Boox is preparing the Boox Picco e-reader, a small black-and-white e-paper device built around a 3.97-inch front-lit display and expandable storage, the company confirmed to The Verge. The device is part of a new Tile lineup, but Boox has not announced a release date, full spec sheet, or exact price.
The little-reader category has been Xteink’s patch of turf lately. Its tiny X4 devices are small enough to attach magnetically to the back of some phones using MagSafe-style mounting, turning the phone into the thing you carry and the e-reader into the thing you actually want to read on. Whether Boox plans to copy that magnetic trick is still unknown.
Good E-Reader first spotted the Picco, reporting that it will include a microSD card slot for expandable storage. Boox separately told The Verge that the Picco is in development and described the planned pricing only as accessible, which is marketing-speak until there is a number attached.
What is the Boox Picco e-reader?
The Boox Picco is a forthcoming compact e-reader from Boox with a 3.97-inch front-lit black-and-white e-paper display, according to The Verge and Good E-Reader. A front light means the screen can be read in dim settings without behaving like a phone display, while e-paper keeps the device closer to a dedicated reading gadget than a general-purpose slab.
That screen size puts the Picco in the same neighborhood as Xteink’s $99 X4 Pro, which The Verge’s Andrew Liszewski described as the best tiny e-reader available. The comparison is obvious: both devices aim at readers who want something smaller than a Kindle-style reader and less distracting than a phone.
The missing details matter. A promotional image appears to show physical buttons on the Picco, but The Verge said it is not yet clear whether Boox will rely only on buttons, as Xteink did with the original X4, or include a touchscreen as well. That choice changes the whole feel of a tiny reader: buttons make page-turning simple, while a touchscreen makes navigation less painful once menus and apps get involved.
Good E-Reader reported that the Picco will likely use a stripped-down tiled interface and focus on basic apps, including Neoreader, a music player, and a podcast player. If accurate, that would put it in a different lane from the Boox Palma, which runs Android and behaves much more like an e-paper phone-shaped device than a single-purpose reader.
For now, the confirmed picture is narrow: Boox has a tiny e-reader coming, it belongs to a new Tile line, it has a front-lit 3.97-inch monochrome e-paper screen, and it should support expandable storage. The rest, including the price, launch timing, touchscreen support, and any phone-mounting feature, remains unannounced.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.
