I love writing, but with so much to distract us these days, gathering enough focus to start writing can be a job all its own. That’s where distraction-free writing tools have come into play, including the recently released Freewrite Alpha from Astrohaus.
Building off the work the company has done with its previous Freewrite devices, like the clamshell Freewrite Traveler, the Freewrite Alpha promises an ultra-portable design that makes it easy to pick up and start writing. The real kicker here is the super small display, which is designed to only show two to three lines of text at a time.
This is a device for writing first drafts, including all the dirty mistakes that come with them. It’s designed to cut you off from your inner editor, allowing you to focus on telling your story as easily as possible. There are no social media apps to distract you, and there’s no way to browse the internet and get lost in hours of research in the process (although you can still back up your drafts to the cloud). All you can do is write, and that’s a good thing. But is the Alpha really the best tool for the job? I’ve got mixed thoughts.
A glorious idea
At a glance, the Freewrite Alpha is a simple, low-profile mechanical keyboard with a small FSTN LCD display above it (like what you’d see on an alarm clock) and a single button to the side. On paper, the form factor is a dream come true for writers like me, who constantly struggle with wanting to ensure they’ve got the best grammar and spelling possible. I like the idea of only displaying a few lines of text at a time, and the fact that I can’t get lost browsing the internet or social media is a nice bonus.
I also love that I can simply pull out the Alpha and power it on to start writing. There’s no need to open up a word processor or navigate to Google Docs. I love sending drafts directly to my email for safekeeping, as well as the fact that it automatically connects to the cloud when the internet is on and saves my drafts there. There’s also an option to sync it to your computer via a USB-C cable, and I don’t think I’ve ever had to charge the device after receiving it several weeks ago. These are all features that work seamlessly in the background or with just a few keypresses, and that’s really nice. It’s exactly what you would want from a device like this.
In practice, though, the Freewrite Alpha is far from the writing escape I hoped it would be. I’ve spent a good few weeks treating it as my primary writing tool for my personal projects, carrying it everywhere I go along with my usual MacBook Air. While I love how portable it is, there are a few things about the Freewrite Alpha that turn me away, and most of it comes down to the physical components of the device.
But it feels cheap
Credit: Astrohaus
Before we get into the nitty gritty here, remember the Freewrite Alpha isn’t supposed to be a replacement for your laptop, or even your iPad or smartphone. These sorts of digital typewriters are still a developing category, so there isn’t really much you can properly compare them to. They were designed to do just one thing: let you write without distractions. As such, I’m very hesitant to make any kind of comparison with other devices, at least as far as features go.
Still, I do think it is important to compare the physical components of the Freewrite Alpha with those from other devices, as there are a few things I believe the Alpha falls short on. It’s not a laptop, but it’s hard not to want to judge it against the premium feeling of Apple’s MacBook Air lineup, which remains extremely light but still feels like a solid piece of tech.
One of the biggest issues I have with the Freewrite Alpha is the build quality. Despite costing over $300, the Alpha is made completely of plastic. I don’t particularly have an issue with plastic in devices, aside from the obvious durability concerns. And I get why Astrohaus used plastic here, since the company wanted to make the Alpha as lightweight as possible. They’ve accomplished that, but it comes at a horrible price for the user.
That’s because the Freewrite Alpha is absolutely atrocious to hold or type on. It feels cheap, and while the included Kailh Choc V2 low-profile key switches feel great on their own, the fact that the entire device is just plastic makes it obnoxiously loud to type on. For writers like me, that’s a bit distracting in its own way. There’s just nothing about this device that makes it feel premium, and if I spent $349 ($369 on Amazon) on a device that only does one thing, I would want it to do a little bit more. Sure, the Alpha is light enough for you to carry anywhere, but if you drop it on concrete while making your way into the office, is it going to survive the drop?
Credit: Astrohaus
I get where Astrohaus is coming from here, but this feels like the designers cut the corners a little too sharply. Even putting some padding into the device to make it sound less cheap would have been a nice touch. As it stands now, I’ve used $20 keyboards that are more satisfying to type on, and less obnoxious, too, as they don’t make me feel like I’m boring a hole through my desktop with every keypress.
That isn’t a slight against the switches used here, mind. The two-millimeter travel distance for keys isn’t bad, and it feels good to type on most of the time. I never felt like I was missing keystrokes or repeating letters because of the travel distance, which is something you can run into with cheaper mechanical keyboards. That said, it’s hard to properly enjoy these switches because of how springy the entire contraption feels and sounds when you’re typing on it.
Another issue with the Alpha is the lack of any backlight on the display. Look, I love the display and how it limits how much of my manuscript I can see. This is a great feature, and one I’d love to see emulated in the software I use daily. But as it stands, you can only really use the Alpha and see what you’re typing if you’re already in a fairly bright area. This is definitely an area the Alpha could have benefited from an e-ink display, or at least a backlit LCD display. Astrohaus’ other digital typewriters have e-ink screens, and while it’s understandable that the company might have wanted to cut that feature for its most budget-friendly offering, the substitute here is just not a suitable replacement.
And while the device handles most of its tasks really well, there’s still the matter of having to remember its various keybinds. Despite having room for some additional buttons along the top of the device, Astrohaus continues to utilize combinations of key presses to trigger various tasks, like starting a new document, archiving a document, etc. The company does provide handy online documentation to help with that, but it was a bit of a bother having to figure out the different keybinds and then remember them so that I could do everything I needed.
So who is this for?
Despite my issues, I don’t hate the Alpha. In fact, it’s probably one of the more useful pieces of tech that I’ve tried in recent years. Sure, it doesn’t have the premium feel that I’d want from an expensive unitasker, but that’s something I can overlook. It does what it says, and it does it well enough. And while typing on this thing isn’t my favorite pastime ever, some folks will prefer the harder typing sounds that the Alpha brings to their writing area.
The Freewrite Alpha isn’t for every writer. But if you’re easily distracted, or if you don’t have a laptop or something else that you can easily carry around with you, then the Alpha can be a great tool to help increase your productivity and writing output. Sure, there are a few things that Astrohaus could do better, and hopefully, the company will improve upon the device in future iterations. As a distraction-free writer, though, the Alpha excels at putting you in the zone, so long as your own typing sounds aren’t more likely to distract you than social media.
I very much enjoyed being able to just pull this thing out and get right to work, especially since it saved me from having to stare at my laptop for even longer throughout my day. I already do that enough, so having a dedicated writing tool is a great way to separate my personal projects and passions from the writing that I do to pay the bills. Being able to pull my document up on the computer when I had finished with it was also really nice, and it made moving from the rough draft to the finished copy of a short story I was writing much easier than I expected it to be. The content you create on the Alpha syncs up exceptionally well with the Postbox features that Astrohaus offers to all Freewrite device owners, though I can’t help but wish there was a bit more connectivity between the two when actively working on a manuscript or short story. Pulling up a draft on the website removes it from the Alpha’s onboard memory, so it really is just a first draft device.
For me, I wouldn’t say writing on the Freewrite Alpha has improved my writing capabilities or output exponentially. But it definitely made it easier to get lost in the words I was spewing out into my manuscript without overthinking them. I can already write a good few thousand words pretty quickly when I get into the right mindset, and the Alpha did make getting in the zone a little bit easier. As a distraction-free writer, the Alpha feels like a good step in the right direction, and despite still being on the expensive end, it is cheaper than the rest of the Freewrite line. Now, Astrohaus just needs to follow through and improve upon this initial idea with a design that makes a better compromise between budget and feel.
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