Nearly two years after its predecessor, Boox has unveiled the Palma 3 — a pocket-sized e-reader that trades familiar internals for a more refined aluminum shell, a two-generation Android leap, and newly added stylus support. The device arrives at $339.99, with the full note-taking experience requiring an additional $46 stylus, nudging this compact reader toward the philosophical territory of premium tools rather than accessible gadgets. It is a moment that asks an old question in new materials: when a thing looks more like what we aspire to, does it become more than what it was?
Boox Palma 3 adds stylus support and aluminum redesign for $340
The device feels more refined, but the screen and processor are unchanged.
Mark
So the screen is the same as the Palma 2? That seems like a missed opportunity for a device that's jumping sixty dollars in price.
Mimi
It is the same 6.13-inch E Ink Carta panel, yes. But Boox is betting that people care more about how the device feels in hand and what software it runs than the raw display specs. The aluminum frame and the Android 16 upgrade are meant to signal that this is a more mature, polished product.
Luke
But we should be clear: that E Ink Carta screen is now several years old. We don't know exactly how old because Boox hasn't said when they first introduced it, but it's not cutting-edge. Some competitors have moved to newer E Ink generations.
Mark
And the stylus—that's really the headline feature, right? That's what separates this from just a cosmetic refresh.
Mimi
It is, but with the caveat that you have to buy it separately. The stylus support is there, but the stylus itself costs another forty-six dollars. So if you want the full experience, you're committing to nearly four hundred dollars.
Luke
Which is worth noting because Boox could have bundled it. They chose not to. That's a business decision that affects how people experience the product out of the box.
Mark
Does the stylus work well? Are there any reviews yet?
Mimi
The stylus is the same InkSense Plus model that already works on the Palma 2 Pro, so we know it functions. But we don't have hands-on reviews of the Palma 3 specifically yet—the device is just being announced.
Luke
Right. We know the stylus exists and works on other Boox devices, but we don't know how it performs on this particular hardware or whether the Android 16 update changes anything about the experience. That's still to come.
Mark
So this is really a design and software play, not a specs play.
Mimi
Exactly. The processor, the RAM, the storage—all the same. The screen is the same. What's new is how it looks, what OS it runs, and the option to add stylus functionality. Whether that's worth sixty dollars depends entirely on what you value.
Il Polso
- Boox has raised the Palma 3's price by sixty dollars over its predecessor, a jump that demands justification from a device carrying the same screen and processor as before.
- The anodized aluminum frame and fiberglass back signal a deliberate repositioning — this is no longer a budget e-reader but a lifestyle object competing with premium e-note devices like the Remarkable Paper Pure.
- Stylus support arrives as the headline feature, yet the stylus itself is absent from the box, quietly pushing the true cost of entry to nearly $390.
- A two-generation Android upgrade from 13 to 16 offers the most substantive internal improvement, lending the familiar hardware a fresher, more responsive character.
- The Palma 3 now sits at a crossroads: compelling enough for readers who want refinement, but not transformed enough to silence buyers who expected more than a cosmetic evolution.
Nearly two years after its predecessor, Boox has unveiled the Palma 3 — a pocket-sized e-reader that trades familiar internals for a more refined aluminum shell, a two-generation Android leap, and newly added stylus support. The device arrives at $339.99, with the full note-taking experience requiring an additional $46 stylus, nudging this compact reader toward the philosophical territory of premium tools rather than accessible gadgets. It is a moment that asks an old question in new materials: when a thing looks more like what we aspire to, does it become more than what it was?
Boox has returned with the Palma 3, a pocket-sized e-reader arriving nearly two years after its predecessor. The screen is unchanged — the same 6.13-inch, 300-ppi E Ink Carta display — but the body has been reimagined in anodized aluminum with a paperlike fiberglass back, giving the device a noticeably more premium feel. The price reflects that ambition: $339.99, up sixty dollars from the Palma 2's 2024 launch price.
Under the hood, the story is largely one of continuity. The Qualcomm octa-core processor, 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and 3950mAh battery carry over from the previous generation. The meaningful internal change is software: the Palma 3 ships with Android 16, skipping two full generations ahead of the Palma 2's Android 13, which should lend the familiar hardware a more current and responsive character.
The most talked-about addition is stylus support via the Boox InkSense Plus, allowing handwritten notes directly on the e-reader — a feature previously reserved for the color-screen Palma 2 Pro. The catch is that the stylus costs $46 extra and doesn't come in the box, bringing the full note-taking setup to $385.99.
That number places the Palma 3 in uncomfortable proximity to dedicated e-note devices, raising the central question for prospective buyers: does the redesigned chassis, the software upgrade, and the added stylus capability constitute a genuine evolution — or does the unchanged screen and processor make this, at its core, a more expensive version of what already existed?
Boox has released the Palma 3, its latest pocket-sized e-reader, nearly two years after the previous model. The new device carries the same 6.13-inch, 300-pixel-per-inch E Ink Carta screen as before, but wraps it in an anodized aluminum frame paired with a paperlike fiberglass back—a visual refresh that makes the compact reader feel substantially more refined than its predecessors.
The price has climbed accordingly. Where the Palma 2 launched in 2024 at $279.99, the Palma 3 arrives at $339.99, a jump of sixty dollars. The company says it will be available soon, though no exact date has been announced. The hardware inside remains largely familiar: a Qualcomm Q-6690 octa-core processor, 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage with microSD expansion, a 3950mAh battery, a 16-megapixel rear camera, and a fingerprint reader embedded in the power button. These are the same core components that powered the Palma 2, so the upgrade story lives primarily in the materials and the software.
Boox has moved the Palma 3 forward by two generations of Android. The Palma 2 shipped with Android 13; the new model comes with Android 16, putting it just one step behind the current version of Google's operating system. That generational leap should make the device feel more responsive and current, even if the underlying hardware hasn't fundamentally changed.
The more significant addition is stylus support. The Palma 3 now works with the Boox InkSense Plus active stylus, enabling users to take handwritten notes directly on the e-reader using their preferred note-taking applications. This mirrors functionality that already existed on the Palma 2 Pro, the color-screen variant of the line. But there's a catch: the stylus does not come in the box. It's a separate purchase at $46, which means buyers who want the full note-taking experience are looking at a total investment of $385.99 for the base Palma 3 setup.
That price positioning matters. At nearly $390 with stylus included, the Palma 3 enters territory occupied by premium e-note devices like the Remarkable Paper Pure, shifting the device's identity from a budget-conscious e-reader toward a lifestyle tool for people who want both reading and writing in a pocketable form. The question for potential buyers becomes whether the aluminum redesign, the newer Android version, and the stylus capability justify the significant price increase over the previous generation—or whether the unchanged screen and processor make this more of a cosmetic refresh than a true upgrade.
Citazioni salienti
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 Verge reporting
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