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00:00Okay, objectively, this is a bad smartphone, but something is going on here that's kind
00:09of nice.
00:12This thing is called the Books Palma, B-O-O-X, kind of a weird name, it's supposed to read
00:19like books, but some people say books, but the idea is it's an e-paper device that's
00:25supposed to blend the world of the smartphone and the Kindle.
00:29Now, I don't want to call it a cult or anything like that, but this thing has definitely formed
00:34its own little fan base over the past couple of months, where, hey, you either know about
00:38it or you don't.
00:39You're either in or you're not in.
00:41So the modern smartphone is kind of ridiculous.
00:43If you haven't thought about it lately, just take a second.
00:46It's kind of a marvel of engineering.
00:48It's amazing that we fit all of this computing power, and an amazing screen, and a super
00:54fast internet connection, and a bunch of high-quality cameras and sensors in this
00:59tiny little glass box that fits in our pockets and lats all day.
01:04So there is a lot of upside that comes with that, but there is a certain downside too,
01:11which is sometimes it can be a little bit much, like it can be just a little bit distracting,
01:15or a little bit addicting, or sometimes you want to be able to spend just a little bit
01:19more time in the moment instead of looking at the world through your smartphone or just
01:25scrolling all the time.
01:26And so the self-control argument always comes up, but there's also been this new wave of
01:31devices specifically created to not be as distracting.
01:36Some people are calling them dumb phones.
01:38Sometimes they're even more limited communication, but the thing they all have in common is they
01:43literally can't get caught in a doom-scrolling loop because they don't have apps or any
01:49distractions on them at all.
01:50They're purely for function.
01:52And this one of them has a bit of a cult following now, the Books Palma.
01:56I picked it up because I saw our audio man, Ellis, started getting really into it.
01:59You might've seen it in a studio video, and then there was these articles about it and
02:03these reviews of it, and people pouring their life into it and daily driving it.
02:08But the thing is, this is worse than a normal smartphone.
02:12Like I don't want to just skip over that.
02:14Like this, it's the shape and size and look of a normal smartphone.
02:18It's got an octa-core CPU.
02:19It's got six gigs of RAM.
02:21It's got a 6.1 inch screen, but it's worse.
02:24There is no SIM card tray, so there is no cellular connection at all.
02:28There is no selfie camera.
02:30The rear camera is only a low res literal document scanner with no video recording.
02:35The speakers are almost useless and it maxes out at 128 gigs of storage.
02:39So yeah, it's clearly worse.
02:42But if the mission is to spend less time on your actual smartphone, then all of these
02:49downsides are actually good things.
02:53You either get it or you don't, you know?
02:55The thing about e-readers is they are typically pretty limited single use devices that only
03:00let you read with a single app or a single ecosystem of services.
03:03Like the newest Kindle, for example, it's a hundred bucks.
03:06It's thin and light.
03:07Everybody knows what a Kindle is.
03:08But really all it's meant to do is read books from Amazon's Kindle bookstore.
03:13Everything else is an afterthought.
03:14Then there's stuff like the Kobo Libra 2, which is a super popular alternative, costs
03:18200 bucks.
03:19It has some extra journaling features and pen input, but this thing cannot play a single
03:24song from Spotify.
03:25Like the theme in this device is are solid, but of course nothing is really as versatile
03:31or capable as a full on smartphone.
03:33So enter the Books Palma.
03:35The Books Palma, this thing runs Android and is basically just a straight up smartphone
03:40inside without those data modems.
03:43So even though it's this awesome e-paper display and looks like a moving newspaper
03:48with A plus readability and all the benefits that come with a normal e-reader being easy
03:53on the eyes, you can technically also put whatever you want on it.
03:57It has a Google Play Store.
03:58You can sideload APKs.
04:00So yes, you can install the Kindle app and read Kindle books if you want, but also you
04:05can install the Pocket app or Raindrop.io or Readwise Reader and read articles you've
04:11saved.
04:12You can also install Audible and listen to e-books with Bluetooth headphones.
04:16You can also install Spotify and use it as a portable zero distractions music player
04:20or podcast player.
04:22The list goes on.
04:23So if smartphones are OP, they're up here, and single purpose e-readers are limited,
04:28they're more down here, then the Books Palma is like right in here, which is, it's clearly
04:34better than a single purpose e-reader.
04:36It's more capable, but it's clearly not as capable as a full-on smartphone, but just
04:42enough to be kind of charming in a sort of can't get sucked into a TikTok rabbit hole
04:48type of way.
04:49If you know, you know, yeah.
04:51Now a couple neat special things that you should know that you've seen before, if you're
04:55in the e-reader world, battery life is, well, compared to a smartphone, it's actually incredible.
05:01So this shouldn't be a surprise, but if you didn't know, e-ink basically only uses battery
05:07when it's actually refreshing and moving the ink around.
05:09So when it's just sitting on one page or just showing something for an extended time, that
05:13actually doesn't use power.
05:15So battery life on the books here is in the realm of days, not hours, sometimes weeks
05:21for a light user.
05:22The only other thing that can eat into battery really is the backlight or in this case, actually
05:26the front light.
05:27So e-ink screens aren't lit from behind, but there are lights around the front, so you
05:31can still light it up and read in darker conditions.
05:34And that light can be tinted to match the color temperature of whatever room you're
05:38in.
05:39And there are some apps that also will let you map the side buttons to flipping pages
05:43instead of just being volume buttons like they normally are.
05:45And then there are different settings for the refresh modes as well.
05:49So all the way to the left is HD mode, which has the highest quality image with the least
05:55ghosting, but that's going to be also the slowest refresh rate.
05:58So that's fine for just sitting and reading.
06:01But on the far right mode is ultra fast mode, which will have the smoothest relative refresh
06:06rate, but also the worst quality.
06:08This is when you scroll and you kind of see a little bit of that ghosting in the background
06:12of the previous image.
06:14Honestly, it gets quick enough to be able to legibly watch videos if you really, really
06:20wanted to.
06:21It's kind of this trippy Harry Potter daily profit kind of world where, remember the moving
06:26newspapers from the movies?
06:27Like obviously there's no colors.
06:29And on this model, there's not nearly enough resolution to fully appreciate the video,
06:33but still kind of neat.
06:34It's better than nothing.
06:35But most of the time I leave it in balanced, which is the default.
06:38And I'm happy to basically never actually watch videos on this thing.
06:41Now a couple of times throughout this video, I've said, you've heard me say things like,
06:45Hey, if you know, you know, or you either get it or you don't.
06:50And so you may be wondering if I've been converted, if I'm joining this Books Palma
06:56mini cult, if I'm going to daily this thing, no, absolutely not.
07:02And matter of fact, if you want to watch the experience of someone who actually did try
07:05to daily this thing, I'll link the studio video below where Ellis, like really, he went
07:09to the full lengths to try and, you know, carried a wifi hotspot to always have it connected
07:14everywhere since there's no SIM card.
07:16And I mean, I don't want to spoil the video, but like, it's a lot of work and it's not
07:21really worth it, but that's almost like it's like overlapping, like it's missing the point.
07:26This is, I think meant to be, or at least it's in its best state when it is a device
07:31that you avoid smartphone tasks on like this as a secondary device that can be my alarm
07:39clock in the morning that I just reach over and hit dismiss.
07:42And I'm not immediately drowned in notifications because there literally is no notification
07:47system and I'm not tempted to jump into TikToks and reels because it really doesn't do that
07:53well.
07:54Like maybe there's something to that.
07:56Like maybe there's something to a dedicated reading device that you can bring anywhere
08:01with you on any daily commute that doesn't ever suck you into the rabbit hole of Twitter
08:08or reels or whatever, like real people want that.
08:11Like, I kind of love this as a literal, like an iPod, like a portable offline music player
08:17that I literally never watched YouTube videos on.
08:20It's kind of charming in that way.
08:22And this is somehow all of those things in one.
08:26So you know, I couldn't necessarily tell you the exact moment or why the Books Palma became
08:31like the face of this movement of these types of devices, especially when there are other
08:35alternatives that keep getting sent to me that are similar stuff like the Hisense A9
08:40or the Kobo Libra Color.
08:43Then again, the Hisense A9 is a smartphone.
08:48It costs a bit more and it has a data connection and some people just don't really want it
08:52to do all that.
08:53And the Kobo Libra Color, as implied by the name, that's the one with the color display
08:58and that's also just a little bit extra.
09:00So it kind of feels like the Books is in the exact Goldilocks zone of just enough missing
09:07features that it's captured people's hearts.
09:10And you know, that's how it goes sometimes.
09:12Sometimes you're the ATH-M50s that represent all affordable, good sounding headphones.
09:18Maybe you're the GoPro that represents all smart action cameras.
09:22That's the Books Palma and that's why it exists.
09:24This has been MKBHD.
09:26Thanks for watching.
09:27Catch you guys in the next one.
09:29Peace.