The Freewrite Wordrunner is a brand new mechanical...

For all its charms, the Freewrite Alpha works greatest as a primary draft machine greater than anything. Astrohaus sells a number of standalone writing units relying on the shape issue you are in search of, however apart from Postbox, a web based instrument for organizing and downloading work you have written on a Freewrite system, it hasn’t actually tried to the touch the revision a part of the writing course of.

At CES 2025, the corporate is partnering with Kickstarter to do exactly that by launching a completely new product. It is referred to as the Freewrite Wordrunner, and it is a mechanical keyboard made with writers in thoughts and designed to work with desktop computer systems, tablets, and telephones. The keyboard is launching on Kickstart this 12 months, however this is what we all know concerning the Freewrite Wordrunner to date.

The Freewrite Wordrunner is the mechanical keyboard designed for writers

The tenkeyless design sports activities some distinctive abilities

At a look, the Freewrite Wordrunner in all probability shares many similarities with the keyboard you may have already got in your desk. Every key change on the tenkeyless (with a operate row however with no quantity pad) aluminum design is backlit and purpose-built to be satisfying to kind on, in accordance with Astrohaus, as all mechanical keyboards ought to be. It will possibly connect with a number of completely different units over Bluetooth, and shortly change between them with a keystroke. It even has a built-in wrist relaxation to maintain typing comfy, and ideally a bit extra ergonomic.

The large distinction between the Wordrunner and the Keychron keyboard I am utilizing proper now could be all the things else it has, based mostly on what Astrohaus sees as an untapped a part of the keyboard market. As the corporate explains in its product announcement, the mechanical keyboard area has boomed in the previous few years, however even with all of those new great keyboards, there hasn’t been one which caters to writers particularly. The Wordrunner is an try to do this, constructing on Astrohaus’ expertise making keyboards for its standalone writing units.

So what does that truly imply? Among the many Wordrunner’s distinctive options are a redesigned operate row, new macro keys, a purple joystick for controlling media playback, a built-in timer for monitoring writing sprints and one thing Astrohaus has dubbed the “wordometer,” which is principally a mechanical phrase counter. The corporate initially tried to launch the Maestro, its tackle a mechanical keyboard, a number of years in the past, however with out a few of these distinctive options. “The most important distinction from the Maestro to the design at this time is that there is an onboard counter for phrases and for the timers,” Colin Butts, Astrohaus’ Head of Advertising, shared with me in a briefing. Butts says Astrohaus thought of utilizing a display screen for a few of these options — the workforce is a fan of Work Louder’s Nomad [E] keyboard — however as soon as the thought of a “Wordometer” got here up in a gathering, it was too charming to disregard.

Freewrite / Pocket-lint

Phrase rely on the Wordometer is persistent except reset, however the entire thing appears to be like deliciously tactile based mostly on the renders Astrohaus shared. The imaginative and prescient right here, if this all works, is that by offloading a few of these utilities onto your keyboard, you possibly can have a good cleaner and extra distraction-free interface to jot down in, whether or not it is Scrivener, Craft, or Google Docs.

Butts wasn’t in a position to share if the Wordrunner’s distinctive operate keys like discover, substitute, undo, or redo would have the ability to be reassigned to their authentic roles as soon as the keyboard launches, however the macro keys — Zap, Pow, and Bam — will probably be. That offers you much more flexibility by way of how you utilize the keyboard.

Value, Kickstarter launch date, and availability

The Freewrite Wordrunner’s Kickstarter marketing campaign launches quickly

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The Freewrite Wordrunner is launching on Kickstart in February and hopes to ship the ultimate model of the keyboard to backers by the tip of the 12 months. Astrohaus has labored with each Kickstarter and Indiegogo to launch merchandise prior to now, however selected Kickstarter this go-around, partially, as a result of it wished to assist the keyboard get some additional publicity at CES.

There isn’t any value accessible for the Wordrunner but, however backing the keyboard on Kickstarter (with its attendant dangers) will get you a lower cost on the very least. Should you’d favor to go the standard route, you can too make a $1 reservation on the Freewrite web site to lock in one of the best value doable when the Freewrite Wordrunner is accessible to order straight from Astrohaus.

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