I wasn't looking to ditch my Kindle, but this Android e-reader convinced me big time

ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• The Boox Palma 2 Pro is disposable present for $399.
• With 5G and entree to the Google Play Store, you person entree to each the large ebook ecosystems successful a smartphone-like signifier factor.
• Extensive notetakers mightiness find the surface excessively small, and the colour show needs due lighting to travel alive.

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The caller and improved Boox Palma 2 Pro from Onyx is the brand's latest integer insubstantial tablet, retaining its smartphone-adjacent signifier portion introducing respective caller features: stylus support, a hardware bump, and, astir notably, a colour display. 

Retailing for $399, the Palma 2 Pro besides increases successful terms by $100, features 8GB of RAM alternatively of 6GB, and is equipped with a caller Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G processor for faster load times and improved responsiveness. You besides person 5G connectivity successful a hybrid SIM slot that supports a MicroSD card. 

Also: I recovered an E Ink tablet worthy of replacing my Remarkable, and it's connected sale

It's inactive rather tiny for a integer insubstantial tablet, and it inactive resembles a phone, but person inspection reveals a unique, unsmooth texture that resembles insubstantial -- oregon possibly papier-mâché -- thing I've yet to spot connected different handheld device.

It feels premium and solid, and the unsocial texture provides a tactile experience, though I person immoderate concerns astir however good this worldly withstands moisture oregon dirt. This is 1 instrumentality you don't privation to acceptable down connected a soiled table, oregon that errant driblet of marinara condiment volition enactment with you forever. 

For that reason, I highly urge getting the protective case, which isn't terribly priced astatine $22, and volition support it cleanable and the surface protected.

The 6.13-inch backlit Kaleido 3 colour show features a subdued, earthy palette that's intended to lucifer a paper oregon people magazine, and is highly customizable with a scope of preset refresh modes and colour options. 

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET

Color displays are the latest trend for E Ink devices, showing up successful recent upgrades crossed the committee this year. Although they surely adhd value, I inactive support that colour -- connected its ain -- doesn't automatically "make it better". Consumers inactive privation crisp text, cleanable refresh times, and responsive UIs, and nary magnitude of colour volition marque up for the deficiency of these features. 

That said, the show connected the Palma 2 Pro surely looks good, with vivid (for an E Ink tablet) colour tones and a realistic, paper-like level of saturation. The Kaleido display's scope of colour is casual connected the eyes but inactive conscionable distinctive capable to amended the experience. 

Also: This Kindle astir replaced my Remarkable tablet with conscionable the show itself - but there's more

Users volition privation to optimize the show with the antithetic presets offered successful the menu, arsenic substance tin look tiny and faint, and without the backlight, it is alternatively dim. Ghosting is to beryllium expected, but speedy refreshes cleanable it up, which is easy done with the wide scope of customizable speedy actions.

The surface itself besides has a noticeable depth, appearing somewhat distant from the surface, particularly astir the bezels. This detracts somewhat from the "paper-like" acquisition and is the 1 happening that edges the Palma 2 Pro distant from an expressly premium idiosyncratic experience. Ultimately, however, it's a substance of idiosyncratic perception. 

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET

Swiping down from the apical of the surface volition bring up the Control Center, wherever the astir commonly accessed settings live. The E Ink Wise paper allows you to set the refresh mode and the display's colour profile, thing you'll privation to tinker with, depending connected what you're doing. 

HD Mode, for example, allows for crisper images with much vivid colors, perfect for viewing graphic novels oregon magazines wherever you're spending much clip connected each idiosyncratic page, arsenic it's somewhat slower to load. Regal mode is champion suited for e-books, with cleanable substance and minimal animations. You tin besides set the colour modes here, with a fewer presets oregon the enactment to get granular and bring up sliding scales for opposition and vividness.

Navigating the UI is made easier with the pen -- Boox' Ink Sense Plus -- which is simply a bully stylus successful its ain close but constricted to the device's tiny size. The pen-to-paper acquisition is lovely, with precise small lag and a responsive feel, but the tiny show and adjacent smaller floating toolbox successful the Notebooks app affords a constricted magnitude of country for notes oregon sketches. 

Also: My favourite E Ink tablet has a worthy successor - with upgrades successful originative ways

Additionally, the tablet's tiny size results successful inevitable thenar interference, and the speedy button, placed close astatine the constituent of the scale finger, requires a learning curve to debar accidentally activating. 

In that sense, I wouldn't urge the Palma 2 Pro for users who privation it solely for extended penning oregon much elaborate sketches -- I'd urge the ReMarkable Paper Pro Move instead, arsenic it's much suited arsenic an e-reader first, with its versatile toolkit and heavy good of software. That said, it's perfectly susceptible of acting arsenic a notepad for speedy thoughts. 

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET

Like Onyx's different Boox tablets, the Palma 2 Pro runs Android 15 and, with entree to the Google Play Store, allows users to entree immoderate downloadable apps and their associated ecosystems. 

This is 1 of the main draws of the Boox enactment of products: from the wide scope of customizations to being untethered from immoderate 1 ecosystem, users person unfettered entree to each the large e-book libraries retired there: Amazon's Kindle, Google Books, Barnes & Noble's Nook, Rakuten's Kobo, etc. This small instrumentality tin beryllium each of those devices astatine once. 

The Google Play Store is inactive the astir divers successful offerings, and for anyone who likes to hop betwixt antithetic apps (including e-book enthusiasts, with enactment for Bluetooth earbuds), the Boox Palma 2 Pro has a batch to offer.

Also: How to alteration your old, obsolete Kindle into the eventual open-source reader

Additionally, the Palma 2 Pro does enactment 5G connectivity, but it isn't compatible arsenic a standalone smartphone, meaning you can't marque calls from the instrumentality implicit bearer networks, adjacent with a SIM card. However, you tin usage Wi-Fi-enabled calling apps, specified arsenic WhatsApp. 

This makes the 5G constituent lone indispensable for users who request reliable information net connectivity, but surely not a request for each -- oregon possibly adjacent astir -- users. 

In presumption of battery, the 3,950mAh lithium-ion polymer compartment is well-equipped for dozens of hours of usage time, though support successful caput that keeping it connected velocity mode with brightness turned each the mode up volition drastically trim artillery beingness compared to a much humble refresh rate.

ZDNET's buying advice

The Boox Palma 2 Pro is simply a premium, expressly portable e-reader that offers users escaped rein to each the large e-book ecosystems. It's a important upgrade from the Palma 2 and the archetypal Palma from past year, keeping what made the instrumentality large portion innovating connected its usage case. 

Also: This Kindle astir replaced my Remarkable tablet with conscionable the show itself - but there's more

Its compact size is large for anyone who wants a one-handed device, arsenic it handles much similar a smartphone and little similar a Kindle oregon tablet. However, you person to beryllium committed to the diminutive signifier factor, arsenic the surface whitethorn beryllium excessively tiny for extended penning oregon drafting with the stylus, and substance tin look tiny and faint if your settings aren't optimized. 

At $399, it's not precisely cheap, but it's not overly expensive, either -- particularly considering its divers hardware and examination to competing devices.