Popular e-reader maker Boox today announced the next upgrade in its lineup of pocket-sized e-readers: the Boox Palma 3. The follow-up to 2024’s Palma 2 keeps much of what’s made the Palma so popular in the last few years while also making it just a bit nicer all around.
The most notable upgrade here is that the Palma 3 will ship with Android 16, which will certainly make it feel much more modern than the Palma 2’s Android 13. (The Palma 2 Pro ships with Android 15.) It’s still not entirely up to par with contemporary Android phones, which have already made their way to Android 17, but it will provide a more modern feel to the device.
Most of the Palma 3’s specs are exactly the same as the Palma 2: a 6.13″ ePaper glass screen with 300 ppi resolution, 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, a warm and cold front light, auto-rotation, and a 16MP rear camera with an LED flash. It’s got the same volume/page-turn buttons, a USB-C port for charging and data transfer, a microSD slot for more storage, built-in speakers and microphones, and the same 3,950mAh battery, too. Really not much change here at all—but why fix it if it’s not broken?
What has changed is the Palma 3’s new anodized aluminum frame, which has a paper-like fiberglass backplate. This gives the Palma 3 a really sleek, modern look, especially compared to its predecessors’ plastic back. The new e-reader also supports Boox’s InkSense Plus stylus—this feature first launched in the Palma line with the Palma 2 Pro—so it really can be a note-taking device, too. (That’s an extra $46, by the way.)
This is definitely a more premium-looking e-reader; Boox is veering closer to the design of a phone here than it has with previous Palmas. Whether or not this will be worth the upgrade for existing Palma owners is debatable, but it’s definitely an attractive option for those looking for a pocketable, sleek-looking e-reader with modern app capabilities. It’s also no longer Boox’s smallest e-reader on offer, with the tiny Picco now on the market.
The Boox Palma 3 will launch at $339.99—a $60 jump from the Palma 2’s launch price in 2024—and will be “available soon.”
