The Boox Palma 3 Upgrades to Aluminum and Android 16

Popular e-reader maker Boox right now introduced the subsequent improve in its lineup of pocket-sized e-readers: the Boox Palma 3. The follow-up to 2024’s Palma 2 retains a lot of what’s made the Palma so in style in the previous few years whereas additionally making it only a bit nicer throughout.

The most notable improve right here is that the Palma 3 will ship with Android 16, which will definitely make it really feel rather more trendy than the Palma 2’s Android 13. (The Palma 2 Pro ships with Android 15.) It’s nonetheless not solely as much as par with modern Android telephones, which have already made their method to Android 17, however it should present a extra trendy really feel to the machine.

Most of the Palma 3’s specs are precisely the identical because the Palma 2: a 6.13″ ePaper glass display with 300 ppi decision, 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, a heat and chilly entrance mild, auto-rotation, and a 16MP rear digital camera with an LED flash. It’s obtained the identical quantity/page-turn buttons, a USB-C port for charging and knowledge switch, a microSD slot for extra storage, built-in audio system and microphones, and the identical 3,950mAh battery, too. Really not a lot change right here in any respect—however why repair it if it’s not damaged?

What has modified is the Palma 3’s new anodized aluminum body, which has a paper-like fiberglass backplate. This offers the Palma 3 a extremely modern, trendy look, particularly in comparison with its predecessors’ plastic again. The new e-reader additionally helps Boox’s InkSense Plus stylus—this function first launched within the Palma line with the Palma 2 Pro—so it actually generally is a note-taking machine, too. (That’s an additional $46, by the best way.)

This is certainly a extra premium-looking e-reader; Boox is veering nearer to the design of a telephone right here than it has with earlier Palmas. Whether or not this will likely be well worth the improve for present Palma homeowners is debatable, nevertheless it’s undoubtedly a lovely possibility for these searching for a pocketable, sleek-looking e-reader with trendy app capabilities. It’s additionally not Boox’s smallest e-reader on supply, with the tiny Picco now in the marketplace.

The Boox Palma 3 will launch at $339.99—a $60 leap from the Palma 2’s launch worth in 2024—and will likely be “available soon.”