Boox announces Palma 2 with fingerprint sensor and Android 13

In one sense this could actually be an interesting idea for an in-between device between the somewhat resurgent dumbphone and a smartphone. Still get some of the connectivity but with an E Ink display it would preclude many of the more time sucking aspects of a smartphone. Of course, they didn’t actually make this a phone.

I find it weird this device has a camera, though.

Tbh, I tried out a friend's palma before getting one of their other models. The palma really doesn't improve much compared to a phone. Yeah, the eink screens stress way better for reading, but the size factor matters a lot.

Reading on a device with phone dimensions just isn't as smooth. You need more width to give enough room for your eyes to not be bouncing around as much. I thought that it would be easier with phone dimensions because you should be able to take in an entire line without scanning side to side, but it doesn't work out that way.

That being said, the palma I tried out was pretty damn nice otherwise. A little ghosting, a little lag on scrolling through lists and such, but it fits in the hand nicely, and holds a charge for days of solid reading.

I dunno if the new one has the same situation, but the boox devices I've used are set up where you have to actively make the play store available, and it isn't something that's obvious how to do. That's good or bad, depending on why you're picking a boox over a kobo, kindle, or whatever because it's android.