BOOX Palma 2 Pro Review: Color, Mobile Data and a Pen in a Phone-Sized E-Reader

This is the decision. The Kaleido 3 panel lays a color filter over a black-and-white layer, so text keeps its 300 pixels per inch while color drops to 150. TechRadar compared it side by side with the Palma 2 and found the filter adds a fine grid-like texture: plain text looks softer, whites look grayer, and blank areas have a slightly grainy look. It also found a little more ghosting on refreshes, which settings can reduce.

The Gadgeteer puts limits on the color itself, at 4,096 colors and 16 levels of gray, and adds a practical point. The filter makes the unlit screen noticeably darker, so you end up using the front light more often, and the front light costs battery.

What you get in return is color that looks like soft pastels on paper, nothing like a phone. Book covers, comics, app icons, web pages and highlighted documents all benefit. The reviewer found that going back to a black-and-white reader felt limiting, even while conceding the Palma 2 has the better display for text.

So the question is what you read. Novels and long articles look better on the monochrome Palma 2 or Palma 3. Comics, magazines, color PDFs and a browser are where the Pro earns its screen.

The body measures 159 by 80 by 8.8 mm and BOOX lists about 175 g. TechRadar weighed its unit at 172 g and found it fits a jacket or trouser pocket even in the flip case. The shape is 2:1, tall and narrow like a phone, which suits people who already read on a phone and puts fewer words on each line than a 6-inch Kindle.

BOOX moved the volume and page-turn buttons to the left edge next to the programmable smart button, and the power button with the fingerprint reader stays on the right. Its reviewer found the new layout more natural for right-handed page turns and the fingerprint reader more reliable than the Palma 2's. Left-handed readers may prefer the older layout.

The body is plastic, and the same review calls it plasticky for the price. BOOX describes it as water-repellent against spills, splashes and light rain, with no IP rating, so it is not a reader for the bath.

The Pro runs Android 15 with the Google Play Store, where the Palma 2 runs Android 13. That means the Kindle, Kobo, Libby and Google Play Books apps all install, alongside BOOX's own NeoReader, which opens EPUB, PDF, CBZ and most other formats directly. TechRadar found third-party reading apps work well, with touch still well behind a phone. Our guide to what Android buys you on an e-reader covers the wider trade.

BOOX pairs an octa-core chip with 8 GB of memory, up from 6 GB, and the review found app switching and menus slightly smoother as a result. BOOX promises firmware updates for more than three years from launch, which is shorter than a Kindle's support window. So Android 15 is an advantage today that the Palma 3's Android 16 will soon overtake.

Battery life is the Palma's strength. The cell is the same 3,950 mAh as the Palma 2. With conservative settings and about an hour of reading a day, the review expects five to six weeks per charge, a week or two short of the Palma 2. With apps, audio streaming, web browsing and wireless connections on, the estimate falls to two to three weeks. On a wall adapter the test unit charged from a fifth to full in about two hours.

The hybrid tray on the bottom edge takes either two SIM cards or one SIM and a microSD card of up to 2 TB. BOOX says it supports a data-only SIM on 2G to 5G networks. The Gadgeteer notes that the Pro is not certified for voice calls, so you should never count on it as an emergency phone. BOOX publishes no band list, so check with your carrier before buying a SIM for it.

A-GPS arrives with the Pro, which lets map apps and location-dependent apps such as some banking apps work away from Wi-Fi. The Gadgeteer found apps that need GPS and a gyroscope run without trouble.

The 16 MP rear camera with a flash is for scanning a page or a receipt. Reviewers treat it as a scanner more than a camera. There is also a speaker, two microphones, Bluetooth 5.1 for headphones, and a USB-C port that doubles as an audio jack.

The Pro is the only Palma that works with a pen, and only with BOOX's InkSense Plus: an active pen with 4,096 pressure levels that charges over USB-C and needs no pairing. It is not in the standard box, and neither is the magnetic case, which fits only the Pro because the buttons moved.

TechRadar found the pen fine for short notes and for marking up books in NeoReader, with nowhere to keep it in the case. The Gadgeteer, a fast writer, found the powered pen's delay makes handwriting less legible than on tablets with a passive EMR pen. Treat it as a notepad for lists, not a notebook.