Boox Palma 2 Pro powers on color E Ink and a pocket with 5G

Boox reports that it is stuffing big e-reader ideas into a small package with the Palma 2 Pro, a pocketable device that joins a 6.13-inch color E Ink display with 5G and Android 15 support.

It’s an unusual combination of features, and an interesting skirmish in a slow-building war among readers who seek the convenience of paper-like screens without surrendering always-on access to libraries, notes, and audiobooks on the fly.

Pocket color E Ink and real mobility with 5G support

Headlining is the fact that 5G support has arrived for Palma users, and it comes through a hybrid tray that can host both a SIM card and a microSD card — a first for the Palma family.

For the commuter and for frequent travelers, that means one-tap sync on services like Libby, Kindle, Kobo Books, Pocket, or RSS readers — no tethering to a smartphone and no wrangling Wi‑Fi. It also paves the way for streaming audiobooks and podcasts on an e‑paper device through either its built‑in stereo speakers or Bluetooth headphones.

Weighing only 175 grams, the Palma 2 Pro has the one-handed matchbox shape of its predecessor but offers significant separation from your smartphone. It is not positioned as a phone replacement; it’s a single-purpose reader that can grab the next chapter, suck up annotations from the cloud, or download a magazine issue whenever you find yourself in its vicinity.

Kaleido 3 display and reading comfort on a small screen

The 6.13-inch Kaleido 3 panel supports sharp 300 ppi for monochrome text and 150 ppi for color content. Those numbers count: black-and-white novels look just as sharp as on top grayscale e-readers, while color brings added utility for comics, textbooks, technical charts, and recipes. E Ink Corporation’s Kaleido 3 tech is purported to be able to offer higher color saturation than its preceding generations, which in theory can make hues more recognizable without ruining contrast.

Boox’s Super Refresh modes are designed to dial down ghosting and increase the smoothness of scrolling while navigating apps or web articles. A dual-tone front light also automatically adjusts the color of the display from white to warm, with the ability to personalize the warmth setting, for a comfortable read any time of day. The textured body gives it a comfortable grip, and its small size means it fits easily into a jacket or small bag.

There is dedicated stylus input for margin notes and highlighting, something students or professionals who annotate PDFs would appreciate. Fingerprint unlock, stereo speakers, and auto-rotation are just some of the daily conveniences you’d expect in today’s line-up of modern e-reading devices with smartphone roots.

Android 15 Flexibility Without Distraction

At the core, the Palma 2 Pro runs Android 15 with an octa-core CPU, coupled with a healthy 8GB of RAM and an ample 128GB of storage that is also expandable via microSD. That combo provides you with plenty of leeway to juggle multiple reading apps, note tools, and offline media without the lag that can accompany an e-paper device. Crucially, with Android comes choice: you can stick to one system of apps, or flit between several to tailor to suit your reading habits.

E Ink is still almost a background power sipper relative to LCD or OLED. Boox hasn’t made much noise about battery specs, but the platform’s efficiency means many days of typical use per charge for long-form reading. The Palma 2 Pro tries for a happy medium — enough power to keep Android feeling fast, but maintaining that low-glare, low-distraction character that makes e-paper so attractive.

How it compares in a competitive e-reader field

Color e-paper is on the rise, with products like Kobo’s Libra Colour and PocketBook’s InkPad Color providing large canvases for comics and magazines. But those devices are Wi‑Fi only, and they’re bulkier. Traditional leaders like Kindle are now grayscale and have moved away from cellular in recent generations. Meanwhile, Hisense’s color and cellular E Ink phones provide full phone features rather than distraction-light readers.

The Palma 2 Pro stakes out a unique turf: a legitimate pocket-size reader with color and 5G built in, an approach well-suited for text-first scenarios that would benefit from occasional jets of broadband. For reading, whether manga or travel guides or course materials with color diagrams, there’s a practical difference at this size despite the color upgrade versus monochrome.

Pricing and availability across US, UK, and EU markets

The Palma 2 Pro will come in Charcoal Black and Ivory White, priced at $399.99 in the US, £379.99 for UK shoppers, and €399.99 in the EU. Those numbers put it beyond mainstream grayscale readers but in line with top-end color e-paper devices that draw heavily on tablet-style features.

Related launch: the Note Air5 C color E Ink tablet

With the Palma 2 Pro, Boox is introducing the Note Air5 C, a larger 10.3-inch color E Ink slate designed for writing and light productivity. Magnetic Keyboard and Pen3 stylus with clip and tip storage are included, based on the notebook’s packed features of Boox firmware, such as AI auto-organize notes. There’s an octa-core processor, 6GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage to power the experience. It’s priced at US$529.99, with UK (£499.99) and EU (€529.99) listings available as well.

For those of you who prefer minimal glare, a long time between charges, and now color with genuine mobile data, the Palma 2 Pro is a considerate extension of the form factor e‑reader approach; one that includes connectivity as a feature, not a distraction.