Review: Freewrite Traveler 

Do you ever long for the days of manual typewriters? We do. We love a single-use product here, like a Kindle. It's an e-reader, and that's it. You can't scroll through TikTok, check work Slack, or get pinged by chat notifications. That's why we loved the Freewrite in 2016. It's a typewriter, but unlike a real typewriter, you can carry it to a coffee shop and put your pages in a Google doc later.

So we decided to try the Freewrite Traveler, which is a slightly more capable device. Unlike the original Freewrite, this version is hinged for easier carrying and comes with arrow keys to edit your mistakes. It is simply a place to write anywhere, without focusing too much on the editing. And its e-ink screen is a joy to look at and doesn't hurt your eyes.

Photograph: Astrohaus

I dream of writing novels from a house in a New England seaside town (I am NOT looking at you, Provincetown), and I can feel all the stories just bubbling up inside me. But when it's time to actually get it all out on the page, it's so much easier to just check Twitter instead. After a full day of working on my computer, the last thing I want to do is stare at my computer for a few more hours at night. This little Traveler actually got me to put those damn words on the page. I didn't finish a book, but by God, I started it!

I said above that Freewrite products are made for writing, not editing. It's best to just let yourself type and edit later. The older model accomplished this by having no arrow keys at all, which was a deliberate design choice to keep you from picking at your text or reordering paragraphs, but the Traveler has loosened up a bit since then.

This time around, there are arrow keys, but you have to employ the WASD keys, plus the “new” and shift keys, to move the cursor through each character in order to backspace. Skip the shift key if you want to jump between whole words. This makes it possible, but not easy, and that's on purpose.

The screen size keeps you writing too. While typing on my large computer monitor, I can see many of my previous paragraphs. It's hard to not go back and edit as I work. On the Traveler, I see only a few lines of text at a time. You can't fixate on your lede when you can't see it. The Traveler won't check your spelling for you, either, but you can do that later once you've sent your draft to a Google doc.

Photograph: Astrohaus

Once you've written, you can save your drafts to one of three folders, A, B, or C. Get to these folders by clicking the corresponding buttons above the keyboard. You can access those drafts in a few ways once you're ready to edit.

I kept my Traveler connected to Wi-Fi while home, which is easy, thanks to its off, on, and new Wi-Fi buttons at the top, next to the folder buttons. After connecting, I set up a free account with Postbox, Freewrite's cloud service. Your drafts automatically sync to Postbox if the Traveler is connected to the internet; if it isn't, it will do so the next time it connects. From Postbox, you can save automatically to Evernote, Google Docs, or Dropbox.

There's also a convenient Send key on the keyboard to email the draft you're working on right to yourself. Want to skip the cloud syncing altogether? Connect it to your computer via a USB cable. But Postbox is where you go to change the font size on the Traveler screen, time zones, and even enable a lock screen at turn-on. You need to make a Postbox account if you want to change any of that, but not if you don't want to. 

Photograph: Astrohaus

There are a few major differences between the original Freewrite Smart Typewriter and the Traveler. As you might guess by the name, this one is smaller, lighter, and folds up like a (teeny) laptop so you can take it with you wherever you go. It weighs just over 1½ pounds and folds up to 11 by 5 inches, at just about 1 inch thick. Basically, it adds almost nothing to a bag, especially in comparison to a laptop. The original wasn't large or heavy at 4 pounds, but this one is even more compact.

Its ability to open and close on a hinge offers a huge advantage too. Our reviewer compared the original to a Speak & Spell, an accurate description considering you'd have to lean over it to see the screen as you type. The Traveler will feel much more familiar to most of us that are used to looking at a screen straight on.

The Traveler trades the clacky cherry keys, a beloved feature, for quieter and more compact scissor-switch keys. I love a clacky key, but these ones are still satisfying to type on, much more so than my MacBook Pro's butterfly keyboard.

The Traveler is nearly perfect at what it does, with a 30-hour battery life (or what the company assumes will be about four weeks of regular writing). But there is a noticeable lag between keystrokes and the actual text appearing on the screen. This is frustrating, and I made a lot of mistakes at first. I got used to it, but I hope it will be fixed in future versions, especially considering how much it costs.

And that brings me to its biggest problem: It's just too expensive for most writers—who are not known for being loaded with cash. The official price is a whopping $600, though you can find it discounted to around $449 or $469 on Amazon. I loved using the Traveler, but it would be quite hard for me to spend that much money on it.

If you do have the cash, and you need help focusing on getting words on paper, the Traveler is a fantastic writing companion. And hey, if you have a writer in your life, it would make a great gift. Yes, that was a hint.