I wouldn't mind an even smaller screen. I read fiction on my phone in bed to fall asleep at night. In order to do that, I have to lay on my stomach and hold the phone with one hand.
I've tried it with my 6" Kobo Clara 2E and it's just a little too awkward to be usable. Maybe if it had some physical buttons on it somewhere, but it doesn't.
Oh, that's interesting. Pretty much exactly what I'm after! It has better specs than my phone. Says it runs Android, so I assume it's reasonably "open".
More or less. There are ways to flash arbitrary android builds on Boox devices, but you'd lose a lot by doing so.
The Boox software is actually pretty good. It does a lot to make non-e-ink optimized android apps work well on an e-ink screen, and lets you tweak it as you see fit, so you can adjust contrast and whatnot to make text and elements work. Its not always flawless, but it does work.
The in-built reader application is very good, particularly when it comes to annotations and whatnot. It has a dedicated notebook feature, but I've never been one for hand-written notes, so I don't really use it. And if you don't like the built in one, you have the advantage of being able to load any android reader application you like. Google Play Books, Kindle, Nook, KOReader, MoonReader, whatever, they all work.
Now, in the spirit of full disclosure, I have the larger, A4 sized Onyx Note, and use mine primarily for sheet music. But it works very well as a technical paper or programming book reading device, in a way that kindles and other smaller readers are insufficient. So some of my experiences might not carry over to the Palma. But I can't imagine Boox going through that much differentiation of their product SKUs to the point where this comment will be wholly accurate.
> This has the potential to turn into a reading positions subthread :)
Wish granted!
If I lie on my side for more than a minute or two, my hips ache. Only a little at first, but if I ignore it and fall asleep, I will wake up in writhing agony 30 minutes later. Been like this since my 20's. Reasonably healthy otherwise so I don't know what the deal is. Otherwise, yes, this would be the ideal reading position.
Extra credit: I can only FALL asleep on my stomach, but I can only CONTINUE sleeping on my back. Which means almost every night, I somehow flip myself over without waking up.
Oh I'm the kind that rotates while sleeping like i'm getting roasted on a spike. Same while reading in bed. But I alternate between both sides and lying on my back.
Speaking of unknown conditions, when I was younger I was mostly reading on my stomach... with the book on the floor and half my face outside the bed to look down. Until I got my eyes seriously examined and they found my (from birth) astigmatism, I corrected that and started to read with the book closer like a normal person. Have those hips checked, perhaps?
> I can only FALL asleep on my stomach, but I can only CONTINUE sleeping on my back. Which means almost every night, I somehow flip myself over without waking up.
This is me, to a T. It's nice to hear I'm not the only odd sleeper.
I've tried it with my 6" Kobo Clara 2E and it's just a little too awkward to be usable. Maybe if it had some physical buttons on it somewhere, but it doesn't.