There was this one moment when I genuinely thought, “Wow, this experience is actually amazing.” It was a day when sunlight was pouring into my room. I was sitting on a chair, reading on the Palma 2 Pro, and suddenly I wondered, “Wait, was the screen always this clear?”

Color e-readers like the Palma 2 Pro tend to have dark screens. Without the front light, it often felt too dim and a bit frustrating. But under strong natural sunlight, the screen became so crisp and vivid even with the front light off. It was the exact moment that delivered the “analog reading vibe” I had hoped for when buying an e-reader. I literally thought, “Ah, this was worth it.”

Other positive things include:

• It ships with Android 15, so it may remain compatible with modern apps longer than devices running Android 13 or 14.
  
• If you import it, the default case has MagSafe built in, so attaching holders and accessories is really easy.
  
• The grip is good even for my small hands.
• I initially thought the responsiveness was slow, but increasing the refresh rate in the settings made it surprisingly fast.
  
• You can insert a data SIM, so it can function like a lightweight smartphone in many situations.
• Some people even consider it as a “phone replacement.” It doesn’t support calls or SMS, but you can use messaging apps like a phone. I tested KakaoTalk FaceTalk — there’s no front camera, so it uses the rear camera, but the mic and speaker work flawlessly.

However, in a typical environment where you *need* the front light, the same device suddenly felt unfamiliar. I even started wondering, “Is this actually easier on my eyes?”

A Fundamental Question: Are E-readers Really Easier on the Eyes?

As I used it, I noticed three things that made me feel like I was expending a subtle amount of extra visual effort.

1. Ghosting
   
2. Visible grain
   
3. Color rendering
   

Ghosting

First, look at this awful ghosting example. (Even with fast refresh mode, there’s a lot.)

Why does ghosting happen? An e-ink display is made up of countless microcapsules filled with white particles and black particles suspended in a viscous liquid. When voltage is applied, the differently charged particles move upward or downward. If all the black particles rise, the capsule appears black; if they mix half-and-half, it appears gray. The grayscale is formed first in the monochrome layer, and then light reflects back through the color filter layer, losing certain wavelengths and producing color.

But because the particles don’t receive voltage perfectly evenly, and because the liquid is viscous and there’s friction against the capsule walls, some particles fail to move smoothly and remain stuck in their previous positions, even when the device tries to update the image. So ghosting is a known limitation of e-ink displays. I thought I wouldn’t mind it, but it kept catching my eyes.

Visible Grain

The second issue is the noticeable grain. Compared to smartphone screens where pixels are extremely dense, the spacing between microcapsules in e-readers is much wider. And furthermore, because color e-readers combine four subpixels filtered separately to create a single “color dot,” the effective resolution is lower, making the grain stand out even more.

▲ The grain is quite visible, right?

It’s not like every part of the screen has this issue, but certain colors make it stand out more.

Color

Lastly, the color. As mentioned earlier, a color e-reader has a monochrome e-ink layer underneath and a color-filter layer on top. Since the device uses reflected light, light passes through the color filter once as it enters the screen, hits the pigment layer, then passes through the filter again as it exits — meaning two layers of filtering. The “white” produced by microcapsules also isn’t pure white to begin with. Combine that with low brightness due to reflection, double filtering, and the wide pixel spacing — and you end up with visible color distortion at times.

I’m the type who needs to understand the cause of something to feel settled, but I still don’t fully understand why some colors look *this* washed-out. If anyone knows, please send me telepathic answers…

Why I Think Black-and-White Might Be Better

I personally think eye fatigue is influenced mainly by three factors:

• How dry your eyes are
  
• How strong the light entering your eyes is
  
• How much tension your eye muscles (like the ciliary muscle) are under
  

People say e-readers are better for your eyes because they use reflected light, not direct light like OLED or LCD, so the energy entering your eyes is much lower.

But if you keep your eyes open for too long, use bad posture, or have to constantly adjust your focus because the screen is blurry, I think eye strain can still build up regardless of how little light there is.

Personally, the screen feels smoother and much more comfortable with the front light off. But it’s simply too dim to use that way most of the time. I haven’t used a monochrome e-reader yet, but based on my experience, I feel like a black-and-white device would solve many of these issues. So honestly… although the Palma 2 Pro is great,

‘I think I’m a black-and-white person.’

That’s what I’m leaning toward. With the front light on, the screen just feels a bit unnatural to me.