The Boox Palma 3 gets stylus support and a sleek redesign

Nearly two years after the last update to Boox’s smartphone-sized black-and-white e-reader, the company announced the Palma 3 with a sleek redesign, new functionality, and a handful of other small updates that may justify its significant price bump depending on how you plan to use it. While the Palma 2 launched in 2024 for $279.99, the Palma 3 will be $339.99 and is expected to be “available soon.”

The most obvious upgrade for the Palma 3 is the hardware itself. It still features the same 6.13-inch, 300ppi E Ink Carta screen as its predecessor (which is now quite a few years old), but it’s wrapped in a new anodized aluminum frame with a paperlike fiberglass backplate. The Palma 3 looks like a significant upgrade to the Palma line, even if under the hood you’ll find more of the same. The pocketable e-reader is powered by a Qualcomm Q-6690 octa-core processor with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage expandable with a microSD card. It also includes a 3950mAh rechargeable battery, a 16-megapixel camera on the back, and a fingerprint reader in the power button.

The original Palma and the Palma 2 came with Android 11 and Android 13, respectively, but the new Palma 3 ships with Android 16, which is just one generation behind the latest version of the OS. That should help it feel like a more modern mobile device. And like the color screen Palma 2 Pro, the Palma 3 supports the Boox InkSense Plus active stylus so you can use the e-reader as a digital notepad with your preferred note-taking app. But it’s not included. The stylus is an optional upgrade that will add another $46 to the cost of the Palma 3, pushing it closer to the price of premium e-notes like the Remarkable Paper Pure.