Onyx Boox Palma e-reader review

About the Onyx Boox Palma

Onyx Boox Palma specs

• Dimensions: 6.3 x 3.1 x 0.31 inches
• Weight: 6 ounces
• Display: 6.13-inch HD Carta 1200 screen (824 x 1648 resolution; 300 PPI)
• Processor: Octa-core + BSR GPU
• RAM: 6GB
• Storage: 128GB (expandable via Micro SD card)
• Operating System: Android 11
• Supported File Types: PDF, DJVU, CBR, CBZ, EPUB, AZW3, MOBI, TXT, DOC, DOCX, FB2, CHM, RTF, HTML, ZIP, PRC, PPT, PPTX, EPUB3

What we like

Sized for your life

Yes, I know the header for this section sounds like a load of marketing bunk. But honestly, for a bookworm on the go, it’s an almost perfect device.

When I’m out, I read books on my iPhone’s Kindle app or Apple Books. It’s not a bad experience. But it’s not all that enjoyable either. In bright sunlight, reading my phone's display can be anywhere from difficult to impossible. I’d love to bring along my Kindle Paperwhite with me. But, it’s too big to stash in my pocket—I have to bring along a backpack or satchel if I want to have my e-reader with me. That’s not an issue for the Palma. Sized at 6.3 x 3.1 x 0.31 inches, it’s roughly the same size as an iPhone 15 Pro Max, but a whole lot lighter.

There’s not a pair of pants I own with a pocket that it won’t fit into. During testing, I brought the Palma with me everywhere I went. I quickly learned to appreciate how legible it was in any lighting conditions and, how I could read it without being distracted by the work and personal notifications constantly swamping my smartphone. It’s also great for reading in bed. I was able to make my way through half of Richard Stark’s The Jugger, laying on my back and holding the Palma with one hand before I started feeling fatigued.

While there’s no denying that you’ll have a more pleasant reading experience on a device with a larger display, like an 11th-generation Kindle, if you’re the sort of person that’ll whip out a book no matter where you are, this could be the device for you.

Versatility

One of the frustrating things about many e-readers is that you’re limited to reading the content that its manufacturer wants you to have access to. With Amazon’s Kindle hardware, you have access to millions of books, comics, and Audible content. Kobo? It’s a similar menu: books from the Kobo Store and audio content. But you also have access to long reads from the internet, saved to your Pocket Account, and electronic library books on loan through Overdrive. You can enjoy all of this, and more, using the Palma.

As with most Onyx devices, the Palma comes packing Android as its operating system. That means that you’ll have access to all that the Google Play Store has to offer. So, there’s no problem with pursuing content from multiple sources—Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and Kobo; they can all be downloaded and enjoyed. While I was testing the Palma, I was also able to download a number of apps for my favorite periodicals. I loved being able to put down the book I was reading for a while to check out The Globe & Mail, Foreign Policy, and, Foreign Affairs. It’s the sort of versatility that I normally have to turn to my iPad mini in order to enjoy.

This e-reader’s versatility is further extended by the generous 128GB of internal memory that it comes equipped with. That’s a lot of storage for an e-reader this size. What’s more, Palma’s storage is expandable via MicroSD card. Given that it comes equipped with Bluetooth, all of this space can be used to store audiobooks, podcasts, and music—which can then be played using your preferred Android apps.

There are other nice touches as well. For example, its rear-facing camera is ideally suited for scanning documents, making it easy to read them on the Palma, down the road. I was also fond of the device’s e-reader’s textured backplate. It makes it possible to keep a grip on it, no matter how sweaty your hands might be, and you’ve got the perfect little book buddy to keep you reading, no matter where you roam. The texturing on the backplate is so good that I decided to forgo using the protective case that Onyx sent along with my sample of the Palma. The case made the device feel a lot more slick in my hand. I was afraid I’d drop it on several occasions—not a welcome sensation from a device that’ll set you back several hundred dollars.

Great Display

I’d have to relinquish my nerd license if I didn’t take the time to tell you that Palma comes packing a 6.13-inch HD Carta 1200 screen with an 824 x 1648 (300 ppi) resolution. This means that text and images are as crisp as you’ll see on the display of a Kindle Paperwhite or Kobo Clara BW. That’s important on a reading device with a display no larger than many smartphones come with. Depending on the app I was using, I found that I did have to change the font size to read without eyestrain. But I’m getting old. If you have young eyes, your mileage may vary. It’s worth noting that increasing the size of the font on the Palma feels more loaded than doing it on a device with a larger display. Six inches and change isn’t a whole lot of space for words to appear on. Increase the size or change the font you’re using and you’ll find that you’ll be turning pages, often. It’s a sacrifice that needs to be made to be able to read ebooks on a smaller, dedicated device like the Palma.

I was pleased with the Palma’s variable temperature front lighting performance. During testing, I found the e-reader’s illumination levels were uniform across its screen, with no dark areas. For those who prefer their e-reader to be warmer than a traditional white LED front lighting array affords, this device’s amber LEDs proved very pleasing to the eye, capable of anything from giving the look of the Palma’s white front lighting less of a harsh glare to a full-on orange glow.

What we don’t like

Android hates E Ink

Ok, hate is a strong word, but it’s safe to say that the marriage of E Ink display technology is a shaky relationship, at best. Android is an incredibly versatile operating system, used in a wide variety of devices. Most of those devices, however, come equipped with a color LCD or OLED display–screen technologies that the operating system is designed to leverage. Android runs smoothly on the Onyx Boox Palma. It has more than enough RAM and a speedy processor to ensure this. Unfortunately, the HD Carta 1200 screen that makes using the device such a pleasure to read doesn’t play well with the Palma's OS. This, in spite of the fact that Onyx has gone to great lengths to create a version of Android that looks great with E Ink. Many of the apps that the device ships with, such as its e-reader, TK, and TK, look great on the Palma. They’re responsive and rarely require that the screen be refreshed. But during testing, the apps that I downloaded from the Google Play Store were a different story.

Just like Android, the majority of Android apps are designed for use on a color display with a high refresh rate. When opened on an E Ink display, problems abound. Colors in an app’s interface may appear too dark or not be visible at all. This can obscure interface elements, such as contextual buttons and text, making it hard to navigate an app’s various features. What’s more, app animations tend to leave large artifacts on the display—a problem that comes part in parcel with an E Ink display, which only refreshes occasionally.

These display artifacts can make it hard to see what’s supposed to be on screen. Onyx has done what it can to work around these issues. The Palma comes with a button that can prompt a display refresh whenever the user feels that things are getting a little too muddy to be enjoyable. There’s also the ability to switch how the display shows content: you can change the contrast, quality of rendering, and refresh speed on-screen content on an app-by-app basis. These tweaks make using the Palma with downloaded apps feel a little better, but far from perfect. Asking users to figure out how to improve their experience all by their lonesome? That kind of sucks.

No cellular

Let’s consider this more of a wish than a gripe. Baking cellular capabilities into a device the size of the Palma would make it an absolute mobile reading powerhouse: a device the size of a phone with the ability to snag new content, everywhere you roam. And it wouldn’t be the first time it has been done.

For years, many Amazon Kindle e-readers came packing free 3G Cellular capabilities. Having a cellular connection in your Kindle allowed books to sync using Amazon’s Whispersync service and enabled users to shop for new books, no matter where they were. It was a great feature for a one-trick pony of an E Ink device; a trick that Amazon eliminated around the same time that they started making Audible audiobooks available to download to their e-readers—a filetype that’s significantly larger than any ebook out there.

Cellular would definitely cut into the Palma’s excellent battery performance, but I think I’d be willing to take this trade-off for the versatility that a constant data connection can provide. That there are a number of smartphones with E Ink displays available on the foreign market is proof that the idea has legs.

User interface

We’ve mentioned this issue in previous reviews of Oynx’s line of Boox products: their UI is pretty far from user-friendly. While the company’s software engineers have gone to great lengths to make their version of Android OS as E-Ink-friendly as possible, navigating the device’s various menus, sub-menus and features can be a frustrating affair. Onyx recently announced that it is revamping the look and feel of its OS for a number of its latest devices. We’d like to assume that the Palma will be included in this. However, at the time this review was written, no update was available for download.

Should you buy the Onyx Boox Palma?

Yes, it’s a great choice, warts and all.

Pocket-sized, powerful, and adaptable, the Onyx Boox Palma is a great e-reader. While it might be too small for those looking for an electronic reading experience that mimics perusing a book as closely as possible, the Palma finds its strength in its portability. It’s compact enough to take with you anywhere in a way that better-known devices, such as an Amazon Kindle can’t match.

And while using Android as its operating system may have left this device with a few annoying quirks that users will need to accept, its diminutive size and access to hundreds of reading apps via the Google Play Store make it well worth the frustration that using the Palma can sometimes cause.