The Palma is an odd product. It’s a small e-reader with far larger gadget ambitions. On its web site, Boox describes the product as a “distraction-free gadget that permits you to reclaim your focus within the precise center between tech and life.”
In numerous methods, the corporate’s ambitions seem to reflect these of Mild Telephone’s by constructing a secondary gadget designed to take away you out of your smartphone’s built-in distractions. That’s a pleasant sufficient sentiment many people can little doubt get behind, having skilled one more deeply polarizing U.S. presidential election by means of the lens of social media.
What, exactly, constitutes a “distraction” versus an important perform is extraordinarily subjective, nonetheless. Turning again to Mild Telephone for a second, we see a product that was deliberately launched with a restricted characteristic 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 practically each side of our lives. Decreasing dependence and distraction are valiant targets, however depriving customers of genuinely useful options may be counterproductive.
The Palma doesn’t begin from that very same place of useful minimalism — at the least not absolutely. There are specific 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 — nevertheless it lacks an amazing quantity of versatility in comparison with your normal smartphone/pill display screen.
The gadget, nonetheless, runs Android (albeit a number of generations behind) and has entry to the Play Retailer. It has a digicam, microphone, audio system, and Bluetooth connectivity. The Palma 2 options an upgraded octa-core processor and provides in privateness by means of a fingerprint reader.
The attention-grabbing decisions of what to place in and what to depart out make it really feel like PDA with an id disaster: an odd shopper digital chimera that’s not completely positive 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 sudden rabbit holes, together with Reddit threads whereby folks talk about methods to backdoor performance onto the gadget. There’s, for instance, a microSD slot for expandable reminiscence, however not one for a SIM. Meaning, regardless of the inclusion of microphones, audio system, and Bluetooth, it’s not particularly designed to make telephone calls.
As such, folks debate the viability of utilizing WhatsApp’s voice characteristic 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 numerous work for comparatively little reward, nevertheless it’s all the time hopeful to see the methods wherein technological limitations spur intelligent person innovation.
Granted, I’ve solely been utilizing the Palma 2 for a short while, however I are inclined to fall within the camp of customers content material to consider the gadget as a pure e-reader. It enjoys a lot 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 these items flying off the shelf.
Simply the promise of a reader that’s skinny sufficient to hold in a pocket will doubtless entice numerous consideration. I’ve wasted extra time than I care to say making an attempt to determine whether or not to take my Kindle with me on an extended practice experience, understanding it could imply awkwardly carrying the gadget 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, alternatively, is difficult to justify except you intend to make the most of many of the different options.
