Review: Boox Palma 2 Pro 6.1-inch Android 15 e-reader

Review unit provided by Onyx

The Boox Palma 2 Pro (P2P) is a 6.1-inch Android 15 colour e-ink device released in November 2025. This can be considered an upgrade to the Boox Palma 2 released the year before.

Notable upgrades are the use of a Kaleido 3 colour e-ink display, having pen support, microSD card and 5G data SIM.

While P2P looks like a phone, it's not exactly a phone since it cannot make cellular calls or send SMS, but it can make Wifi calls through apps such as Whatsapp, Messenger, Zoom, etc.

Price at the time of review is

• USD 399 with a flip case
• USD 433 (from USD 446) with a flip case and pen

Specifications

Changes are in bold

Things included

The Boox Inksense Plus Stylus is sold separately for USD 46.

• Palma 2 Pro
• User guide
• 1m USB-A to USB-C charging cable
• SIM ejector
• 2-in-1 flip case

The included flip-case is made with PU leather and has a magnetic flap that holds the front cover. Auto-wake and sleep is supported.

The silicone phone case can be detached from the flip case. The phone case can work with Magsafe accessories such as a magnetic stand or grip. The phone does not support Magsafe charging.

The flip case makes the phone thicker but it's not too heavy. Weight of the phone without the case is 175g.

Design

I'm not sure whether to call the Palma 2 Pro a phone or a tablet.

P2P looks like a phone because the display is just 6.1-inch but it supports a data SIM instead of a cellular SIM, so it cannot make cellular calls or send SMS. It would be inconvenient to use apps that require SMS for verification.

But it is weird if I call this a tablet because it looks just like a phone, and it can actually make calls through Wifi with apps such as Whatsapp, Messenger, Zoom. There is a speaker at the top and bottom, and a microphone beside the USB-C port.

For this review, I'll just call this the device.

Design of the front looks like an old school LCD phone from decades ago. Bezels are quite thin on the sides, thicker at the top and bottom. There is no selfie camera for video calls, face unlock and photos.

The left has volume control and a Smart Button. Those buttons can be customised with shortcuts.

Smart Button shortcuts can be activated with a short press, double press or long press. Volume buttons can be activated with a long press. Shortcuts available are:

• Back Home Screen
• Back
• Screenshot
• Marquee acreenshot
• Scrolling screenshot
• Multitasking switcher
• Clear cache
• Full refresh
• Sleep
• Prev page
• Next page
• EinkWise
• Prev chapter
• Next chapter
• Flashlight
• NeoReader TTS Play
• Pause NeoReader TTS
• FreeMark (pen)
• Front light Bright/off
• Front light Soft/off
• Front light Custom/off
• Front light Auto/Off
• Volume - (only for volume button)
• Volume + (only for volume button)

The right side has a power button with fingerprint scanner that works fast and effectively.

The body is mostly made with plastic and build quality is good enough. The back has this sandstone-like texture, and at one corner is a small camera bump with 16MP camera with a flash.

Bottom has a SIM tray that can hold a nano SIM and a microSD card together. The USB-C port only has USB-2 transfer speed. There's also a microphone and a speaker.

Audio does not sound too hollow which means speakers are usable. Volume is loud enough but past the 50% mark, treble will start to sound distorted.

There is haptic for typing.

Display

The display is matte textured and I'm not sure if it's a matte screen protector as I can't see the edges of the screen protector. When reflecting strong light source, the matte surface would diffuse the light and can cause the whole display to look glaring. The display will look alright under direct sunlight as long as the sun is not reflected. Legibility under bright conditions is excellent.

The Kaleido 3 colour e-ink display supports 4,096 colours and 16 levels of gray.

One downside of Kaleido 3 is the e-ink canvas is much darker than typical BW e-ink canvas. The photo above shows the display with (right) and without lighting. Use of the front light is almost always needed due to the darker e-ink canvas.

Kaleido3 canvas always has this texture even when not showing anything so it's the texture that makes the canvas look darker.

Resolution for BW and colour are 300 DPI and 150 DPI respectively. Overall visual quality and sharpness will vary depending on the refresh mode used.

Here's how a colour wheel looks with default (HD) settings without front light. You can click on the photo above for a larger view.

This is with HD refresh mode and front light. Each colour can be differentiated from one another by hue and value.

This is with Speed refresh mode and front light. Many colours now look similar and difficult to differentiate from one another. Grain is also more noticeable.

This is with Speed refresh mode, High Contrast and front light. Colours are slightly more vibrant but there's also more grain.

The type of refresh modes may be limited depending on the app used. With the Kindle app for example, there's also the Regal refresh mode that has pastel soft colours at the expense of slower page flips or more screen flashes.

A 6.1-inch display is not ideal for reading comics, so having colours may not be necessary for a device like this which is likely to be used for just reading text.

Some colour info may be lost due to the limited number of colours the display can show. E.g. In Google Maps, shapes or outlines of buildings cannot be seen easily. On web pages, white text boxes with gray outlines are difficult to see. If you cannot see the text boxes, you cannot use the text boxes.

Text looks alright with default settings and front light.

And this is text with high contrast. The text looks slightly thicker with sharper edges.

Reading experience for text is good, but better on BW e-ink displays.

The High Contrast mode is a quick and easy way to improve contrast and readability.

These are the different front light options. You can also customise your own settings for the Bright and Soft options. There's 32 levels of adjustment for brightness and colour temperature.

Shown above is the maximum brightness, and on the right side is with maximum colour temperature. The front light looks even with no wavering glow at the edges.

Performance

The Snapdragon 750G processor which is midrange budget processor that's able to provide responsive performance.

8GB RAM is sufficient for keeping old inactive apps in memory without having to reload.

This device is mostly going to be used for reading or note taking so the processor is definitely more than powerful enough to handle those tasks.

OS and software

I've tested the device with Boox firmware v4.1.1 which works fine.

Boox has their own UI on top of Android 15 and the features are quite minimal. A Boox account is not needed to use this device, but you'll need an account if you cloud syncing features, eg to sync notes from Boox Notes app. I do not see bloatware except for the apps from Boox.

FEATURES

Google Play Store is available so you can always find an app if you need a specific feature. You can also use the navigation bar at the bottom but that navigation bar may disappear when certain apps go fullscreen.

It is possible to install your own launcher, eg Nova Launcher, but I did not test that extensively because I could not figure out how to switch back to the default Home launcher from Boox settings.

You'll probably want to rearrange the 8 (of 21) shortcuts from the swipe down control panel. The pen has to be enabled and paired before it can be used. I wish the company can move the pen pairing box to the Settings page instead as it takes up too much space from the control panel.

The NaviBall (under More Settings) is this movable circular button on screen that has nine customisable shortcuts. This is quite useful.

DOWNSIDES or BUGS

There is no app drawer. It's quite inconvenient because you cannot search for an app so you will have to remember where all your apps are on the multiple homescreen pages.

To create folders on the homescreen, you have to press and hold on an app, then "Add to Group". You cannot drag app icons onto another icon to create a folder. To remove an app from a folder, you have to press and hold the app, then "Remove from Group"

The Settings page does not support smooth scrolling animation. This is a problem because you can lose track of where you are easily on the menu as you flip through. I don't see a way to enable smooth scrolling even though refresh rate is already set to fast.

The device is meant to be used vertically but there are two screensavers (Always on Display) that shows the clock in only horizontal orientation, with no option for portrait mode.

By default, Wifi will not automatically connect when the device wakes from sleep. There's a setting for your to enable auto Wifi connection all the time, thankfully.

Pen

This is the Boox InkSense Plus Stylus that's sold separately for USD 45.99. It's quite pricey if you can't get this pen at a discount.

It's a well made pen with metal build quality. It's quite comfortable to hold with the matte textured surface. The side button works as an eraser with the Boox Notes app and Microsoft OneNote.

The pen supports tilt, pressure and palm rejection.

Three replacement pen nibs are included but the company did not include a pen nib remover. It is possible to pull the pen nib out if you have long finger nails, or you could use a nail clipper but avoid clipping off the pen nib.

The pen has an internal battery that has to be charged with the USB-C port. There's no easy way for me to test the battery life.

Such digital pens have small battery capacity. It is important not to leave the battery in a depleted state for long periods of time as the battery can be damaged easily. If you're not going to use the pen regularly, I recommend you create a calendar alarm to charge the pen monthly.

This pen does not attach to the side of P2P magnetically, and does not fit into the flip case.

I suspect the pen uses USI pen tech because the pen performance looks like USI pen tech. However, the two other USI pens I tested did not work. Boox could have programmed the tablet to work only with their pen. So if you want to use a pen, you have to buy their pen.

Writing experience

The display looks laminated so all visuals look like they are on the surface, but when writing there's actually a tiny gap between the line and the pen tip.

The best app to use for note taking is Boox Notes app. Most third party note taking apps do not work well because they are not designed for e-ink displays. Many of those apps will have noticeable latency, and colour information such as grid lines, coloured inks are difficult to see.

Writing experience is actually alright. Latency can be seen but it's not a major issue while writing. My handwriting can still be captured quite accurately which is the absolute minimum requirement I need from note taking.

Microsoft OneNote does work, as in coloured inks and grid lines can be seen, and the side buttons works as an eraser. Latency performance is good, but you can only see your actual line after the next action.

When writing continuously, the lines appear black at first. When you switch tools, scroll, tap on the display or do some other action, the true line colour and width then appear. This can be an issue if you need to see how the line actually looks while writing, e.g. using a highlighter will also give you a black line first before that's updated to a highlighter.

Battery life

Battery capacity is 3950 mAh. I could get around 20 hours battery life, and that's with the front light enabled all the time. Overnight battery drain is 4%.

Vs Bigme HiBreak Pro

The Palma 2 Pro competes with the Bigme Hibreak Pro Color with similar form factor with a Kaleido 3 display and is actually a phone that can make cellular calls and send SMS.

Price of the two devices at the time of review is USD 399.

Here's a comparison table:

Key differences? Bigme has cellular support and NFC. P2P has Android 15, pen support, microSD card slot.

Pen support is probably the main feature that differentiates the two. If you're fine with Wifi calling with the data SIM, then the lack of cellular SIM support is not a big difference. Some apps may need SMS for verification purposes, so not having SMS could be an inconvenience.

Conclusion

The Palma 2 Pro is designed as an ultra portable e-reader. The 6.1-inch size suggests means this device is more appropriate for reading text than comics. And if you're just reading text, having colour isn't really that necessary so you can actually save more money by going with the Palma 2 instead (currently just USD 249) although that is just running Android 13 which is kinda old now as Android 16 is already out.

In terms of functionality and performance, the Palma 2 Pro works fine. It's responsive and works great for reading. Handwriting performance is decent.

Having only data SIM instead of cellular SIM support is interesting for a device that already looks like a phone. Main thing to note is some apps may require SMS verifications and without the ability to receive SMS is very inconvenient. For calls, you can always use Whatsapp, Messenger, Zoom, etc.

So the selling point for this device to me are the ultra compact size, pen support and e-ink display.

Whether this is worth the money? You can decide.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Lightweight design
+ Flipcase with detachable normal case included
+ Phone case has a magsafe magnet
+ Has fingerprint scanner
+ High contrast quick setting is very useful
+ Display quality looks decent with front light
+ SIM tray can hold both nano SIM and microSD
+ Android 15 with Google Play Store
+ Has GPS
+ Has haptic
+ Snapdragon 750G
+ Rather responsive performance with the appropriate refresh mode
+ No bloatware except for Boox apps
+ One customisable side button
+ Writing performance is alright
+ Microsoft OneNote works well for writing despite some limitation
- Kaleido 3 canvas is dark so front light is almost always needed
- Cannot make cellular calls or SMS
- No front camera
- No NFC
- Does not seem to be compatible with other USI pens
- Screensaver clock is only in landscape orientation
- Only Boox Notes has better writing experience
- Difficult to see shapes of buildings in Google Maps due to limited colours
- Wifi does not automatically connect after device wakes from sleep
- No fast refresh or smooth scroll for the settings page
- No app drawer

Availability

The Palma 2 Pro is available from the Boox online store.