You’ll need them, because it can be tough to find the right settings on this narrow screen! Now, for some, this might not be as much of a stretch, because they are used to reading books on their phones already. For those folks, this could be a breakthrough. The dimmable, color-adjustable front-lit screen is every bit as good as the best readers on the market, just a different shape. The “volume” button on the right side can even be set to page turns, which makes one-handed reading very easy.
There’s also 128 GB of storage built in and a microSD slot, so if you wanted to load up audiobooks or even a couple hundred albums, you’re more than welcome (though the default music app is very minimal). The mono speaker isn’t great and there’s no headphone jack, so stick to Bluetooth.
For me, it’s a little distracting to have this aspect ratio instead of the more paperback-esque dimensions of the others. It’s hard for me to imagine I’m reading a book when there are only eight words per line at maximum. The resolution of the screen does make smaller font settings work perfectly well on the Palma, though. I was trying to picture what it would be like a little wider, with thinner bezels… and realized I was picturing the Poke 5.