Pocketbook has just announced a new e-reader in the trendy smartphone-like format. The Pocketbook Q is expected in fall 2026 and will bring a new form factor and a promising black and white e-ink screen to a wide audience.
TL;DR: Pocketbook has announced the Pocketbook Q, its first e-reader in a smartphone-like format. It packs a 5.84-inch E Ink Seekink Carta 1300 black and white screen, a Smartlight front light, Bluetooth audio for MP3 files and text-to-speech, 32 GB of storage, IPX4 water resistance and a 1550 mAh battery, all in a 130-gram body. Expected in fall 2026 for around $199. It goes head to head with the Boox Palma 2 and feels like a fancy iPod you can also read books on; a good pick if you want to step away from your phone.
Pocketbook has been very quiet this year and, apart from the Pocketbook Era Lite, no real new hardware had been announced yet.
But with the Pocketbook Q, things are changing, and you can see why they took their time with this one.
A smartphone-sized e-reader
This is the first Pocketbook e-reader with a format close to a smartphone, like the Boox Palma 2 I reviewed a few months ago.
It is a fairly trendy format, and when it is done right it has the advantage of slipping easily into a bag or a pocket while still offering a decent reading surface.
A Carta 1300 screen, the best in black and white
The Pocketbook Q has a 5.84-inch E Ink Seekink Carta 1300 screen. This panel promises a sharper display than ever, with no glare, so you can read outdoors in full daylight with maximum comfort.
This is the first time I have come across the term “Seekink” attached to Carta 1300 technology. After a bit of digging, it seems to refer mostly to the shape of the e-ink panel, which differs from the classic 6 or 7-inch Carta screens.
Carta 1300 technology is already used in several e-readers on the market, such as the Kobo Clara BW or the recent Onyx Boox Go 6 Gen II that I reviewed. It is simply the best black and white e-ink technology available right now.
So there is every reason to expect a very nice screen here.
The full specs
The rest of the specifications look fairly standard for a Pocketbook device:
- 5.84-inch black and white Carta 1300 touchscreen
- Smartlight front light
- Bluetooth with audio functions (for playing MP3 files)
- Weight: 130 grams (4.6 oz)
- 1 GB of RAM
- 32 GB of storage for ebooks and audiobooks
- USB-C
- Wi-Fi
- 1550 mAh battery
- Gyroscope to handle screen orientation automatically
- IPX4 water resistance
- Text-to-speech function (you will need a Bluetooth speaker or headphones)
- Supported ebook formats: ACSM, DJVU, DOC, DOCX, EPUB, EPUB (DRM), FB2, FB2.ZIP, HTM, HTML, MOBI, PDF, PDF (DRM), PRC, RTF, TXT, AZW, AZW3, CBZ, CBR, CHM, PDF
- Supported audio formats: M4A, M4B, OGG, OGG.ZIP, MP3, MP3.ZIP, FLAC
- Supported image formats: JPEG, BMP, PNG, TIFF
A price that reflects the times
The announced price is around $199, which may seem a little steep…
But with all the recent e-reader price hikes, it is not exactly surprising either. I did recommend not waiting too long before buying an e-reader in 2026, because, as we can see, the price of new devices has kept climbing over the past few months.
Who is it for?
So the promise is a strong one with this e-reader, which is moving into a market that until now belonged to Asian brands like the Boox Palma 2 or the XTEINK X4.
It is true that with the audio functions, this device almost feels like a fancy iPod that also happens to let you read ebooks in good conditions.
So I think it is aimed above all at people looking to step back a little from social media and their smartphone, in a digital detox kind of way.
Pocketbook is a Swiss company. For now, we do not know whether the Pocketbook Q will get an official release everywhere in the world, so availability outside its main markets is still an open question.
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