Boox has made a name for itself in the e-reader world by cornering parts of the market left unexplored by bigwigs like Amazon and Kobo, and its next product could expand its niche dominance even further. Today the company teased the Boox Picco, an immensely pocketable e-reader with a tiny 3.97-inch screen.
That will make Picco the smallest e-reader in the Boox lineup by far; the company’s current small-form e-reader, the Palma, has a 6.13-inch screen. Where the Palma and its successors are about the size of a smartphone, the Picco is even smaller than a deck of cards.
Little else has been revealed about the Picco just yet, though Boox has said the e-reader will sport a monochrome E Ink display and a front light. The device will also have microSD support for extra storage. Boox says the Picco is the first product in a new “Tile” line, though the company didn’t provide any details about what that entails.
The announcement of the Picco is an almost direct response to the success of Xteink’s line of pocketable e-readers. The Xteink 3, Xteink 4, and the Xteink 4 Pro (just announced this week) have gone somewhat viral in the last year or so, specifically for their size. The Picco will be smaller even than Xteink’s smallest e-reader.
If the Picco follows in the footsteps of other Boox devices (I’d bet it will), the Picco will run a modified version of Android—which would give it a pretty major leg up over Xteink. One of the Xteink’s most significant drawbacks is that it doesn’t run Android apps, meaning users only have the option of sideloading books into their e-readers. Popular apps like Kindle, Kobo, and Libby aren’t available for use on Xteink devices at all.
We can also expect the Picco to be just a bit more premium-feeling than the Xteink, which really prioritizes a low price point over build quality. No pricing has been announced for the Picco just yet, but I’d expect it to be somewhat higher than the Xteink 4’s $69. (The Palma 2 is $249; the Palma 2 Pro, which has a color E Ink screen, comes in at a whopping $399.)
It’s also unclear if Boox will try to copy the Xteink’s magnetic backside, which is one of the features that fans of the tiny e-reader have latched onto—it allows you to stick the e-reader to the back of your phone for easy access on the go. No matter its price point, though, it seems likely Boox will find great success with this new form factor, given how Xteink’s has been received. Could Amazon or Kobo be next?
