writerDeck

Commercial Decks

A list of the known professionally produced writerDecks that are generally available for purchase. Those with asterisks are from old companies now dead, but the devices can still be found on Ebay, etc.

A quick list is followed by details below.

Name Price Image
Freewrite Digital Typewriter $649 USD a mechanical keyboard with an attached e-ink screen and prominent physical switches
Freewrite Traveler $499 USD a small keyboard-shaped, laptop style clamshell e-ink writing device
Freewrite Alpha $349 USD a flat keyboard with a thin, dim old style LCD display
Alphasmart Neo / Neo2* $50-80 USD a curvey dark gray plastic bodied keyboard device with a taller LCD display
Alphasmart Dana* $50-80 curvey dark gray plastic bodied keyboard device with an even taller LCD display
Alphasmart 3000* $50-80 curvey dark gray plastic bodied keyboard device with a thin LCD display
The Writer Fusion* $25-50 a rectangular 80s looking keyboard contraptio with a big old style lcd display
Kingjim Pomera DM30 $150-250 a small e-ink screen attached to a fold-up keyboard
Kingjim Pomera DM100 $150 a clamshell style writing device with a new style LCD display
Kingjim Pomera DM250 $400 a clamshell style writing device with a wider new style LCD display
ReMarkable Paper Tablet $498 an e-ink tablet with attachable keyboard

Freewrite Digital Typewriter

$649 USD - The big dog, and priced as such. These things are solid chunks of aluminum with an e-ink screen, mechanical keyboard, and automatic syncing over wifi. People tend to love or hate it, mainly due to the latency inherent to an e-ink screen and the lack of arrow keys. The newest (Gen 3) model has a cursor and hot-keys for WASD arrow keys. I have one and love it.

Freewrite Traveler

$499 USD - The smaller, mobile version of the Freewrite. Main tradeoff is losing the mechanical keyboard.

Freewrite Alpha

$349 USD ($299 preorder) - The newest Freewrite device, designed to be a modern update to the Alphasmart Neo (below). It has worse ergonomics than the Alphasmart in my opinion, has no dedicated arrow keys (instead you use WASD), and costs ten times as much, but it has the advantage of wirelessly uploading documents.

*Alphasmart Neo

$40-80 USD - Probably the most popular budget writerDeck. Originally an education device sold to schools in the 90s. Big selling point on these is the battery life–they last forever on AAs. The downside is the small, poor quality screen (calculator-type) and that you have to get the text off it by hooking it up to a computer and letting it re-type the text like a ghost-controlled keyboard.

*Alphasmart Dana

$50-80 USD - The big sister to the Neo, this has a larger screen with a backlight and runs the PalmPilot OS. This means it has an old-timey touch screen and a variety of apps (you can even write your own software for it or add old apps). Unlike the Neo, this can save directly to an SD card. One downside is that the screen is not as sharp as the Neo due to the old touchscreen layer, but you can remove that. Another is that many have dead rechargeable batteries in them, but you can use AA batteries instead or swap out for a new rechargeable if you don’t mind tinkering. It also has potential to not be as “distraction free” as others, since it can have other apps, including games.

*Alphasmart 3000

An older version of the Neo with a slightly different design. The main plus to this is you can modify the keyboard to replace with with a mechanical keyboard. The main negative I am aware of is that the native keyboard is not as nice as the Neo, and you cannot adjust font size like you can on the Neo.

*The Writer Fusion

$25-50 USD - Similar to the Neo, but with many additional features, including saving directly to USB drives, folder and file management, a larger screen with a backlight, text to speech, etc. But they us an internal NiMh battery that has probably worn out, so you’ll probably want to replace that (directions in this video, which also goes over many features at the end). Note that the same company also made one simply called the Writer and one called the Forte, and these have smaller keyboards, whereas the Fusion is full-sized.

KingJim Pomera DM30

$150-250 USD - This is a pretty cool little Japanese e-ink writerdeck (or “Digital Memo tool”) with a calendar and spreadsheet app built in. The main downside is that it uses a tiny, flimsy keyboard. I bought one but could not stand the little keyboard. Some people may love it for its ultra-portability.

KingJim Pomera DM100

~$150 USD - The big brother to the DM30, it has a larger keyboard and an LCD screen instead of e-ink.

KingJim Pomera DM250

~$400 USD - The new update on the DM100, this has a 7-inch LCD screen, USB-C charging, full sized keyboard with arrow keys, email-to-self function, QR Code transfer, Scrivener-like outliner tool, calendar, etc. For my money it looks like the best portable writing device, better than the Astrohaus Traveler or Alpha.

reMarkable Paper Tablet

$498 for Type Folio Bundle with attachable keyboard (this is the only keyboard that works with reRmarkable, so you can’t have a mechanical one). This is a tablet-style e-ink device for note taking, writing, etc. Unlike the Boox devices, this is more of a distraction-free approach without social media apps, web browser, etc. Note that this price is without the stylus.