Trying Out an e-ink Reading Device
For a week now I’ve been doing all my evening reading on an e-ink device called the Boox Palma. I do about 80 percent of my reading of books via Kindle as opposed to physical books, though I’m working on making that a better balance, getting more novels as printed books in particular.
For now though, reading in the evening always starts with Kindle reading and sometimes shifts to a physical book later in the evening. So the Kindle Paperwhite has been a big favorite device for me for quite a few years now, and I had never thought much at all about looking for alternatives to it.
None of that has changed; I haven’t been seeking out other reading device options. What inspired me to try out the Boox Palma is this excellent blog post from my long time favorite tech writer, Kevin C. Tofel:
Onyx Boox Palma - A great minimalist device
Kevin’s post made it clear the Boox Palma is a very interesting - maybe even a somewhat unique or at least rare - device that offers the easy on the eyes e-ink display, also runs Android, has access to all the apps in the Play Store, and sort of decent midrange Android specs overall (but no cellular option to use it a phone), and an attractive $280 price point. If you want a great rundown of all the cool use cases Kevin has carved out with this device and how it fits into a minimalist approach to life and tech, you’ll get all of that and more at his post linked above.
As for my own first impressions, they can be summed up very quickly:
It’s a pleasure to use.
Since it arrived, I haven’t used the Kindle Paperwhite and so far haven’t missed it.
The UI takes a little while to get used to and I still don’t feel all the way comfortable with navigation on the device; I’ve swapped back and forth a few times between on-screen buttons and gestures for instance.
The navigation doesn’t matter much though, because at least for now I don’t have many use cases for the Boox Palma. I’m quite happy with it just being my evening reading device. I will install my other reading apps on it soon though - Readwise, Reader, and Feedly for RSS.
On a separate note my clash of the smartphone titans continues, I’m back to using the Nothing Phone 2 after a few weeks with the Pixel 8 Pro - so I snapped the image at the top of this post highlighting its lovely home screen alongside the peaceful sleep mode screen of the Boox Palma,