BOOX has built its name on ePaper tablets, but its newest device is small enough to lose in a jacket pocket. The Picco is a 3.97-inch ePaper reader weighing 58 grams, roughly the size of a playing card, and it opens a new product family the company calls Tiles. BOOX describes Tiles as a line of lifestyle companions and novelties that sits alongside its regular tablets rather than replacing them. The Picco is available to pre-order now from $99.99 through the official BOOX Shop.
The idea behind it is reading in short bursts. Instead of sitting down with a full-size e-reader, the Picco is meant for the few minutes spent waiting in a queue or for a coffee order, the kind of gaps most people fill by scrolling their phone. BOOX includes a magnetic case that lets the device snap onto the back of a phone, so the two can be carried together. It’s a clever pitch, though it also raises an obvious question: whether people will reach for a second screen when the phone is literally attached to it.
The display is a 235 PPI monochrome ePaper panel with anti-aliasing to smooth text, plus front lights with adjustable brightness and colour temperature for reading in anything from sunlight to a dark room. A physical Function Switch can be customised to toggle the front lights or a dark reading mode. Navigation works through the touchscreen or physical page-turn buttons, and the screen rotates in four directions to suit different grips, which matters on a device this small.
Storage comes from an included 16GB microSD card, with support for cards up to 2TB. The Picco handles a range of document formats, with adjustable fonts, margins and line spacing, and files can be moved over via the BOOX Tiles app, a web browser or a USB-C connection.
BOOX is also positioning the Picco as something more than a reader. It can display custom screensavers such as photos, artwork or quotes, and the case allows it to be stuck to a fridge as a small display. There are basic productivity tools too, including Pomodoro, to-do and countdown apps, all running on a stripped-back operating system designed to avoid clutter.
That mix of reader, desk gadget and decorative accessory makes the Picco harder to categorise than a typical BOOX product. At $99.99, it sits in impulse-purchase territory, and its success will likely depend on whether a card-sized screen feels like a genuine reading tool or simply a charming novelty once the pre-order excitement fades.
