Xiaomi has announced the Moaan InkPalm Mini Plus 2, a pint-sized e-reader that’s powered by full Android 14 as opposed to a closed-off bookstore ecosystem. Available in China as part of Moaan’s sub-brand, the A6L brings a 5.84-inch E Ink display mated to phone-like internals — a blend not often seen pocketable in this size. Pricing is at ¥1,399, with a launch discount of ¥1,299, not a bad deal for the “cottage” players in the e-ink world.
A small Android reader that’s big enough underneath
For an e-reader that can slide into a jeans pocket, the specs are impressive. The Plus 2 shares the same kind of hardware with the Max, running on a Rockchip RK3566 processor and 6GB of RAM and offering up to 512GB of storage — something several times that of what most mainstream readers have. At 140 grams and 6.9mm, it’s lighter than most 6–7 inch competitors and offers adjustable warm, natural and cool front light for comfortable day and night reading.
Android 14 is the marquee news. Rather than get locked into a bookstore silo, readers can have a launcher for numerous apps — Kindle, Pocket, Kobo, Libby, other read-it-later services, language learning apps, comic viewers. As is the case with many e-ink devices sold in China, official Google service support is not a guarantee from the get-go, although installing apps is usually easy to accomplish. And the upside is flexibility: academic PDFs, manga, and local content sources all share the same library.
Pocket size, big comparisons
To get a sense of its footprint, measure it up against some recognizable names. The Kindle Paperwhite from Amazon has a bigger, 6.8-inch screen, but it weighs around 205 grams. Closer in size is Rakuten Kobo’s Clara 2E, at 6 inches and 171 grams. On the Android side, Onyx Boox’s Palma (6.13 inches) is a not-so-distant analog and weighs in at around 170 grams. Xiaomi’s Mini Plus 2 still beats them all on weight however and given it’s a more phone-like performance profile, then you’d expect quicker library navigation and smoother scrolling turnout in third party apps, which if one thing it is not just on slower e-ink kit.
High on the list, too, is that plentiful storage. Most common e-readers ship with 8–32GB; 512GB is rare in plain-text books and frankly overkill, but it starts to matter if you eat high-resolution PDFs, image-heavy comics, and full-series downloads for offline traveling. The RK3566 — a quad-core ARM Cortex-A55 processor that appears in a few modern e-ink devices — ought to make page turns snappy and minimize ghosting effects in concert with optimized refresh modes.
Price and availability
Officially, the Mini Plus 2 is available only in China. The e-reader is priced at ¥1,399 (about $190 at the current exchange rate), but above budget readers and below specialist note-taking slates. You can import one if you’re an enthusiast, but that all too often comes with the hassle of Chinese-language setup screens, firmware oddities, and local warranty support. There is as yet no indication of broader regional availability.
Why a diminutive Android e-reader is important
Pocketable e-ink devices occupy a niche that many readers value: reading with a single hand, without a smartphone’s eyestrain or notifications to come between you and the book. Recent panel generations from E Ink Corporation (like Carta 1200) advertise faster response and stronger contrast than older tech, making small screens more legible and snappy. Though Xiaomi hasn’t explicitly listed the panel generation here, the industry-wide boost means compact devices can punch above their weight.
There’s also a behavioral shift. Pew Research Center has found that about a third of adults in the United States read e-books in a typical year and that many read printed books as well, dividing their time between paper and screens readers on their phones and tablets and dedicated e-reading devices. Commuting phone reading can be replaced by a pocket e-ink device to conserve battery and comfort. And android support is just the cherry on top—dictionary lookups, translation, syncing between service, when you are not locked in one store.
Early take
Moaan InkPalm Mini Plus 2 The InkPalm Mini Plus 2 from Xiaomi arrives as one of the most feature-rich ultra-small e-readers to date: it’s featherweight, bendable, and disproportionately powerful for its size. The China-only release will surely annoy readers elsewhere in the world, but the message to the market is clear. There is indeed an appetite for small, fast, Android-powered, e-ink devices—and if Samsung’s competitors react, it may well be commuters and minimalists who end up the biggest beneficiaries.