Boox's $99 Picco brings an established maker into Xteink's pocket e-reader niche

9to5Google says the appeal of these tiny readers is "a second screen without the doomscrolling and eye strain," and counts the magnetic phone mount among the most demanded features for the ones already on sale ^[17]. The use is simple: turn the phone over and read on its back. The Picco itself is not magnetic, so the mount depends on the case, and 9to5Google notes that the case still adds a little bulk to the phone ^[6].

Boox is pitching something larger than a reader. The Picco opens a line called Tiles, products Boox says are "designed to bring ePaper technology into more aspects of everyday life," according to Engadget ^[12]. Gizmodo reported that the company gave no details about what the line entails ^[10].

What an owner does first is smaller: get books onto the device. The included microSD card is 16GB, and the slot takes cards up to 2TB ^[8]. Files go on through that card or through a companion app ^[14]. For someone with a folder of ePUB files, time-to-value is short. For everyone else it depends on whether their books exist as files at all.

The price puts the Picco well below the rest of Boox's range. It starts at $99 on Boox's site, and 9to5Google saw a $109 listing for buyers ordering from the US warehouse ^[3]. The Palma 2 is $249 and the color Palma 2 Pro is $399 ^[9]. That puts the Picco $150 under Boox's phone-sized reader ^[16], with a screen diagonal about 65 percent of the Palma's ^[21].

The rivalry with Xteink is Gizmodo's reading. "Somewhat viral" is Gizmodo's phrase for the Xteink 3, 4 and 4 Pro ^[13], and going viral tells you how many people saw a product. None of the three reports gives Xteink sales figures or any sign of how long owners keep using these readers. The reports also show only one established maker entering so far. Gizmodo raises Amazon and Kobo only as a question ^[26].

A buyer, or a shop deciding whether to stock the Picco, can sort the decision on two axes. The first is where the books live: as files the owner controls, or inside a store's app. The second is where the reader rides: on the back of the phone, or loose in a pocket. Files plus phone mount is the buyer Boox built this for. Files plus pocket works, though that owner pays for a case that sits in a drawer. Store-app libraries fall outside the Picco in either row ^[14].