The Onyx Boox Palma 2 is the e-reader our editors recommend most often to readers who refuse to leave their phone behind but want to break the doomscroll-and-notification cycle of LCD smartphone reading. The 6.13-inch E Ink panel in a smartphone-shaped body is genuinely the most pocketable serious e-reader on the market and the one that has changed reading habits for the most readers we know who switched to it. The Palma 2 is the 2024 update to the original Palma and improves the processor speed, the storage capacity, and the battery management while keeping the form factor identical.
What the Palma 2 actually is, for any reader considering it, is a small Android tablet that uses E Ink instead of LCD and that does not have a SIM slot. The full Google Play Store opens the device to Kindle (with sideloading), Libby, Kobo, Hoopla, Spotify, Audible, and effectively any Android reading app. The trade-off is that battery life is shorter than the larger e-readers (most readers report three to five days of mixed-use reading rather than the weeks an e-reader normally delivers) because the always-on Android background processes consume power even in standby.
Recommended for committed phone-pocket readers who want a single-purpose pocket-sized reading device alongside their actual phone, for the standing-on-public-transit and waiting-room reading windows that LCD phones make difficult, and as the best current pick for readers who want the maximum flexibility of full Android in a pocket form factor. The microSD slot allows a serious personal EPUB library to live on the device permanently. Compare to the larger Kindle Paperwhite and Kobo Clara Colour for readers who do not need the smartphone form factor specifically.