The most unusual Kindle rival I've ever tried reaches lowest price yet during Prime Day

Met the Boox Palma 2 before? It may look like a phone, but it isn’t one. This is closer to a Kindle ereader, at least in what it’s designed for.

It’s not a gadget for everyone, but its superb £237.99 Amazon Prime Day price is the cheapest we’ve seen it sold to date. And it could be ideal if your work commute involves time spent on busy trains or buses. If you’d like to read during those times without looking into a glowing phone screen, Boox has you sorted. One-handed reading is a doddle.

Why you need a Boox Palma 2

The Boox Palma 2 feels like a phone. It looks like a phone. And it’s certainly shaped like one.

It even runs Android, meaning you can install the sorts of apps you might use on a phone, too. However, it can’t take phone calls, and it has an E Ink HD Carta screen rather than an LCD or OLED one.

Just like a Kindle display, this is very easy on the eyes. And it’s super-sharp too, letting you comfortably fit a good amount of text onto the 6.13-inch screen if your eyes’ acuity is up to it.

Boox hasn’t just stuck an e-reader screen onto a phone-call-free phone, though. There’s also an ebook reader interface up front, one just as happy to let you read your own documents as any novels you bought from the Boox Store. Or another Android app installed on it.

I’ve actually tried playing mobile games on the Boox Palma 2 before. And while E Ink screens really aren’t made for this, it sort of works because with each app, you can choose how the screen refreshes.

Full refreshes keep the screen looking clean, but that’s no good for motion. And if you want smooth-looking motion, you’ll also have to make do with a slightly dirty-looking E Ink display, at least until it flushes out the E Ink capsules that make up the screen image.

You may be getting the idea by now: the Boox Palma 2 isn’t as streamlined as a Kindle Paperwhite. But it sure does let you try out a whole lot more functions, apps and even games.