Freewrite Traveler review: I hate how much I like it

Price When Reviewed

$549

Best Prices Today: Freewrite Traveler

I actually just like the Freewrite Traveler. And I sort of hate that I prefer it.

As I mentioned in a evaluate for the same gadget, the KingJim Pomera DM250, I’ve been in search of a small, travel-friendly, devoted writing gadget (a “writer deck,” if you’ll) for a very long time. And I’ve been conscious of the Astrohaus Freewrite units for a very long time, too, and regarded the Traveler as a perfect kind issue for this admittedly area of interest class. But numerous points of it rubbed me the fallacious means.

Michael Crider/Foundry

The Freewrite advertising and marketing has at all times smacked of “hipster” to me. It’s the identical kind of smarmy, condescending tone that seems to pervade Moleskine notebooks. While I can perceive its hyper-focused strategy — that’s sort of the entire level — its deliberate lack of utility rankled in opposition to my instincts as a tech nerd. And given these limitations, Astrohaus’s costs for its numerous units appear ridiculous to me. The Traveler, for instance, has specs that will disgrace an entry-level Chromebook or Kindle, yet costs $550, and hasn’t seen an replace in years.

(On the topic of worth: I purchased this explicit mannequin secondhand, therefore the varied dings within the plastic, and with my very own cash. My editor Brad may slap me if I attempted to expense one thing like this.)

Freewrite Traveler: Look at me! I’m writing!

Even the aesthetics of the gadget are smarmy. Whereas the Pomera DM250 went with an understated soft-touch plastic with no exterior logos in any respect, the Freewrite Traveler has a MASSIVE, engraved metallic emblem on its shiny lid, the sort of branding that will make even Apple cringe. The inside is attention-grabbing white with purple and chrome accents. It’s loud, which is sort of ironic for one thing that’s purported to be small and devoted to writing.

Michael Crider/Foundry

It makes use of a non-backlit, membrane keyboard. Its small e-ink display additionally has no backlight, which presents a severe obstacle if you wish to use the gadget in something however a well-lit room (or add on a e-book gentle prefer it’s 1995). Between the processing energy that will be bested by an historical graphing calculator and the 5.5-inch e-ink display, the refresh price is so gradual that I’m continually two or three phrases forward as I kind this very evaluate.

The Freewrite Traveler is overpriced, underpowered, and incessantly happy with itself. And dammit, I’ve to confess that it’s fairly darn good.

Freewrite Traveler: Minimalism to the max

For the distraction-free writing purist, most of those drawbacks are actually positives, with the doable exception of the worth. The lack of superior capabilities, together with any sort of severe modifying chops or spell test, means there’s nothing to do however churn out phrases. (And a number of spelling errors.) Astrohaus software program lacks even fundamental copy and paste performance, so there’s nothing to do however write, write, write in a kind of stream of consciousness circulate. You get a number of paperwork to work in and three completely different folders, that’s it.

Michael Crider/Foundry

When it’s time to get your phrases onto one thing with extra digital oomph than a Palm Pilot, the best means to take action is the Send button. This routinely syncs by way of Wi-Fi with the Astrohaus Postbox cloud platform, which might additionally routinely ship textual content paperwork to Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, and Evernote by way of related accounts. This is characteristically clunky — after I related the service to Google I immediately began getting electronic mail alerts as a result of it simply despatched me an electronic mail with the related textual content. But it’s extremely quick and straightforward, actually one button.

Alternately you’ll be able to scorn any sort of wi-fi connection altogether, plug the factor straight right into a PC, pill or telephone, and easily copy off your phrases as textual content information in a easy storage gadget.

The Postbox net interface can be the place you’ll be able to regulate a few settings. You can select between three, three complete font sizes and nil precise fonts, and add a lockscreen for a little bit of privateness in case your Traveler will get misplaced or stolen. You may change between keyboard layouts (although the bodily format is available in something you need, as long as you need US-focused ANSI). You can select between extraordinarily pretentious e-ink screensavers of well-known literary figures, (once more, shades of Moleskine) or much more Freewrite branding that’s barely much less annoying. Aaaaaand… that’s all.

Michael Crider/Foundry

The gadget itself presents barely anything by way of customization or instruments. The tiny, superfluous strip of a display beneath the 5.5-inch major show can present a clock or date, phrase rely, a timer, or just be left clean. You can transfer or delete drafts within the three folders. You can hook up with new Wi-Fi networks. And that’s about it. We’re taking minimalism to an excessive right here — even the obsessively targeted Pomera DM250 had at the very least as a lot operate as, say, a digital organizer from the 1990s.

As limiting as I discover the Freewrite Traveler, I prefer it much more than the Pomera. The first motive is the one which soured me on the latter with none hope of forgiveness: the keyboard. The Traveler’s keyboard isn’t superb, but it surely is stable. Roughly the identical as a top quality laptop computer keyboard, although less than the excessive requirements of, say, a ThinkPad laptop computer. It’s sufficient to blow the cramped, non-standard-sized keyboard of the Pomera out of the water. 

Michael Crider/Foundry

The typing expertise of that gadget was about the identical as an inexpensive pill keyboard, whereas the Freewrite seems like one thing that’s designed with typing in thoughts. Perhaps the truth that Freewrite’s flagship Smart Typewriter/Hemingwrite device (ugh) makes use of a standard-sized mechanical keyboard ought to have clued me into the best way this firm is much extra targeted on the expertise of typing, not simply the purposeful enter of textual content. And since I’m mentioning that, I’ll say that those that have smaller fingers (I’m a 5’10” cis male, for reference) may discover the Pomera’s smaller keyboard extra forgiving.

(Slight apart: the Freewrite Alpha is also worth a mention as a transportable design, with a greater, totally mechanical keyboard, a lower cost… and sadly an excellent smaller display, although that could be a extra purposeful LCD. It additionally lacks a hinge, one of many issues I wished for laptop-style typing that I couldn’t accomplish with only a Bluetooth keyboard and a telephone or pill.) 

Michael Crider/Foundry

You can see this philosophy in one other distinction between the units. The Pomera permits you to hook up with a telephone or pill over Bluetooth, to successfully flip that gadget right into a Bluetooth keyboard. Which is one thing I by no means wished to do, due to the aforementioned poor keyboard high quality. The Freewrite Traveler doesn’t have Bluetooth in any respect, and in reality it goes in the wrong way. You can plug in any USB-based keyboard into the Traveler’s USB-C port, in case you wish to use a higher keyboard on this stripped-down, targeted interface.

Michael Crider/Foundry

Other design selections present this dedication to pure writing or drafting. There aren’t any devoted cursor keys, you’ll be able to transfer the cursor with the purple “New” keys and WASD. This appears a little bit awkward at first, however after a number of hundred phrases it turns into second nature to navigate by way of phrases, traces, and paragraphs, because of good selections made in how the system handles instructions and inputs.

Michael Crider/Foundry

After per week with the Traveler I’ve already used it excess of the Pomera, largely as a result of it’s extra snug. But I’ve to confess that, regardless of appreciating the way more succesful and even wise working system from the Japanese KingJim design, the Freewrite setup is simply extra conducive to really getting phrases down. Even the syncing system, although far much less versatile and highly effective, is extra satisfying — I press a button and my draft seems in Gmail.

The Pomera DM250 has a greater, backlit display, way more visible choices, and it’s much less pretentious. But between the keyboard and the singular focus, the Traveler is the higher gadget, at the very least for me. My techie spendthrift soul cringes at a $550 price ticket (thanks, Trump tariffs!) for one thing so threadbare by way of precise {hardware}. But my author soul says “just shut up and use it, you’re reaching towards 5000 words today and you don’t feel tired at all.”

Michael Crider/Foundry

The Freewrite Traveler does every little thing I wished the Pomera to do, even when it’s doing loads much less. It’s a lot smaller and extra transportable than a laptop computer, it lasts far longer on a cost, it refuses to supply any distractions, and it’s really participating to make use of as a writing gadget. This is an costly software, even when it makes me really feel like an costly software for liking it.

Michael Crider/Foundry

I want I may rip the keyboard off the Freewrite Traveler and graft it onto the Pomera DM250, and in some way convey its prompt Wi-Fi syncing together with it. But till some designer makes that occur, I’ll have to hold with the hipsters. And within the meantime, I’ll promote the Pomera… as a result of neither of these items is anyplace near an excellent worth.