New Kindles too big for you? The phone-sized Boox Palma 2 just landed with new tricks

The best of an ereader and smartphone in one?

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If therecent Kindle announcementshave interested you in getting a new ereader, but you think theAmazonbrand options might be too big for you, then you might want to pay attention to the new smartphone-sized reading slate from Boox.

The Palma 2 is up forpreorderright now at $279.99 (around £230 / AU$450), with a new and improved chipset andAndroid 13support – a step up from its predecessor’s reliance on Android 11. It features a 6.3-inch 300ppi E Ink Carta 1200 screen, and is outfitted with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage for downloading ebooks and Android apps.

We haven’t yet reviewed the Palma 2, but in our four-starBoox Palma reviewwe praised its smartphone-lite features – including its ability to play music through speakers and its rear camera – while still remaining true to what an ereader is, all in a compact package.

To that end the Boox Palma 2 does seem to inherit what made the original special – an ereader complete with the mod cons of smartphones, like the new fingerprint scanner built into the power button, and flexible home-screen widgets.

Not a Kindle competitor

However, next to the new and cheaper $159.99 / £159.99 / AU$299KindlePaperwhite, or the equally pricey $279.99 / £269.99Kindle Colorsoft(it’s coming to Australia in 2025),Boox’s new product does feel a tad last-gen.

The E Ink display is a generation behind what those other new ereaders rely on, and Android 13 is two generations behind the current-genAndroid 15. This leaves the Palma 2 feeling a bit like an old ereader and old smartphone bolted together.

That portability could be appealing, butTCL 50 Pro Nxtpaper 5Gcould be a better fit at roughly the same cost for your ereader-smartphone-hybrid needs at a similarly small size, and if size doesn’t matter one of the new larger Kindles could be a better choice overall.

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We will have to test the Palma 2 out for ourselves before we deliver a final verdict, but our advice right now is think carefully about what you want from an ereader before rushing to get a preorder in.

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Hamish is a Senior Staff Writer for TechRadar and you’ll see his name appearing on articles across nearly every topic on the site from smart home deals to speaker reviews to graphics card news and everything in between. He uses his broad range of knowledge to help explain the latest gadgets and if they’re a must-buy or a fad fueled by hype. Though his specialty is writing about everything going on in the world of virtual reality and augmented reality.

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