Our favorite pocket e-reader is about to get two huge upgrades, and I took an early look

This year at IFA 2025 in Berlin, hundreds of brands are showing off their latest products, highlighting recent additions to their lineups and announcing new gear. But there’s also a lot of tech that’s not quite ready for prime time, and isn’t being publicly exhibited. I visited the BOOX booth today hoping to take another look at its great e-readers like the Palma 2, but ended up getting a surprise early preview of the next generation of Palma, with a couple major upgrades in tow.

Electronic paper displays have been nothing short of a revolution, and their ultra-low power demands, image retention capabilities, and exceptionally eye-friendly output have formed the foundation of the e-reader industry. We’ve come a long way from the early days of the Kindle, and companies like BOOX have continuously pushed the tech to new places with things like stylus input, color screens, and useful new form factors.

The Palma series represents one of those novel shapes, shrinking your e-reader experience down to the size of a smartphone. My colleague Rita absolutely adored the Palma 2 when reviewing it earlier this year, loving the app flexibility afforded by running Android, the hardware’s rugged construction and solid battery life, and that fantastically pocketable size.

Rather than resting on its laurels, BOOX has been working hard to offer shoppers even more reasons to consider picking up a Palma, and its next-generation device is built to address maybe two of the biggest upgrades users have been asking for: a color screen, and cellular connectivity.

BOOX is no stranger to color, already using color E Ink panels on larger e-readers like its Note Air 4C. So far, though, shoppers haven’t had that kind of option from the petite Palma lineup, but that’s changing — and soon.

Next month, BOOX plans to announce a color version of the Palma — the exact name has yet to be revealed — but other than the new, more vibrant screen (within the constraints of e paper, obviously), this looks and feels just like the Palma 2. That includes the same sort of textured back that’s just so satisfying to hold, and a build that feels super robust despite its compact size.

The early unit I checked out is still a bit of work in progress, with issues like ghosting occasionally feeling a little more noticeable than I’d like, but solutions are on the way, including quick access to a screen refresh option when needed.

And then there’s the 5G. With Android and access to the Play Store, Palma already felt like it was well on its way to basically just being a smartphone with an E Ink screen, but so far owners have had their connectivity restricted to Wi-Fi. If you plan ahead and download all the books you need before leaving home, that may not be a problem (especially with all-too-rare microSD support offering space for an entire library), but if you wanted to read something new — or just install a new app — when out and about, you were out luck.

That pain point is finally going away with this color Palma. As you can see in the status bar in the photo above, that includes modern 5G support, and while you probably won’t be using this handheld for really data-intensive tasks like video streaming, it does ensure you’ll be able to connect to the latest networks.

Besides these two big improvements, BOOX hasn’t shared a lot yet about the hardware details of this new color Palma — I did ask about battery life, slightly concerned how these upgrades might harm the unit’s endurance, but BOOX reassures me that we’re still in multi-day territory. And unless you’re trying to full-on replace your smartphone, you’re definitely not going to need that 5G radio running constantly.

We’ll have to wait a little longer for all the specs there, plus the all-important question of pricing — the last two models launched under $300, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this bumps us just over.

Maybe not all Palma fans will be eager to take this step closer to being a full-blown smartphone, appreciating the limited connectivity of the existing models as a way to keep yourself away from distractions. But I wager that a whole lot of them will be happy to have the option.