“Distraction-Free Writing” is a lie (and other bullshit that makes you want to buy an Astrohaus Freewrite)

The Astrohaus Freewrite is a beautiful work of artistic gadgetry. For the love of god, don’t buy it.

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DISCLAIMER: If you’ve bought into the Freewrite Philosophy and products -- emotionally and financially -- and the experience satisfies you creatively ... then great! This commentary isn’t for you, nor is it critical of you! The creative process is as unique as the individual, but a common denominator is that we all enjoy the process of crafting our creative. In other words, the tools we use are just that: tools. Tools can enhance or detract from the process, but rarely do the tools supplant the process.

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A year and a half ago, I posted what would turn out to be my most popular piece of writing ... like ... ever. It was a semi-long-term review of a 2nd Gen Astrohaus Freewrite Smart Typewriter. Based on the search traffic alone, I wanted to write a follow-up, but there wasn’t much left unsaid in my original review. (Seriously, I was brutal. In every way possible.)

Since my original review, I’ve written a lot more (although none of it on the Freewrite). I wrote my second novel in 2022, knocked out short stories, recorded audiobooks for the novels and shorts, wrote and produced video essays, and continued my professional creative career in the technology space. As it turns out, that last point provided the “Freewrite commentary” angle I was searching for. (That, and the wonderfully detailed comments and stories left on the original post. And the forthcoming Freewrite Alpha, a headache-inducing piece of creative gutrot all on its own.)

My day job has me working hand-in-glove with product and user experience. I have the privilege of writing, for our customers, the story of my company’s technology. Also, I work outside the marketing department, so my messaging isn’t influenced by marketing spin -- I write for the product and the user, period.

So what does that have to do with Freewrite, the digital typewriter everyone loves to hate? (Don’t try to deny it; I know what you’re Googling!)

In a nutshell: The Astrohaus Freewrite is a great product design paired with a terrible user experience and propped up by a brilliant marketing department.

I won’t spend time on the product design since I covered that in my original review. (And if you’re reading this, you’re well-familiar with how sexy Astrohaus’s range of products are -- have you seen the Ghost version of the Traveler?!)

Solid metal, rubberized base, beautiful heft. A full-size mechanical keyboard is paired with a delightful e-ink screen [...] The Freewrite form factor is fantastic. It works on a psychological level: when I sit down to work at my desk with the Freewrite, my brain is literally flipping the switch and entering "writing mode.” [...] It's a beautifully-crafted, single-purpose device that any writer would be proud to use. That is ... until they actually use it.

The Astrohaus Freewrite is a solution to a made-up problem.

There’s nothing wrong with single-purpose devices. It’s a great way to focus entirely on one problem and serve up an unexpected solution that completely rewrites the problem’s reality in the first place.

For example: the iPod was far from being the first MP3 player, but it was the best and redefined the segment. Likewise, with the iPhone.

Tesla was certainly not the first electric car, but with the segment so starved, it became a leader and rewrote how the electric vehicle industry functions (charging infrastructure, for example).

Kindle e-readers are the worst e-readers available for no other reason than the limitations of the platform. But those limitations -- along with Amazon’s maniacal reach -- make the Kindle the first and last choice for most people shopping for e-ink readers.

Obsessively focusing on solving a single problem is a brilliant strategy. Astrohaus, on the other hand, has brilliantly dumb execution. At least for the users.

If you’ve spent five minutes researching Freewrite, you’ve read the counterarguments:

- Buy a used laptop and turn off the Wi-Fi!

- Buy an AlphaSmart!

- Turn off your notifications and learn some fucking discipline!

Because ... distraction-free writing is a problem that already has many solutions, and the solutions keep improving. (My recommendation: scoop up a used M1 Macbook Air as a secondary writing machine, install iA Writer and Pages, and turn everything else off. Ridiculous battery. Distraction-free. Portable af. You’re welcome.) So, if there are already so many practical solutions to the problem of distraction-free writing, the Freewrite has to come out swinging with something mind-numbingly brilliant.

But remember what I said about how the Freewrite is propped up by a brilliant marketing department? It’s right there in the getfreewrite.com website title: “Freewrite: Distraction-Free Writing Tools.”

Was anybody even talking about distraction-free writing tools before Astrohaus hit the scene? Because, let’s face it: there’s certainly been plenty written before the Freewrite launched, and there’s been more than a shit-ton written after the Freewrite -- and that’s without having to use a Freewrite.

Distraction-free writing is bullshit. It’s marketing spin designed to move products. And it totally works.

I’ve worked in newsrooms where deadlines rule the world, and no one gives a fuck how distracted you are -- shut up and get your writing done now, bitch! Even now, in my most idealized creative environment, with my ideal tools, there’s no avoiding my dog, who constantly needs love, or my cats, who are having an existential crisis when they see the bottom of their food dish. Hell, the most inspiring author stories are when, against all odds, a person pounds out a novel on nights, weekends, and lunch breaks, working full time and raising kids.

Okay, look, I’m not advocating hustle culture or overworking yourself, but simply pointing out that creative writers were able to manage distractions just before the Freewrite. The “distraction-free” label is just marketing spin that reassigns the blame (it’s not an issue with the creative process, inspiration, discipline, or any of the million other factors that shape creativity, but distractions) and then fabricates a new problem for which the Freewrite is the only solution.

Astrohaus needs the marketing spin to reframe the problem because the Freewrite isn’t an iPod.

The problem the iPod solved: listening to digital music on the go.

The problem the Freewrite (wishes it) solved: essential word processing for creative writers.

See? It’s not about distractions. Distraction-free writing is a symptom at best. At worst: it’s an excuse made up by The Inveterate Procrastinator. But it’s not the actual problem the Freewrite is trying to solve. But Astrohaus has to prop up distraction-free writing because when we look at Freewrite through the correct problem/solution lens, the whole product falls apart.

The Freewrite user experience is a nightmare that costs a king’s ransom.

The Freewrite usability is a nightmare. I documented some of it in my review, but this comment left by Chris Tsakis about his Gen3 was illuminating:

Then software issues cropped up. The device would fail to power on. The screen would go black. My files would disappear (go on the Facebook group “Astrohaus Freewrite Community” and weep over all the issues).

The simple fact is that we live in a world where technology needs to “just work.” Creative technology, doubly so, because if I’m spending time troubleshooting a shitty product, that means I’m not writing.

Distraction-free, my ass.

And let’s address the elephant in the room that shouldn’t need to be addressed. If you can’t guarantee that my writing isn’t going to magically disappear, you probably shouldn’t be building word processors and courting creative writers.

Look, most technology is finicky, but word processors aren’t exactly next-generation, bleeding-edge technological marvels. You’ve got one job, Freewrite: record and remember my words. If I can’t get a 99.9% uptime guarantee, you’re a fucking paperweight. The very whisper of missing files or lost words should be the red flag that tells all current and potential Freewrite users to pack up and go home.

Elizabeth Goldsmith was another commenter on my original review. She shared her own experience with the Gen1:

I bought one -- used, but still more than $300. I used it maybe twice. To say it was underwhelming would be an understatement. I was lucky enough to update the software on mine before they discontinued support on the Gen 1 device because otherwise, it would be worth about as much as a large paperweight.

Alright, so we’ve set aside “distraction-free writing” because that’s just marketing bullshit. What we’re left with is “word processing for creative writers.” For me, as a creative writer willing to invest large sums of money in gadgets, that means:

- a dedicated e-ink device that “just works.”

- a great keyboard ... that I love so fucking much I want to use it with all my other devices. Bluetooth and/or wired support, please.

- Hardware and software that “gets out of the way.”

Working at the Speed of Creativity requires a user experience that Gets Out of the Fucking Way.

I’m a big fan of this concept of “working at the speed of creativity.” My go-to example is Final Cut Pro for video editing: it’s simple enough to get the ball rolling, and the wave of creative instinct carries you through your project ... while at the same time being powerful enough to allow me to produce everything from corporate promo videos with price tags in the tens of thousands of dollars, to my audiobooks and YouTube video essays. Final Cut rarely makes me troubleshoot or struggle to find a solution. Final Cut gives me a dozen different ways to do any given task (more, now with the iPad version), allowing me to shape my workflow around what works for me. And, critically, what works for me is what helps me be the most creative.

Trello and iA Writer are two other applications I see as examples of powerful technology that gets out of the way and allows me to work at the Speed of Creativity. Also: they’re fun to use. Which, you know, also helps the creative process!

The Astrohaus Freewrite demands its users to conform to a strict, narrow style of creative writing that not only isn’t conducive to the creative process (creativity always thrives when it’s shoved into a small box, right?) but doesn’t even make sense when you think about a “digital typewriter” experience.

From my original review:

And speaking of Hemingway: that romantic image of him tap-tap-tapping away on his typewriter? That came after he wore out his pencils, sketching out a first draft longhand on paper. [...] Typewriters, intrinsically, were final draft machines. Each page and keystroke represented ink and paper that had a real cost associated with them. The words you typed mattered, and a classic typewriter was, by nature, a massively idiotic first draft tool.

The Freewrite is binary: because you're either writing or you're not. There's no editing. There's no functionality. There's only writing.

The Freewrite is forward: because you're either writing in a forward direction or you're deleting.

If your writing style fits this horrifically narrow creative window, then the Freewrite might just be for you.

So, once again, the real problem the Astrohaus Freewrite is trying to solve is “essential word processing for creative writers.”

The device should enable writers to work at the speed of creativity, but instead, it’s just a giant roadblock. First, forcing users to fit a tech bro’s view of what a writer should be. Then, by abandoning standards like Android, APK support, Bluetooth and wired compatibility, Freewrite forces users to hope their data stays intact while jumping through proprietary cloud syncing solutions and because Astrohaus isn’t making enough on the devices themselves so they need some kind of rolling SaaS payment scam.

Honestly, Astrohaus should stick with the paperweight problem. After all, it worked for that photography lens mug.

The Freewrite Alpha Swindle

Alright, we’ve established that the Freewrite is a terrible solution to the problem of “essential word processing for creative writers.” How does the all-new Freewrite Alpha fit into the equation?

First, a little background. In 2017(ish), Astrohaus finally acknowledged that its target demographic is better served by a no-longer-produced gadget that had its heyday in the ’90s. The Alphasmart was a line of digital typewriters built for the education market. While functionality peaked with the Alphasmart Dana (combining the keyboard and form factor with the then-relevant Palm OS UX), the gadget itself peaked with the simpler Alphasmart Neo (and subsequent Neo2). The Neo was the perfect distillation of the Alphasmart experience. Extremely usable, with an excellent keyboard, readable display, battery for weeks and months, and a simple folder-based interface that allowed for basic document management. And yes, you could move around inside your document and -- gasp! -- edit. Getting documents off your Alphasmart might be called clunky by some. Still, it was straightforward and effective: attach a USB cable, and a computer recognizes the device as a functional keyboard (see? even Alphasmart figured that out back in the 90s!). Open a blank text file on your computer, then go to the document you need to transfer. A send widget on the Alphasmart essentially “retypes” the entire document through the USB keyboard connection, and you sit back and watch your words magically retype on your computer.

Like I said, a little clunky by today’s standards. But also by today’s standards: it’s a 100% effective method for ensuring the integrity of your data transfer. In my time using the Alphasmart Neo (2022-2023), the document transfer process was a satisfying ritual that didn’t bother or worry me in the slightest.

But back to Astrohaus: around 2017, they launched an Alphasmart buyback program to convert legacy Alphasmart users. The program has been scrubbed from their website, but a Flickr community archived the text:

Give us your tired, your poor, your...AlphaSmarts!

Is your old AlphaSmart gathering dust? Trade it in and we'll give you $50 towards the purchase of a Freewrite.

Or buy an AlphaSmart off of eBay for $25 -- you'll still make money.

It doesn't even have to be working; we'll take it dead or alive! (Nothing too gross, please.)

Limited time only. Shipment must be postmarked by 15 Jan, 2018.

It's time to upgrade your writing tools.

Here is how the AlphaSmart Buyback Program works:

Go here to download a form: AlphaSmart Buyback Program.

Print out the completed form and send it with your AlphaSmart to the address on the form.

Once we receive and process the AlphaSmart, we'll send you a discount code good for $50 off a Freewrite. The code will be active for 30 days and is not stackable with other discounts or promos.

Let's upgrade you to a proper writing tool.

(I love the audacity of that last line!)

Here’s the problem: six years later, the going rate of used Alphasmarts has increased to around $100+ (versus the $15-$35 that some commenters had previously paid). And even at the higher rate, OG Alphasmarts provide infinitely more value than the Freewrite (see my original review for my evaluation of the Freewrite value in comparison to literal horseshit).

But wait! There’s more!

Failing to convert Alphasmart users -- and routinely losing existing and potential users to the defunct brand -- Astrohaus acquired the Alphasmart.com domain and concocted the Freewrite Alpha in yet another attempt to steal the former company’s brand and product integrity. It’s no mistake that the Freewrite Alpha bears a striking resemblance to the Alphasmart -- but that’s all it is, a resemblance! Astrohaus is “Alphasmart-washing” their shitty digital typewriter in another attempt to swindle creative writers.

“But it’s a more affordable version of the Freewrite!” Sure, but you could buy 3 Neos for the same price and probably still have a few shekels left over for coffee.

“But it’s a modern digital typewriter!” Sure, modern in that it’s built today, but it’s still saddled with Astrohaus’s shitty user experience, which typically creates unnecessary blocks in the creative process for most people.

Even with being built today, Astrohaus has proven to be antagonistic to its users by overcharging and using hardware and development practices that force obsolescence. Whether you’re spending $350 or $1,000 on a digital typewriter, obsolescence should never be part of the deal.

Here’s the full quote from Chris Tsakis, echoing elements of my own experience being antagonized by Astrohaus:

I used my Hemingwrite every day, cranking out a weekly newsletter and my book distraction-free. Every once in awhile I’d gaze at the bare aluminum case and remind myself I earned the damn thing, should keep it and pass it on to some deserving soul many years from now. There are things I'd change – could there be a spellcheck function, for instance? – but those who scoffed at this tool hadn't spent enough time with one. They didn't "get" it. I got it. And I'm glad I did. Until Astrohaus began displaying their true colors. First, they managed to make my Gen. 2. Hemingwrite obsolete overnight, so I shamed them into exchanging it for a Gen. 3. Then software issues cropped up. The device would fail to power on. The screen would go black. My files would disappear (go on the Facebook group “Astrohause Freewrite Community” and weep over all the issues). Final straw: I bought a used standard Freewrite with the thought of doing a custom color, took it apart and was astonished at the cheap components. When I stripped the powdercoat off the Freewrite I was confronted with another realization: the Hemingwrite is little more than an UNPAINTED Freewrite.

I’ll add one more: the ergonomics are horrible. Where the screen’s placed means neck strain if you write for more than an hour or two. This is why I went and bought a used Qwerkywriter for $80 and paired it with an iPad. It may not have the total retro vibe of the Hemingwrite but it gives me the feel I sought and is far more versatile. I’m not locked into the crappy Astrohaus ecosystem and no longer have to contend with the convoluted workflow the device insists upon.

What’s next?

If you’re reading this, it’s because you enjoy the process of creative writing and have either been tempted by Astrohaus’s (brilliant) marketing or have already been swindled by it.

I’m right there with you.

The Freewrite is still a great product design. It’s a beautiful (if not over-priced) evolution of the original Alphasmart. And it’s a shame that the user experience is so painfully lacking ... especially when it doesn’t have to be.

The internals of the Freewrite simply need to be swapped with any budget, off-the-shelf Android components (if that’s not what’s already under the hood). Boot up to Android. Skin the UI for distraction-free simplicity. Partner with an app like iA Writer to provide a hardware-customized default word-processing application. Provide arrow keys and add a digitizer to the display. Does it need the digitizer? Hell no, but it doesn’t hurt to give users multiple ways to accomplish a single task -- think using a stylus to drop your cursor at a specific edit point. Finally, add the ability to use the Freewrite as an external keyboard on other devices, you fucking idiots.

Astrohaus could make all of these changes and still charge a king’s ransom ... I’d pay it. Again. Because that’s the device we all want. And it’s a device we’d actually use, over and over again, year after year.

But since they won’t make that device ... I’m currently using iA Writer on a 13” M2 Macbook Air (and aim to upgrade to the 15” when the M3 rolls out because ... eyes). I’d love an e-ink-based ultralight laptop, but that’s another one that doesn’t seem to be happening anytime soon. If I’m writing at a desk, I love the Boox line of Android e-readers (the Page is excellent!), and their keyboard support is already well-documented.

Finally, here are some additional community comments from my original review that feel like a great way to close out this updated Astrohaus Freewrite commentary. Thanks for reading ... and thanks for commenting!

Great concept, mediocre delivery, and a horrible business model. -- Rusty Henrichsen

As both a writer and an engineer, you captured my frustration quite well for the Gen2 limitations [...] it remains a step back for productivity in my writing and so has been abandoned in my room. -- Christopher Pufall

The company's marketing is good. When they introduced their new neo clone, I started salivating again. Perhaps this would the device that would unleash all the words needed to finish my novel. Then I came to my senses and bought an alphasmart neo on Shopgoodwill.com for $15. -- Elizabeth Goldsmith

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