The Boox Palma ebook reader hit a record low price

Boox Palma 2 and Note Max: An E Ink-powered, stylus-capable tablet with a 13.3-inch backlit display

The Palma’s appearance is similar to a mobile phone, but it does not have calling capabilities or a traditional display. It uses a 6.13-inch backlit E Ink Carta 1200 display, with a 300 ppi resolution. There’s a microphone and speaker, a microSD card slot for expanding its 128GB of internal storage, volume buttons that can double as page-turning buttons, and even a 16-megapixel camera with a flash for scanning documents and handwritten notes. It is more suited for carrying than a full-sized reader.

The other notable upgrade for the Palma 2 is the addition of a fingerprint sensor integrated into its power button, making it easier to secure the device while still being able to quickly unlock it with just one hand.

The new Boox Note Max is a black-and-white, stylus-capable tablet featuring a larger 13.3-inch E Ink Carta 1300 display powered by a 2.8GHz octa-core CPU. At just 4.6 millimeters thick, the Note Max is almost half as thick as the Boox Palma 2. Boox will not be selling it for pre-order from its online store for a few more weeks.

Kindles and Kobos are relatively comfortable to use, but if those are too big and restrictive, the smartphone-like Boox Palma is a fantastic alternative that’s grown on us considerably. A new version of the model is being developed, but you can still save money if you don’t need a smooth ride. It is a new all-time low price at Amazon.

However, the laggy user experience that befalls any E Ink device can be limiting outside of reading and perhaps some casual listening and productivity tasks (and even some New York Times’ crossword puzzles, The Verge’s David Pierce found). It’s fine if you’re just scrolling through pages of your monthly reads, but not ideal for social media deep-diving and other visually rich shenanigans.