NEWS – Although I don’t consider myself to be a great one. I still consider myself to be a writer and I know that email, text messages, and social media have a tendency to distract me when I have a deadline to submit a review or news post. But can a dedicated distraction-free device like the Freewrite solve a problem like that, or is it just another overpriced gadget?
This isn’t a review. I don’t have a Freewrite to test, but I stumbled upon it while I was on one of my distracted (see what I did there?) surf sessions. First of all, I think the Freewrite is clunky and well… ugly. It reminds me of something from the 1960s instead of 2021. I guess that’s the point though. There’s just the mechanical keyboard with Cherry switches for those of you who know about keyboards, and there are also a couple of physical switches along with a small e-ink display.
Freewrite has built-in WiFi, but it’s only used to sync your drafts to the cloud. You won’t be able to use this device to answer your emails or surf, which is the whole point. Notice I said “drafts”. That’s because you can’t really edit on this device. There are no arrow keys. All you have is page up/page down, and a backspace key. So you write, sync, and then edit on another device. I’m sorry, but I don’t understand why I’d want this over my MacBook or an iPad. Yes, I know about the distractions, but there’s a little thing called “do not disturb” mode that you can switch on when you need to work. Using a Freewrite while still having other devices around you that will beep and ping, will probably not really help you stay less distracted and if you can turn off notifications on those devices while you’re working, why would you even need the Freewrite? What am I missing here?
There’s also a travel sized Freewrite if you’re interested… It’s only $429 vs. $549 for the full-sized one. Interested? Tell me why and then head over to getfreewrite.com
Gadgeteer Comment Policy - Please read before commenting
Looks like they’re trying to copy the late-80’s/early-90’s dedicated word processor devices – and doing either a really poor or a really great job, depending on whether you think copying their worst features is a plus. On the other hand, most of those had some good editing features…
DStaal, That crossed my mind too. I even had something sorta similar back in the day. I can’t remember what brand it was though. It was a real pain to use… I do remember that! ha!
We can get an AlphaSmart Neo 2 on eBay for $40.. I love mine. Its quality hardware from former apple engineers.
I’m thinking how much other product I could buy with that amount of money. A Chromebook for way less than half !
No thanks. While I agree with the no distractions idea, I can already get that by either putting my computer into airplane mode or by having enough discipline to not look at Facebook during writing time (I choose the latter). And while I write, I don’t use the cursor or editing keys, so that works with the Freewrite, but sometimes I need to consult my outline (in a different app) or I have to look something up. At that point, I need a second device, and all the supposed benefits of the Freewrite go out the window. For me, converged devices always beat specialized ones.
You can have a distraction-free writing device by installing a parental control app on your laptop.
🤣🤣🤣🤣 Somebody, somewhere, discovered a warehouse full of old TI 99/4A “computers,” did a quickie 3D printed case, and called it Freewrite.
Or a TRS – 80 Model 100
There’s an old schoolroom-oriented device, no longer made but many available on ebay etc., that behaves the same way: the Alphasmart Neo. When I was very briefly tempted by the original Freewrite ads I picked up an Aphasmart Neo2 for $16 (!) – it worked well enough to prove that this method wasn’t for me. See this article:
https://giftideasforwriters.com/cheaper-hemingwrite-freewrite-alternatives-for-writers/
Nope, I think is smarter to just dust-off your 15 year old laptop:
– You have access to a fully-featured word processor and keyboard;
– A bigger and color screen;
– You can easily transfer files via WiFi or flash-drives, no cloud service shenanigans.
On the other hand, it could be considered a distraction-less device because:
– It is too weak to watch videos on Youtube;
– There is nobody left on ICQ, so no social network;
– No e-mails because it cannot open the over-bloated Yahoo! Mail page;
– It is so full of security bugs. you will be too scared to “surf the web” with it;
– And if you enjoy it, you could still write your stuff while enjoying music, the old fashioned way, with Winamp.