I’ve always been a big fan of using the best ereaders instead of other tech when possible. They strain my eyes far less than phone screens, have longer-lasting battery lives, and always make me feel like I’m on vacation – I guess I associate them with holiday reads.
In the past I’ve figured out how to send all my PDFs to a Kindle in order to use them for work, replaced my iPad with an ereader for creative tasks and doled out ereader tips to TechRadar readers because I’ve used the gadgets so much. But my new year tech resolution takes this to a whole new extreme.
To say ‘adieu’ to the brain rot that comes with using a smartphone, I want to see if I can ditch it for a lookalike ereader. Specifically, the Palma 2 Pro from Boox, which costs $399 / £379 / AU$679 – a little expensive for an ereader, but cheap for a smartphone.
Reading and writing
In case you think it’s unfair to compare a smartphone to an ereader, I’m going to start by serving the ball into the Boox’s side of the court. The device’s E-Ink screen has a 824 x 412 resolution when viewing color content, and double that for black-and-white viewing. I’m the kind of guy who’ll happily sacrifice color when using an ereader, but some demand it.
Ereaders were always designed for reading, and it’s what they do best. As soon as you turn on the Boox, its library, dictionary and book store are on the front page; it has apps for managing documents and sending/receiving them from a PC.
I use my phone a lot for reading, and it’s easy to boot up the Kindle app or Play Books to jump into a novel. That’s the same as on the Palma, but E-Ink is a lot better for reducing eye-strain and late-night reading than my mobile’s OLED screen. It looks like a real page, and reading it feels like reading a page, instead of staring into a blinding beam of light
I’ve enjoyed Boox devices for marking up documents and making notes too, but while I was sent a stylus with the ereader, the case doesn’t have a compartment for it, so it was too much of a faff toting the thing around. Note-taking was a little annoying then, as you can’t use your finger to handwrite in the Notes app, and typing is slower than on a phone due to the slower refresh and pick-up speed.
Keeping in touch
Here’s the real test of a phone replacement: how does the Boox work as a way to communicate? Now, there’s no getting around the fact that you can’t make calls or texts with the device; personally, I don’t remember the last time I received either of these solicited, but it’s worth pointing out.
What I haven’t mentioned thus far is that the Palma 2 Pro has access to the Play Store. So while texting is out, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and the like are all in. Something else I haven’t mentioned is that the Palma can connect to Wi-Fi… or you can pop a SIM card in and connect to a 5G network.
That means you can access all of your communications apps on the go. If you’re in the large group of people who haven’t received an actual phone call in years, you won’t miss a thing here.
Staying entertained
Other game-changing ereader apps
Calendar
I like having an organized calendar, but too often ‘adding a new reminder’ leads down a slippery slope which ends with time wasted on games or social media. But on the Boox I can quickly add an event and put down the device again.
Crossword apps
When I’m commuting, I always use an offline crossword app for fun. With an ereader, it’s just as easy to use yet gentler on the eyes.
Kindle
Yep, the Kindle app works on the Boox, so I can read all my previously-bought ebooks on the rival company’s device.
Ordering apps
I don’t like how so many bars or restaurants require you to place your order on their app, but at least it’s something I could do easily on the Palma.
Now the hurdles arrive; how does the device handle music, movies or games? For some context, the Palma 2 Pro has 8GB RAM and 128GB ROM, which is the same as a phone you’d buy for that price, but as previously mentioned the screen doesn’t refresh anywhere near as regularly. That means moving content looks slow and stuttery.
Music first: I downloaded Spotify and prepared to pair my Bluetooth headphones, but was surprised to find the music would play out loud. The Palma has built-in speakers which are no worse than the average ones you’ll find on a phone… so stick to your headphones if you care about audio fidelity.
Now onto watching, which you might have some reservations about; after all, E-Ink displays aren’t nearly as vibrant as LCD or OLED ones, and they have lower refresh rates and screen tearing for motion, which could be a problem. The Palma has a neat feature called EinkWise which lets you tweak the refresh rate and color saturation, which goes some way to offsetting these issues.
However it’s not quite enough. I tried to watch the new Knives Out movie on Netflix – and even though I’ve already seen it, I was struggling to work out what was going on. The lack of dynamic range isn’t anywhere near enough to handle movies, and most colors were interpreted either as pink or cyan. You can see a picture I took of the screen, which reflects how Knives Out looked.
So what about gaming? To be honest, after how Knives Out turned out, I knew not to boot up one of my grand strategy games to see if that fared any better. But I did find it much more suitable for puzzle apps like the NYT Games one, and Connections looked just fine on the E-Ink screen.
Photography
There’s no way the Palma 2 Pro can compare with a smartphone, given that my mobile has four cameras and ereaders have none, right? Uh – wrong, because the Palma 2 Pro actually does have a camera. And not just some cheapie sensor for document scanning; it’s 16MP and has a flash module!
Looking through the device’s viewfinder, you’d be forgiven for thinking that snaps have the same inverted coloration and muted colors as the ereader’s display. That’s not the case, though, and I moved some pictures over to my computer to better examine them.
I’m not going to try to convince you that the Palma is going to replace the iPhone 17 Pro Max as the best camera phone though, as the ereader is no photography device. Pictures look washed-out and hazy and very low-res. I’d happily use this camera to scan documents or grab reminders, but I wouldn’t use it to capture an important moment or cute animal pic.
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tom.bedford@hotmail.co.uk (Tom Bedford)
