BOOX BOOX 6.13" Palma 2 Pro ePaper Tablet (Black) Review
The BOOX Palma 2 Pro is an Android tablet with a slow ePaper screen. It's great for reading but bad at almost everything else. Find out who should buy this niche device.
Overview
The BOOX Palma 2 Pro is a weird little device. It's a 6-inch Android tablet, but it uses an ePaper screen instead of a regular LCD. That means it's easy on the eyes and great for reading, but it's also slow and not great for much else.
Think of it as a super-powered Kindle that can run Android apps. You get 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, which is plenty for an e-reader. But the screen is tiny, and the performance is just okay.
Performance
The Qualcomm chip and 8GB of RAM are fine for basic stuff. You can browse the web, read books, and use simple apps without much fuss. But the ePaper screen is the real story here. It refreshes slowly, so scrolling feels laggy. Video is basically a no-go. The GPU performance is in the 36th percentile, so don't expect to game on this thing. It's built for one job: reading text.
Pros & Cons
Pros
Cons
- Below average screen (9th percentile) 11th
- Below average cpu (34th percentile)
Specifications
Full Specifications
Processor
| CPU | Qualcomm |
Memory & Storage
| RAM | 8 GB |
| Storage | 128 GB |
| Expandable | Yes |
Display
| Size | 6.13" |
| Resolution | 1648 |
| Panel | LCD |
Connectivity
| Bluetooth | Bluetooth 5.1 |
| Cellular | No |
Physical
| Weight | 0.2 kg / 0.4 lbs |
| OS | Android 15 |
Value & Pricing
At around $400, it's a tough sell. You're paying tablet money for an e-reader experience. If you just want to read books, a regular Kindle or Kobo is way cheaper. If you need a full tablet, a basic iPad or Android tablet will do everything this does, but better and faster. The value is only there if you absolutely must have an ePaper screen that also runs Android apps.
Price History
vs Competition
Compared to an iPad Pro or a Samsung Galaxy Tab, the Palma 2 Pro loses badly. Those are real tablets with gorgeous, fast screens for media and work. Even the Lenovo Legion Go, a gaming handheld, has a better screen for general use. The Palma's only real competition is other e-readers. Against a Kindle Scribe, it wins on flexibility because of Android, but the Scribe has a bigger, better ePaper screen for actual reading and note-taking. You're trading screen quality for app access.
| Spec | BOOX BOOX 6.13" Palma 2 Pro ePaper Tablet (Black) | Apple iPad Pro Apple 11" iPad Pro M5 Chip (Standard Glass, 512GB, | Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Samsung 12.4" Galaxy Tab S10+ 256GB Multi-Touch | Microsoft Surface Pro Microsoft - Surface Pro - Copilot+ PC - 13” OLED | Lenovo Yoga Tab Series Lenovo Yoga Tab Plus | Xenarc Xenarc 10.1" RT101-PRO 256GB Tablet (Wi-Fi, 4G |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | Qualcomm | Apple M5 | MediaTek 9300 | Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite X1E-84-100 | Qualcomm® Snapdragon® 8 Gen 3, QCM8650 | 8-Core: Up to GHz |
| RAM (GB) | 8 | 12 | 12 | 32 | 16 | 8 |
| Storage (GB) | 128 | 512 | 256 | 1000 | 256 | 256 |
| Screen | 6.1" 1648x824 | 11" 2420x1668 | 12.4" 2800x1752 | 13" 2880x1920 | 12.7" 2944x1840 | 10.1" 1920x1200 |
| OS | Android 15 | iPadOS | Android 14 | Windows 11 Home | Android 14 | Android 13 |
| Stylus | false | true | true | false | false | false |
| Cellular | false | false | false | false | false | true |
Verdict
Buy this only if you have a very specific need. You need to be someone who reads for hours every day and gets eye strain from normal screens, but you also desperately need to use a few Android apps on that same device. For everyone else, get a proper tablet for general use or a dedicated e-reader for books. This is a niche device for a niche user.