Boox’s new smartphone-sized e-readers come with a steep price hike

The Boox P6 Pro, which has a 6.13-inch black and white Carta 1300 E Ink display, is slightly better than the one on the Boox P6 Pro. $300 Palma 2 Used, priced at CNY 2,799, or about $393. The P6 Pro Color, which uses a 6.13-inch E Ink Kaleido 3 color display, similar to what you’ll find on Kobo color e-readersit is even more expensive at 3,299 Chinese yuan, or about $463. Boox is offering launch discounts for both devices bringing their price down to CNY 2,516/US$353 and CNY 2,991/US$420 respectively, but because US tariffsit may end up being more expensive if it launches here.

Both devices feature 128GB of storage expandable to 2TB using a microSD card, a 16MP camera, 3,950mAh batteries, and run Android 13 customized by Boox. The P6 Pro Color phone includes an increase in random access memory (RAM) from 6 GB to 8 GB, and supports using a pen to take notes. The most compelling upgrade is that these are the first of Boox’s compact e-readers to include a SIM card slot for 5G mobile data access. But unlike Bigme Hibreak Pro which was launched earlier this yearthe P6 Pro models aren’t designed to be replacements for smartphones with connectivity capabilities, which makes this a tougher sell.