BOOX Palma 2 Mobile ePaper Fingerprint Recognition Smart Button Dual Microphones (Black)

First impressions: Feels well-built, light and extremely comfortable to hold. The ultra fast mode is amazing. I could not detect PWM using my photodiode-oscilloscope setup, so they are probably using DC dimming, which is a good thing. Lastly, I really wish it was a phone!

I loved it. Or I wanted to love it. I returned it because I was hoping to have it as a secondary device when needed a break from my smartphone. However, apps that I use for work didn't completely work. Mainly the location aspect. It couldn't find and maintain an accurate location. Even while connected to wifi. I also wanted three fingerprint scanner but that was shoddy at best. 9.5 times out of 10 it wouldn't recognize any of them. I did 5 fingers and it only recognized one specific finger when it actually recognized it.I could no longer justify keeping it at the amount I spent. It's a great device but it feels cheap. The screen is prone to smudging and it doesn't seem easy to clean.There are some pros though. The screen is easy on the eyes of course. I didn't prefer the back light but it helps. It's lightweight if you're looking for that. I prefer something with a little more weight to it that doesn't feel like it'll fly out of my hand at one wrong move. I did enjoy reading a book on it but I think I'd like something bigger.Menus are not intuitive. It can be a little clunky navigating and making it your own but since I'm an Android user, I was able to figure it out. It just doesn't seem sophisticated but I'm used to flagship Samsung phones and it was hard to adapt.Again, if it's something simple that you're looking for to read on, it works. Everything else, not so much. MAYBE if you have the patience for it or don't require much. But almost $300 is too much for this.

This device is marketed as simplifying your life, removing distractions, etc. Exact quote, "The new generation of BOOX mobile ePaper. A distraction-free device that lets you reclaim your focus in the exact middle between tech and life."It just doesn't feel that way in reality. This feels like a phone with an e-ink display, with all of the phone software retained. There's a sim tray, for some reason. There's a camera, which is marketed as a document scanner, which I cannot imagine ever wanting or needing. There's an awful AI assistant.The display, the most important part of an e-reader, has both universal and per-app settings, and resets itself at random intervals. Even if this wasn't the case, there are seemingly no automatic settings for either of these. I don't care about adjusting brightness and warmth, I want those things to change automatically and then adjust them only if I need them. The overall OS and software experience here is poor. The response times aren't great, doing most things feels laggy. I'd much rather just have stock android, and I don't care to root an e-reader.Above all, privacy-wise, I just don't feel comfortable having this device in my home. I don't know Boox as a company nor do I trust it. The AI assistant won't discuss topics that are politically sensitive to China. The privacy settings on the device are lax, and it wants to phone home to a variety of domains and IPs in China. These are probably innocuous, but if I can go without this, why wouldn't I want to?

Fantastic form factor. This is one of my very favorite devices. I bought this as a pocket reader as my daily driver for on the go. I still use a Kindle device in the house, but this this is great out of the house. The screen is the best e-ink device I've seen in this form factor. I have a very rare eye condition that requires strong contrast to read and larger font than I'd like. This delivers. My eyes would benefit from a dark theme, which they've disabled, but very few people require a dark theme on e-ink. The volume buttons function as page turn buttons which was a requirement for me to make this a one hand read on the go.It runs on a newer modified Android OS. Many of the Android features are not available through the Boox GUI, which I dislike, but it has most of the essentials. The Google Play store is included, so you don't have to side load an alternate app store if you don't want one. Since this is a Chinese device, I have a "special" Google account just for Boox devices to keep more personal stuff out of their system, but I can install all the apps that I need.

Size makes it easier to handle with one hand. Perfect for nighttime reading, reading on the subway. This device has exponentially increased my reading speed because it’s so enjoyable to read on I take it with me everywhere without a second thought. Battery life is ok could last maybe 3-5 days depending on how often you read and how you setup the sleep/power off settingsThere’s dark mode on the kindle app but not on the overall Palma 2 as far as I can tell.Got this because I wanted to reduce eye strain and it’s helped a lot.

I haven’t had this very long and have barely used it and the screen is already broken. I really liked it but am disappointed I wasted so much $$$ on a device that is so poorly made. If you search Reddit you’ll see lots of these devices end up with broken screens just from normal use. I only ever used this device to read before bed and it stays in my nightstand. When I contacted boox that the screen was damaged they said it was from bending the device. There’s no way this happened because the device has been kept in my nightstand. The whole thing feels cheaply built. It’s a cool idea but extremely fragile and cheaply made.