Freewrite Traveler review: I hate how much I like it

Greatest Costs Right now: Freewrite Traveler

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

As I stated in a assessment for the same machine, the KingJim Pomera DM250, I’ve been in search of a small, travel-friendly, devoted writing gadget (a “author 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 an excellent kind issue for this admittedly area of interest class. However varied features of it rubbed me the improper means.

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

(With regards to 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: Take a look at me! I’m writing!

Even the aesthetics of the machine 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 brand on its shiny lid, the sort of branding that will make even Apple cringe. The inside is attention-grabbing white with crimson and chrome accents. It’s loud, which is sort of ironic for one thing that’s speculated 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 critical obstacle if you wish to use the machine in something however a well-lit room (or add on a ebook 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 continuously two or three phrases forward as I kind this very assessment.

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 attainable exception of the value. The dearth of superior capabilities, together with any sort of critical modifying chops or spell examine, means there’s nothing to do however churn out phrases. (And plenty 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 circulation. You get a number of paperwork to work in and three totally 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 Ship button. This robotically syncs by way of Wi-Fi with the Astrohaus Postbox cloud platform, which might additionally robotically ship textual content paperwork to Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, and Evernote by way of related accounts. That is characteristically clunky — once 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. However it’s extremely quick and simple, actually one button.

Alternately you may scorn any sort of wi-fi connection altogether, plug the factor immediately right into a PC, pill or telephone, and easily copy off your phrases as textual content recordsdata in a easy storage machine.

The Postbox net interface can also be the place you may regulate a few settings. You may 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 also change between keyboard layouts (although the bodily format is available in something you need, as long as you need US-focused ANSI). You may 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 machine itself presents barely anything when it comes to customization or instruments. The tiny, superfluous strip of a display beneath the 5.5-inch main show can present a clock or date, phrase depend, a timer, or just be left clean. You may transfer or delete drafts within the three folders. You may connect with new Wi-Fi networks. And that’s about it. We’re taking minimalism to an excessive right here — even the obsessively centered Pomera DM250 had no less than as a lot operate as, say, a digital organizer from the Nineteen Nineties.

As limiting as I discover the Freewrite Traveler, I prefer it much more than the Pomera. The primary motive is the one which soured me on the latter with none hope of forgiveness: the keyboard. The Traveler’s keyboard isn’t wonderful, but it surely is strong. Roughly the identical as a high quality laptop computer keyboard, although lower 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 machine was about the identical as an inexpensive pill keyboard, whereas the Freewrite seems like one thing that’s designed with typing in thoughts. Maybe the truth that Freewrite’s flagship Sensible Typewriter/Hemingwrite machine (ugh) makes use of a standard-sized mechanical keyboard ought to have clued me into the way in which this firm is much extra centered on the expertise of typing, not simply the useful 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 can also be value a point out as a conveyable design, with a greater, totally mechanical keyboard, a cheaper price… and sadly an excellent smaller display, although that could be a extra useful 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 may see this philosophy in one other distinction between the units. The Pomera allows you to connect 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 other way. You may 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, centered interface.

Michael Crider/Foundry

Different design choices present this dedication to pure writing or drafting. There aren’t any devoted cursor keys, you may transfer the cursor with the crimson “New” keys and WASD. This appears somewhat awkward at first, however after a number of hundred phrases it turns into second nature to navigate via phrases, traces, and paragraphs, due to good decisions made in how the system handles instructions and inputs.

Michael Crider/Foundry

After every week with the Traveler I’ve already used it way over the Pomera, principally as a result of it’s extra comfy. However I’ve to confess that, regardless of appreciating the way more succesful and even smart working system from the Japanese KingJim design, the Freewrite setup is simply extra conducive to truly 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. However between the keyboard and the singular focus, the Traveler is the higher machine, no less than for me. My techie spendthrift soul cringes at a $550 price ticket (thanks, Trump tariffs!) for one thing so threadbare when it comes to precise {hardware}. However my author soul says “simply shut up and use it, you’re reaching in the direction of 5000 phrases as we speak and also you don’t really feel drained in any respect.”

Michael Crider/Foundry

The Freewrite Traveler does all the things I wished the Pomera to do, even when it’s doing quite a bit much less. It’s a lot smaller and extra moveable than a laptop computer, it lasts far longer on a cost, it refuses to supply any distractions, and it’s truly participating to make use of as a writing machine. That 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 someway carry its prompt Wi-Fi syncing together with it. However 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 this stuff is anyplace near an excellent worth.