What you need to know
- Two new Onyx Boox e-readers are launching today with Kaleido 3 color E Ink displays.
- The tablet-sized Note Air 5 C is available from $499.99/£499.99/€529.99 and includes a stylus.
- The phone-sized Palma 2 Pro is available from $379.99/£379.99/€399.99.
Do you love reading e-books but hate carrying around a larger e-reader? The original Onyx Boox Palma made a name for itself by being the first major phone-sized E Ink device, and now the second follow-up is flipping the script by adding a layer of color to that E Ink screen.
Powered by the same Kaleido 3 E color Ink display as many popular e-readers launched in 2025, the Boox Palma 2 Pro’s phone-like form factor makes it the most portable color e-reader you can find. It weighs just 173g (that’s quite a bit lighter than your average smartphone these days), yet the 6.13-inch display is big enough to comfortably read from.
The dual-tone frontlight makes it easy to adjust the color temperature throughout the day, and Boox’s fast refresh technology plus the Android 15-powered OS means normal Android apps work perfectly. It also sports 5G connectivity, so you can pop a SIM card in and have a data connection wherever you’re at — just be aware that it doesn’t function like an E Ink phone.
Impressively enough, the Palma 2 Pro also supports the InkSense Plus stylus for highlighting and quick notes, and the SIM tray doubles as a microSD card reader for expandable storage.
The second announcement comes in the form of a proper E Ink tablet called the Note Air 5 C. As the name implies, it’s a follow-up to the excellent Boox Note Air 4 C. Aside from a big upgrade to Android 15 (the Air 4 C launched with Android 13 earlier this year), the Air 5 C has a better keyboard case that attaches with handy magnetic POGO pins.
The writing experience has been upgraded as well, with a more textured surface that feels “more paperlike,” according to Onyx, as well as an improved Pen3 stylus. The Boox Note Air 5 C also “mind mapping and AI-powered Smart Scribe tools” to make note-taking and organization easier. Essentially, Boox is framing this as the ultimate E Ink day planner tablet.
Both of the new Boox products can be purchased today at the official Boox Shop page.
