The Palma is a wierd 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 allows you to reclaim your focus within the actual center between tech and life.”
In numerous methods, the corporate’s ambitions seem to reflect these of Gentle 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 by way of the lens of social media.
What, exactly, constitutes a “distraction” versus a vital operate is extraordinarily subjective, nonetheless. Turning again to Gentle 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 will be counterproductive.
The Palma doesn’t begin from that very same place of practical minimalism — a minimum of not absolutely. There are particular limitations baked straight into the product by the character of its ePaper show. There’s sure performance that works higher on the know-how — studying, for instance — however it lacks an amazing quantity of versatility in comparison with your commonplace smartphone/pill display.
The system, nonetheless, runs Android (albeit a couple 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 go away out make it really feel like PDA with an id disaster: a wierd client digital chimera that’s not completely certain what it needs to be when it grows up. Because it seems, that’s a part of the enjoyable.
Enjoying 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’s, for instance, a microSD slot for expandable reminiscence, however not one for a SIM. Meaning, despite the inclusion of microphones, audio system, and Bluetooth, it’s not particularly designed to make cellphone 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 numerous work for comparatively little reward, however it’s at all times hopeful to see the methods wherein technological limitations spur intelligent consumer 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 system 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 remains to be hampered by ePaper’s refresh limitations. If Boox have 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 cheaper price, 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 seemingly entice numerous consideration. I’ve wasted extra time than I care to say attempting to resolve whether or not to take my Kindle with me on an extended prepare journey, figuring out it will 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 suits the invoice. It’s good {hardware}, with a flush 300 ppi show and a stable entrance mild for studying in mattress. The $280 asking value, alternatively, is difficult to justify except you intend to make the most of a lot of the different options.
