Freewrite Alpha Can Help Writers Focus, but It Feels (and Sounds) Cheap
I love writing, but with so many distractions these days, gathering enough attention to start writing can be a job in itself. This is where distraction-free writing tools come into play, including the recently released Freewrite Alpha from Astrohaus.
Building on the work the company has done with its previous Freewrite devices, such as the Freewrite Traveler clamshell, the Freewrite Alpha promises an ultra-portable design that makes it easy to pick up and start writing. The real advantage here is the very small display, which is designed to only show two or three lines of text at a time.
It’s a tool for writing first drafts, including all the messy mistakes that come with them. It’s designed to cut you off from your inner editor and allow you to focus on telling your story as easily as possible. There are no social media apps to distract you, and no browsing the Internet and getting lost in hours of research in the process (though you can still back up your drafts to the cloud). All you can do is write, and that’s good. But is Alpha really the best tool for the job? I have mixed thoughts.
Great idea
At first glance, the Freewrite Alpha is a simple, low-profile mechanical keyboard with a small FSTN LCD display above it (like an alarm clock) and a single button on the side. On paper, the form factor is a dream come true for writers like me who constantly struggle to provide 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 on the internet or social media is a nice bonus.
I also love that I can just pull out the Alpha and turn it on to start writing. There’s no need to open a word processor or go to Google Docs. I love having drafts sent directly to my email for safekeeping, and the fact that it automatically connects to the cloud when the internet is on and stores my drafts there. There’s also the 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 since receiving it a few weeks ago. All these features work in the background or with just a few keystrokes, and it’s really nice. This is exactly what you would want from such a device.
In practice, however, Freewrite Alpha is far from the writing avoidance I had hoped for. I spent a good few weeks treating it as my primary writing tool for my personal projects, carrying it with me everywhere along with my regular MacBook Air. While I like its portability, there are a few things about the Freewrite Alpha that turn me off, and most of them come down to the physical components of the device.
But it seems cheap
Before we get into the details, remember that Freewrite Alpha is not meant to replace your laptop or even your iPad or smartphone. Digital typewriters of this type are still in their infancy, so there isn’t much to compare them to. They were created for one purpose only: to allow you to write without distractions. So I’m very hesitant to make any comparison with other devices, at least in terms of features.
However, I think it’s important to compare the Freewrite Alpha’s physical components to those of other devices, as there are a few things that the Alpha lacks in my opinion. It’s not a laptop, but it’s hard not to judge it in comparison to Apple’s premium MacBook Air line, which remains extremely lightweight while still feeling like solid technology.
One of the biggest issues I had with the Freewrite Alpha was the build quality. Even though the Alpha costs over $300, it is made entirely of plastic. I don’t have much of a problem with plastic in devices, other than the obvious durability issues. And I understand why Astrohaus used plastic here: the company wanted to make the Alpha as light as possible. They succeeded, but the user had to pay a terrible price for it.
That’s because the Freewrite Alpha is absolutely terrible to hold or type. 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 made of plastic makes it incredibly loud when typing. For writers like me, it’s a little distracting in its own way. There’s nothing about this device that makes it feel premium, and if I were spending $349 ($369 at Amazon) on a device that only does one thing, I’d want it to do a little more. Sure, the Alpha is light enough to carry anywhere, but if you drop it on concrete on your way to the office, will it survive the fall?
I understand what Astrohaus is going for, but it feels like the designers cut corners too harshly. It would be nice to even add some extras to the device to make it sound less cheap. As it stands, I’ve used $20 keyboards that are more comfortable to type on and also less frustrating because they don’t make me feel like I’m drilling a hole in my desktop with every keystroke.
Note that this is not intended to be a disparagement of the switches used here. The key travel distance of two millimeters is good, and they’re a pleasure to type on most of the time. I never felt like I was missing keystrokes or letter repetition due to the distance, which can be encountered with cheaper mechanical keyboards. However, it’s hard to really enjoy these switches because of how bouncy the whole contraption feels and sounds when you type on it.
Another problem with the Alpha is the lack of display backlight. Look, I love the display and how it limits the visibility of my manuscript. This is a great feature and I would love to see it emulated in the software I use daily. But as it stands, you can only really use Alpha and see what you’re typing if you’re already in a bright enough place. This is definitely an area where the Alpha could benefit from an e-ink display, or at least a backlit LCD. Other Astrohaus digital typewriters feature e-ink screens, and while it’s understandable that the company might have wanted to ditch that feature for its most cost-effective offering, the replacement here simply isn’t a suitable replacement.
And although the device does most of its tasks well, you still have to remember various keyboard shortcuts. While there is room for some extra buttons on the top of the device, Astrohaus continues to use keystroke combinations to launch various tasks such as starting a new document, archiving a document, etc. The company provides handy online documentation to help with this. , but it was a bit of a hassle to figure out the different keyboard shortcuts and then remember them so I could do everything I needed.
So who is this for?
Despite my problems, I don’t hate Alpha. In fact, it’s probably one of the most useful technologies I’ve tried in years. Granted, it doesn’t have the premium feel I would want from an expensive Unitasker, but I can overlook that. He does what he says and does it quite well. And while typing on this thing isn’t my favorite thing to do, some people will prefer the heavier typing sounds that the Alpha brings to their writing area.
Freewrite Alpha isn’t for every writer. But if you’re easily distracted or don’t have a laptop or anything else you can easily carry with you, then Alpha can be a great tool to help improve your productivity and writing performance. Of course, there are a few things Astrohaus could have done better, and hopefully the company will improve the device in future iterations. However, as a distraction-free writer, Alpha excels at putting you in the zone, provided your own typing sounds won’t distract you more than social media.
I really liked being able to just pull this thing out and get to work, especially since it saved me from having to look at my laptop even longer during the day. I do enough of this already, so having a dedicated writing tool is a great way to separate my personal projects and hobbies from the writing I do to pay the bills. Being able to download my document to the computer when I was done with it was also very nice, and it made the transition from a rough draft to a finished copy of a story I was writing much easier than I expected. The content you create on Alpha syncs exceptionally well with the Postbox functionality that Astrohaus offers to all Freewrite device owners, although I can’t help but wish there was a little more connection between the two when actively working on a manuscript or story. . If you upload a draft to the website, it will be deleted from the Alpha’s internal memory, so it’s really just a first draft of the device.
For me, I wouldn’t say that writing on Freewrite Alpha has improved my writing ability or results exponentially. But it definitely helped me get lost in the words I was spewing into my manuscript without thinking about them. I can already write a few thousand words pretty quickly when I’m in the right mindset, and Alpha has really made it easier to get into the zone. As a distraction-free writer, the Alpha seems like a good step in the right direction, and while it’s still on the pricey side, it’s cheaper than the rest of the Freewrite line. Now Astrohaus just needs to follow through and improve on this initial idea, creating a design that provides the best compromise between budget and feel.