Google is happy to have the public consider the one true vision of Android, which includes its bespoke apps, the Google Play Services, and integration with Google’s cloud. That may be the dominant form of Android, but there is a wider world of software, services and hardware built around Android that doesn’t always fit perfectly into this view. Step forward the Boox Palma 2.
The Boox Palma 2 Looks Like A Smartphone
At first glance, Boox has built a pretty standard-looking phone. The screen ratio is slightly wider, offering a 2:1 aspect ratio rather than the more common 20:9 ratio seen in modern flagships. It’s on the lighter side at 170g, and the $249 price tag marks it out as an entry-level phone.
Except it isn’t a phone. A closer look reveals there’s no slot for a SIM card, so no cellular connectivity. Your connection will be over Wi-Fi or not at all. The rear camera appears tiny when compared to some of the massive camera islands, circular hubs, or even the marketing department’s request for “plateau” to become a thing. And the limited screen, a field of slow-moving greyscales with no color…
…If the name hasn’t given it away, the display should be the biggest clue. Boox have taken the form factor of a smartphone and replaced the high-resolution and power-hungry color displays with an eInk Carta 1200 display. This is a lightweight, tactile eBook reader that is doing its best impression of a phone. And that impression makes it one of the most flexible eReaders available.
The Boox Palma 2 Is A Stealthy eBook Reader
That flexibility comes from Boox’s decision to use Android as the operating system for the Palma 2 (and the previous Palma device). It is a heavily customised version of the mobile operating system to accommodate the low refresh rates and unique properties of the eInk display, but it does come with Google Play. You can (if you must) fire up YouTube, but you also have access to all of Google’s core apps and more importantly to the Google Play Store.
If you’re already a voracious reader on your smartphone, then a few clicks will pull down your favourite eBook reader app. If that app can sync across devices, then you’re ready to enjoy a new reading experience in a familiar app.
You shouldn’t overlook Boox’s first-party apps for reading on your device. It’s a straightforward UI with either a grid or a list of your books, folders (labelled as bookshelves) to organise your collection, and then a full-screen view of each page. There are lots of customisations available for your reading so that you can set fonts, margins, spacing, and screen furniture to your liking. These can be set on a per-book basis, which is excellent if you like all your books to have the same-sized font and spacing, no matter what the default embedded in the file is.
Thanks to the eInk screen, the reading experience is comfortable on the eye. Boox has added a frontlight to the display that can vary both its brightness and its color warmth. You can pick a cool steel blue when you need clarity in dull conditions, or a more faded yellow with a touch more light when you want the feeling of a well-loved decades-old paperback. The user interface lets you set two hidden sliders at the edge of the touchscreen so it’s very quick to change these on the fly, although you will need to head into the Palma 2s setting to do so.
Navigating through your book can be done by setting up the volume keys to turn the pages, swiping left or right with your fingers, or activating one of the nine ‘hotspots’ on the screen to page forward, page back, or access the settings on the Boox reader app.
All of these tweaks illustrate one of the key issues with the Boox Palma. There’s a lot you can tinker with once you get past the initial setup, and there’s not a tremendous amount of guidance on what you can do.
This feels very much like the trade-off in using Android. You get an open experience, a wide choice of apps and readers, and the flexibility to go outside Boox’s box, but it comes with the cost of complexity. It takes time to set up the Palma 2 to your liking. When you get to that point, the Palma 2 is competent, but the learning curve to get there is steeper than trying to enter your login details into a Kindle.
Or in the Kindle app. Which, given this is Android, you can do easily.
The Boox Palma 2 And Going Offline
The starting point for anyone new to the Boox Palma 2 is going to be “like a smartphone.” I started there as well, but it didn’t take long to transition away from this mode of usage to one that was predominantly online. I moved my eBook collection over to the device, but I also moved over my music collection as well (the 128 GB storage goes a long way if all you are dropping in are text and music files).
I found myself popping online briefly to pick up content and then moving back to offline. My podcast app allows me to breeze through the various feeds and mark shows for download at my leisure. When I took the Palma 2 online, perhaps to export some Google Docs into the ePub file format that works with the Palma 2 reader, the podcast client would grab the shows, and they would be there waiting for me.
There’s a certain freedom not having social media available from your app launcher, knowing you won’t get disturbed on this device, but are still able to sit back with a good book, some light jazz, and… not much else. It’s a very connected way to disconnect.
The Boox Palma 2 Redefines Android
Android is synonymous with smartphones. One step away from that is the tablet ecosystem, where Android is a well-established presence. Yet step further away from these two norms into a wider world, and you begin to realise how much of the complexity of Android as an operating system is just below the surface, waiting for something new to use it.
Boox have sculpted something new with Android, and the Palma 2 is the latest to do so. It may not be the easiest device to set up, but that should be considered a strength of Android; it is familiar enough that it is possible with a bit of time and effort.
Android has the flexibility to offer this to any consumer electronics manufacturer. As Boox demonstrates here, it’s possible to bring a small niche product to market and have it stand alone while also being part of a larger ecosystem. Android is more than Google’s smartphone.
In this moment, Android is a rather useful library.
