro Specs
- 6.13″ Kaleido 3 E Ink display.
- 1648 x 824 BW resolution (300ppi); 824 x 412 color resolution (150ppi).
- Frontlight with CTM (color temperature control).
- Capacitive touchscreen.
- Supports Onyx’s InkSense Plus Stylus (USI).
- Octa-core CPU with BSR.
- 8GB RAM.
- 128GB storage.
- Hybrid SIM card slot.
- MicroSD card slot, supports cards up to 2TB.
- Wi-Fi + BT 5.1.
- USB-C with OTG support.
- Android 15 OS.
- Built-in mic and speaker.
- Rotation sensor.
- Fingerprint reader.
- 16MP rear camera with LED flash.
- Light sensor.
- Battery: 3,950mAh Li-ion Polymer.
- Dimensions: 159 x 80 x 8.8 mm; Weight: 175 grams.
- Price: $399 USD on Amazon.
I mean if you can make do with calling on other platforms via data, then it could be a nice phone replacement! great that they added the sim slot
The buzz around the original Palma was that it was so incompetent at most on-line tasks that it could really only do one thing — display e-books — and, with its convenient form-factor, it was ideal for “unplugging” with a book.
That the Palma Pro 2 now fixes most of that which made it previously incompetent — sim, stylus, color — seems to be news to the creators of that first Boox-promo video, which is still driving hard to the hole on the unplugged-incompetence thing.
If I’m paying the Boox marketing dep’ts salaries, I’m starting to wonder why; right about now.
Tech companies always plan several generations of their products in advance. They never add all the functionality people want at once, so that they have reasons for people to upgrade in the future. Companies like Apple etc do it all the time.
Therefore I’m pretty sure they could have made it full smartphone, but why would they? Many people will upgrade to this because of the data. And then in a year or two they will release full smartphone and people will upgrade again. Also this way they can push the price higher in steps. Now they significantly increased it and I guess when they add 5G the price will up again.
It’s a logical step I would make as well if was them. But as a potential costumer I don’t like it much. I will wait for the next model. Then it could actually replace my phone as I would love to have eink display.