A phone-shaped e-reader – Six Colours
As a giant fan of e-readers, I’ve been experimenting with Android-based alternate options to the devoted Kindle and Kobo {hardware} for a number of years now. The benefit of an Android E-Ink reader is that it might run any app—Kindle and Kobo, but additionally Libby and third-party e-book readers and newspaper apps and RSS readers. An Android-based E-Ink reader provides the promise of a single machine for E-Ink studying from disparate sources.
E-readers from Boox have provided appealing hardware, however maintain letting me down with inferior software. However now, finally, I’ve gotten perilously near discovering a substitute for devoted E-Readers.
And it’s formed like a telephone?
One handed E-Ink
The $280 Boox Palma is barely smaller than an iPhone 15 Professional Max, with a 6.13-inch E-Ink display screen. It doesn’t have mobile connectivity, however in any other case it seems like a generic Android (model 11) telephone, with 4 totally different aspect buttons, a USB-C charging port, and a digicam on the again that Boox says is for “doc scanning,” although it feels extra prefer it was a part of a reference telephone design that needed to come alongside for the journey.
I’ll admit that I didn’t count on to love a phone-shaped e-reader. I’ve actually come to like the design model shared by the Kindle Oasis and Kobo Libra 2, each of which characteristic seven-inch shows with bodily web page flip buttons you may relaxation your fingers on. And to be truthful, I used to be much less comfy whereas studying on the Palma, since I wanted to grip the machine extra tightly with my entire hand and stretch my grip to achieve the amount buttons (repurposed as page-turn buttons) on the machine’s aspect. However alternatively, this was a supremely transportable reader, like a beat-up paperback you may take nearly wherever.
It’s on the software program aspect that I really feel like Boox has taken a giant leap ahead. A part of that’s that Boox’s personal software program sport seems to have elevated. Previously, utilizing Boox merchandise was like wading by mud. On early fashions, I had to make use of workarounds to even allow the Play Retailer, and the Boox add-ons to handle the distinctive wants of E-Ink units felt clunky.
All that’s just about gone. Whereas I don’t love a variety of the Boox-written software program that’s preinstalled on the machine, I used to be capable of log into the Play Retailer with ease and obtain different apps. And Boox’s system utilities labored splendidly to let me map the machine’s quantity buttons to help web page turns and its aspect button to drive a refresh of the E-Ink display screen when issues would often get dingy. Boox provides per-app overrides to change Android apps to be extra E-Ink pleasant, they usually nearly at all times did the job. (Boox additionally appears to have made some strides in regulating battery life. A few of its early units felt like they’d die after a number of hours, on or off, however with Wi-Fi off the Palma can final for weeks whereas asleep and supply dozens of hours of illuminated studying.)
I do suppose that within the case of the Palma, the strengths of Android itself are additionally coming to the fore. Earlier Boox units I’ve used have tablet-sized screens, and lots of Android apps nonetheless don’t run properly at these sizes. However they’re all optimized for telephones! In consequence, the third-party app expertise felt quite a bit higher on the Palma.
Disappointingly, the most important app failures on Android are the apps for the massive e-reader corporations. I discovered studying within the Kindle and Kobo apps, in addition to the Libby app for library e-books, to pale compared to utilizing a extra generic e-reading app comparable to Moon+ Reader.
One of many challenges of E-Ink screens is that they don’t refresh as quick because the LCD or OLED screens that almost all units use. Which means scrolling on the Palma is manageable, however imprecise—and leaves the show trying a bit smeared. Ideally, Boox may override each app to help web page activates the press of a button and to scale back distinction in order that textual content will pop on the E-Ink display screen. Some apps have been higher at this than others.
Crossing a threshold
However after testing quite a few Boox readers earlier than finally placing them again of their containers and concluding they only didn’t do it for me, I discover myself feeling totally different in regards to the Boox Palma. Perhaps a few of that’s its stable help for Moon+, which is an excellent e-book reader. I used to be capable of plug the Palma into my Mac and sync it with Calibre, loading it up with books and brief fiction, after which learn all of it in Moon+. (I additionally sideloaded Georgia, my most popular e-reading font, which Moon+ was joyful to show.)
No, not all the Android apps I used have been excellent matches for the E-Ink display screen, however all of them have been at the very least purposeful sufficient to make use of. I’m most dissatisfied in Kindle, Kobo, and Libby, since these ecosystems are my prime sources of books. Maybe unsurprisingly, first rate Android apps supporting open requirements like ePub and RSS tailored higher to the Palma.
Although I didn’t write a evaluation of it, I even have spent a while with Boox’s Tab Mini C, which is a 7.8-inch colour E-Ink reader. Colour E-Ink is extraordinarily unusual, however the refresh price was good in colour and spectacular in black and white. Sadly, the Tab Mini C is quite a bit heavier than a Kindle or Kobo reader, and lacks page-turn buttons. However its software program is stable, simply as it’s on the Boox Palma.
In the long run, I feel Boox is nudging nearer to creating an excellent Android substitute for a Kindle or Kobo, one that might let me add RSS and newspapers to my devoted reader. The Palma’s measurement could also be excellent for some customers, however I’d favor a bigger display screen. The Tab Mini C is extra prefer it, but it surely lacks these bodily buttons. If Boox have been to create a brand new model of its Leaf reader (which is the best measurement and has page-turn buttons) with the software program that runs the Palma, it is likely to be proper in my candy spot.
However that shouldn’t take something away from the Boox Palma, which is a merely wild thought for a product… that just about delivers on its promise. E-reader followers who could be comfy with Android and want they might learn on a compact machine that doesn’t have a telephone display screen, it could be time to slide the Boox Palma into your palm.
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