The Palma is an odd product. It’s a small e-reader with far greater gadget ambitions. On its web site, Boox describes the product as a “distraction-free system that permits you to reclaim your focus within the actual center between tech and life.”
In loads of methods, the corporate’s ambitions seem to reflect these of Mild Cellphone’s by constructing a secondary system designed to take away you out of your smartphone’s built-in distractions. That’s a pleasant sufficient sentiment many people can little question get behind, having skilled one more deeply polarizing U.S. presidential election via the lens of social media.
What, exactly, constitutes a “distraction” versus a necessary perform is extraordinarily subjective, nonetheless. Turning again to Mild Cellphone for a second, we see a product that was deliberately launched with a restricted function set, solely to subsequently introduce new performance that was initially deemed “nonessential” by the startup.
For higher or worse, we depend on our little pocket communicators for almost each side of our lives. Decreasing dependence and distraction are valiant objectives, however depriving customers of genuinely useful options could be counterproductive.
The Palma doesn’t begin from that very same place of useful minimalism — no less than not absolutely. There are particular limitations baked instantly into the product by the character of its ePaper show. There’s sure performance that works higher on the expertise — studying, for instance — but it surely lacks an incredible quantity of versatility in comparison with your normal smartphone/pill display.
The system, nonetheless, runs Android (albeit a couple of generations behind) and has entry to the Play Retailer. It has a digital camera, microphone, audio system, and Bluetooth connectivity. The Palma 2 options an upgraded octa-core processor and provides in privateness by the use of a fingerprint reader.
The attention-grabbing selections of what to place in and what to depart out make it really feel like PDA with an id disaster: an odd client digital chimera that’s not completely certain what it desires to be when it grows up. Because it seems, that’s a part of the enjoyable.
Taking part in round with the Palma 2 despatched me down some surprising rabbit holes, together with Reddit threads whereby individuals talk about methods to backdoor performance onto the system. There may be, for instance, a microSD slot for expandable reminiscence, however not one for a SIM. Which means, regardless of the inclusion of microphones, audio system, and Bluetooth, it’s not particularly designed to make telephone calls.
As such, individuals debate the viability of utilizing WhatsApp’s voice function as a work-around. There’s no GPS, which places the kibosh on mapping performance, however how about piggybacking on a tool that does? It’s loads of work for comparatively little reward, but it surely’s at all times hopeful to see the methods by which technological limitations spur intelligent person innovation.
Granted, I’ve solely been utilizing the Palma 2 for a short while, however I are likely to fall within the camp of customers content material to consider the system as a pure e-reader. It enjoys lots of these options, together with ePaper that’s far simpler on the eyes (and sleep schedule) and extends battery life far past what the common smartphone is able to.
The brand new processor provides zip to the Palma, whereas eradicating the annoying latency from the earlier era. That mentioned, the product continues to be hampered by ePaper’s refresh limitations. If Boox had been to make a model of the Palma that was a real e-reader, stripped of a lot of the possibly extraneous options, and delivered it at a lower cost, I might see this stuff flying off the shelf.
Simply the promise of a reader that’s skinny sufficient to hold in a pocket will probably appeal to loads of consideration. I’ve wasted extra time than I care to say attempting to resolve whether or not to take my Kindle with me on a protracted prepare experience, understanding it might imply awkwardly carrying the system round for the remainder of the night and probably leaving it behind in a darkish nook.
Boox makes some nice e-readers, and the Palma matches the invoice. It’s good {hardware}, with a flush 300 ppi show and a stable entrance gentle for studying in mattress. The $280 asking value, however, is tough to justify except you propose to make the most of many of the different options.
