Tag Archives: Boox

Your Kindle Can’t Do This: BOOX’s Pocket E-Reader Now Takes a Stylus

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Most dedicated e-readers exist at the opposite ends of a familiar spectrum. Closed-ecosystem devices like the Kindle keep things deliberately simple and locked in, while Android-based tablets offer full flexibility but grow too large to carry comfortably in a pocket. The gap between those two has always been somewhat underserved, especially for anyone who wants true portability alongside a genuinely open operating system.

BOOX’s Go 6 (Gen II) is the second generation of its most pocketable e-reader, arriving with upgrades that make that middle ground considerably more appealing. Built around a 6-inch, 300 ppi E Ink display and running Android 11 with full Google Play access, it’s aimed at readers who want their device to be both portable and versatile, without having to choose one over the other.

Designer: BOOX

The first thing you’ll notice about the Gen II is that it doesn’t look like a standard e-reader. The redesigned textured rear shell has a suitcase-inspired aesthetic that feels more deliberate than the plain black slab of the first generation. It comes in four muted color options: Plum, Stone, Shell, and Custard, all suggesting a device meant to slip into a bag and come with you wherever you go.

The screen gets a meaningful upgrade with this generation. The Gen II adds anti-glare (AG) glass to its 300 ppi E Ink panel, reducing reflections when you’re reading in direct sunlight on a patio or near a bright window. The adjustable front light handles both warm and cold color temperatures, letting you read comfortably at night without straining your eyes against harsh lighting.

The more surprising addition is stylus support, which is uncommon at this screen size. The Go 6 (Gen II) is compatible with BOOX’s InkSense Plus stylus, an active pen with 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity that lets you annotate directly in books, mark up PDFs, or take handwritten notes on a screen small enough to fit in a jacket pocket. It connects directly to the device and charges via USB-C.

Running open Android 11 with a built-in Google Play Store means you aren’t locked into any one reading platform. BOOX’s NeoReader app handles 20 document formats natively, including PDF, EPUB, MOBI, and DJVU, and supports dark mode for lower-light reading. Install the Kindle app, Kobo, Libby, or anything else you’ve been using, and your existing library follows you without having to start over from scratch.

At 160 grams and 6.8mm thin, the BOOX Go 6 (Gen II) fits in a jacket pocket without making its presence felt. A microSD card slot supplements the 32 GB of built-in storage, and the USB-C port doubles as an audio jack for wired listening. The 1,500 mAh battery holds up well through long reading sessions, largely because E Ink uses so little power compared to a conventional backlit screen.

The BOOX Go 6 (Gen II) is still primarily a reader’s device, but the combination of Android OS, stylus compatibility, and anti-glare glass packed into a pocket-friendly body gives it a range that most devices at this size simply don’t attempt. It’s currently available for pre-order through the official BOOX store, arriving at a moment when the 6-inch e-reader category could use a reminder of what it can still do.

The post Your Kindle Can’t Do This: BOOX’s Pocket E-Reader Now Takes a Stylus first appeared on Yanko Design.

The $519 E-Ink Phone Hiding an LCD on Its Back

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Scroll through any tech community online, and the same frustration keeps surfacing: people are exhausted by their screens. The perpetual brightness, the notification pull, the way a quick phone check somehow turns into forty lost minutes. That collective discomfort has pushed a growing number of people toward e-ink devices, displays that don’t glow in your face and don’t make a habit of demanding your attention.

What’s interesting about where the e-ink phone category stands in 2026 is that it’s no longer a one-off experiment. The Bigme HiBreak Dual, announced in mid-April 2026, is one of the more telling entries in this space, not because it perfects anything but because it doesn’t pretend to. A 6.13-inch color e-ink display takes the front, and a small circular LCD sits on the back, each assigned a different job.

Designer: Bigme

To understand what the HiBreak Dual is responding to, it helps to survey the surrounding territory. The Light Phone III is the deliberate anti-smartphone, built on the belief that fewer features genuinely change how you relate to a device. The Hisense A9 treats e-ink as the primary experience, unapologetically. The Boox Palma 2 Pro sits adjacent to the category, more phone-shaped reader than phone, though it can handle calls when needed.

Light Phone III

Light Phone III

The HiBreak Dual tries to sit between those poles. The e-ink front handles what e-paper does best: reading long-form content, staying on top of messages, and staying connected without the attention loop that comes with a typical smartphone display.

Light Phone III

Light Phone III

That decision to lead with e-ink also means accepting its well-known constraints. Try framing a photo with an e-paper preview, and the experience falls apart; the display’s refresh behavior wasn’t built for fast-moving content. Videos, live navigation, or quick-scrolling feeds follow the same logic. Color e-paper has genuinely improved, but it still carries a muted quality that reads as calm in some moments and limiting in others.

BOOX Palma 2 Pro

BOOX Palma 2 Pro

That’s where the circular LCD on the back becomes the interesting part. Rather than asking the e-ink panel to handle tasks it hasn’t mastered, the HiBreak Dual routes those moments to the secondary screen, situations that call for live camera preview, quick visual checks, or fast-loading feedback. The front absorbs the reading and communication rhythm of a day; the back quietly handles the rest.

BOOX Palma 2 Pro

BOOX Palma 2 Pro

The decision to make that rear display circular rather than rectangular carries a specific design logic. A round screen doesn’t compete with the phone’s primary face; it signals peripheral utility, not a second main event. It reads more like a companion display, keeping the device’s identity anchored in e-ink territory while still allowing it to borrow LCD behavior for moments that need it.

How long the hybrid approach holds up depends on the e-paper panels themselves. Better refresh rates, richer colors, and more responsive camera behavior would gradually reduce the need for a secondary display. Until that gap narrows, the e-ink phone category seems to be diverging in three directions: minimalist phones that accept the trade-offs, phone-shaped readers that sidestep the comparison entirely, and hybrids trying to keep a foot in both camps.

The HiBreak Dual isn’t a perfect phone, and Bigme isn’t trying to pass it off as one. Starting at $359 for the early-bird black-and-white configuration and climbing to around $519 for a color e-ink variant, it lays its compromises out in the open. The rear LCD doesn’t disappear into the design as if it isn’t there. It’s visible, it’s functional, and it’s honest about the gap it’s there to fill.

The post The $519 E-Ink Phone Hiding an LCD on Its Back first appeared on Yanko Design.

Amazon Won’t Build This Kindle Remote, So BOOX Did It for $26

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E Ink readers have steadily become better at mimicking the feel of paper, but getting through a book with one still requires the same thing it always has: tapping the screen to flip a page. It’s a minor interruption that adds up over a long reading session, and while third-party ring-style page-turners have tried to address it, they haven’t exactly been the most reliable solution.

BOOX, the brand behind a well-regarded lineup of E Ink readers and tablets, now has its own take on the problem. The Tappy is a compact two-button Bluetooth remote that lets you control your device without touching the screen. It’s the kind of accessory that BOOX fans have quietly wanted, and one that Kindle users have been asking Amazon to make for years.

Designer: BOOX

The Tappy’s appearance takes some cues from a miniature typewriter, with two large, round keys on a compact body that fits comfortably in one hand. A small indicator light on the left side doesn’t leave you guessing about pairing status, mode changes, or battery level, while a level-style power switch keeps accidental presses from being a nuisance. Two spare keycaps are also included in the box.

Those two buttons do quite a lot, actually. The Tappy operates in three distinct modes, each built for a different type of content. Reading Mode handles page-by-page navigation, Browsing Mode lets the buttons scroll vertically through web content or documents, and Multimedia Mode turns them into playback controls for audio. You won’t need more than a five-second hold of both buttons to switch between them.

Picture settling in for a late-night read with your e-reader propped on a stand, flipping through pages without reaching out. Or standing in the kitchen with your hands full, scrolling through a recipe without getting the screen dirty. The Tappy adapts naturally to these situations, and it doesn’t break the immersion of the moment by demanding you reach over and interact with the screen.

Multimedia Mode adds another layer to what the Tappy can do. An audiobook listener lying back can skip chapters or pause playback without sitting up. A commuter with a bag in one hand and coffee in the other can get through content without fumbling. The same two buttons handle all of it, which is part of why the Tappy doesn’t feel like a niche gadget.

A 95mAh rechargeable battery keeps the Tappy running for weeks before it needs a charge, and there’s a USB-C port for fast charging when that time comes. The Bluetooth connection reaches up to 33 feet, well beyond what most reading setups require. That extra range, however, means it can double as a basic media remote for a smartphone, laptop, or even a sound system.

The Tappy pairs with any Bluetooth-enabled device, not just BOOX hardware, which makes the $26 price feel reasonable for what it delivers. It’s a focused little tool that doesn’t try to be more than it needs to be. For anyone who reads regularly on an E Ink device, it quietly removes one of the last remaining physical interruptions that keeps the experience from feeling truly seamless.

The post Amazon Won’t Build This Kindle Remote, So BOOX Did It for $26 first appeared on Yanko Design.

DIY 3D-Printed Clamshell Turns BOOX Palma Into a Tiny Laptop

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Palmtops and UMPCs are experiencing a quiet resurgence among people who want something more focused than a laptop and more tactile than a phone. Compact e-ink devices and tiny Bluetooth keyboards have become affordable building blocks for exactly this kind of project, letting makers combine them into pocketable machines tailored to writing, reading, or just tinkering. The result is a small but growing wave of DIY cyberdecks and writerdecks that feel like modern reinterpretations of classic Psion palmtops.

The Palm(a)top Computer v0 is one of those projects, born on Reddit when user CommonKingfisher decided to pair a BOOX Palma e-ink Android phone with a compact Bluetooth keyboard and a custom 3D-printed clamshell case. The result looks like a cross between a vintage Psion and a modern writerdeck, small enough to slide into a jacket pocket but functional enough to handle real writing and reading sessions on the go.

Designer: CommonKingfisher

The core hardware is straightforward. The BOOX Palma sits in the top half of the shell, while a CACOE Bluetooth mini keyboard occupies the bottom half. The keyboard was originally glued into a PU-leather folio, which the maker carefully peeled off using gentle heat from a hair dryer to expose the bare board. When opened, the two halves form a tiny laptop layout with the e-ink screen above and the keyboard below.

The clamshell itself is 3D-printed in a speckled filament that looks like stone, with two brass hinges along the spine giving it a slightly retro, handcrafted feel. Closed, it resembles a small hardback book with the Palma’s camera cutout visible on the back. Open, the recessed trays hold both the screen and keyboard flush, turning the whole thing into a surprisingly polished handheld computer, considering it’s a first prototype.

The typing experience is functional but not perfect. The maker describes it as “okay to type on once you get used to it,” and thumb typing “kinda works,” though it’s not ideal for either style. You can rest the device on your lap during a train ride and use it vertically like a book, with the Palma displaying an e-book and the keyboard ready for quick notes or annotations.

The build has a few issues that the maker plans to fix in the next version. It’s top-heavy, so it needs to lie flat or gain a kickstand or counterweight under the keyboard, possibly a DIY flat power bank. The hinge currently lacks friction and needs a hard stop around one hundred twenty degrees to keep the screen upright. There are also small cosmetic tweaks, like correcting the display frame width.

Palm(a)top Computer v0 shows how off-the-shelf parts and a 3D printer can turn a niche e-ink phone into a bespoke palmtop tailored to one person’s workflow. Most consumer gadgets arrive as sealed rectangles you can’t modify, but projects like this embrace iteration and imperfection. It’s less about having all the answers and more about building something personal that might inspire the next version.

The post DIY 3D-Printed Clamshell Turns BOOX Palma Into a Tiny Laptop first appeared on Yanko Design.