The Freewrite Wordrunner is a brand new mechanical...

For all its charms, the Freewrite Alpha works finest as a primary draft machine greater than the rest. Astrohaus sells a number of standalone writing gadgets relying on the shape issue you are in search of, however apart from Postbox, a web-based device for organizing and downloading work you’ve got written on a Freewrite gadget, 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 known 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 here is what we all know concerning the Freewrite Wordrunner to this point.

The Freewrite Wordrunner is the mechanical keyboard designed for writers

The tenkeyless design sports activities some distinctive expertise

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 swap on the tenkeyless (with a perform row however with out a quantity pad) aluminum design is backlit and purpose-built to be satisfying to sort on, based on Astrohaus, as all mechanical keyboards ought to be. It might probably hook up with a number of completely different gadgets over Bluetooth, and rapidly swap between them with a keystroke. It even has a built-in wrist relaxation to maintain typing snug, and ideally a bit extra ergonomic.

The massive distinction between the Wordrunner and the Keychron keyboard I am utilizing proper now could be all the things else it has, primarily based 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 couple of 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 gadgets.

So what does that truly imply? Among the many Wordrunner’s distinctive options are a redesigned perform row, new macro keys, a pink 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 couple of years in the past, however with out a few of these distinctive options. “The largest distinction from the Maestro to the design right now 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-about utilizing a display screen for a few of these options — the crew is a fan of Work Louder’s Nomad [E] keyboard — however as soon as the concept of a “Wordometer” got here up in a gathering, it was too charming to disregard.

Freewrite / Pocket-lint

Phrase depend on the Wordometer is persistent until reset, however the entire thing seems to be deliciously tactile primarily based 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 may have a good cleaner and extra distraction-free interface to put in writing in, whether or not it is Scrivener, Craft, or Google Docs.

Butts wasn’t capable of share if the Wordrunner’s distinctive perform keys like discover, change, 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 — shall be. That provides you much more flexibility by way of how you employ the keyboard.

Worth, Kickstarter launch date, and availability

The Freewrite Wordrunner’s Kickstarter marketing campaign launches quickly

Freewrite / Pocket-lint

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

There is no value out there for the Wordrunner but, however backing the keyboard on Kickstarter (with its attendant dangers) will get you a lower cost on the very least. In the event you’d want to go the standard route, you can even make a $1 reservation on the Freewrite web site to lock in one of the best value potential when the Freewrite Wordrunner is on the market to order immediately from Astrohaus.

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