Here are my first impressions of Astrohaus’s Freewrite Traveler, which touts “distraction free writing”. What author doesn’t need that?
First, I backed the Indigogo more than two years ago, so I did NOT pay the full retail price of $599 (currently on sale for $429 & no, I didn’t pay that much either).
It came charged so that was a plus. It says it has a 4 week charge, but that’s at using it 30 minutes a day. It’ll be interesting to see how long the battery ACTUALLY lasts when it’s being used for several hours a day.
I didn’t read the instructions because I wanted to see how intuitive it is. At first use, it seems fairly easy. I was able to turn it on & start writing w/out any issues. I haven't tried to sync my document or connect the wifi yet.
It has an eInk screen. I’m kind of meh about it. It reminded me of an old Commodore 64 (yes, I'm old). I fully expected a wagon to come rolling from the side to tell me I died on the Oregon Trail from dysentery.
What bothers me most is the lag between when I type & when it appears on the screen. If you’re a fast typer, it’s probably going to bother you, too. It's distracting
It has a full-size keyboard, but the keys are closer together than my MacBook. I didn't have a problem adjusting to the difference
It is WiFi enabled, which I haven’t tried to set up yet, but it’s not so you can surf the net (how long has it been since you called the internet “the net”?). It’s so that you can save your draft to Dropbox, Google drive, & Evernote. No iCloud, which is a bummer for us Mac users.
I'm still playing with it, so I haven't made up my mind one way or the other. I want it to be worth the two year wait, multiple delays, and (yes) the price. If it helps me write without getting distracted by email or searching for character images to post to Pinterest, I think it will be.
If you want to check it out while it's on sale, you can find it here.
