The Detroit-based firm Astrohaus has been making its “distraction-free writing tools” underneath the Freewrite title for a couple of decade. To this point, these have all been standalone, single-purpose gadgets meant merely for drafting textual content, however Astrohaus is branching out at CES 2025. The corporate simply introduced a mechanical keyboard known as the Freewrite Wordrunner, a tool designed particularly with writers in thoughts.
This comes greater than three years after Astrohaus quietly revealed intentions to construct a keyboard, initially referred to as the Maestro. However the firm finally pulled the plug on its deliberate 2022 launch, and I hadn’t heard something about it since then — evidently they’ve simply been working away at it this complete time. CEO Adam Leeb mentioned in a press launch that the corporate had been iterating and creating it for nearly 4 years.
Mechanical keyboards have largely turn into the area of avid gamers; the corporate needed to construct a tool for individuals who make their residing writing as an alternative. With out spending some high quality time with it, I can’t say in the event that they’ve hit that mark but, however there are some enjoyable concepts on show right here.
The Wordrunner has a tenkeyless design that appears acquainted at first look, however you’ll rapidly discover that the operate row has been changed by a customized set of keys that’ll make zipping round textual content paperwork quicker. That features discover and exchange, undo and redo, paragraph up and down in addition to again, ahead and reload keys. I’d be upset about shedding media controls from the operate row, however the Wordrunner has it lined with the brilliant purple joystick / button. It strikes in all 4 cardinal instructions and will also be pressed in vertically to skip tracks, play media or alter quantity.
On the opposite facet, you’ll discover three customizable macro keys with the cutesy names “zap,” “pow” and “bam.” They’re programmable for something you may want, however Astrohaus advised utilizing them to launch particular writing apps, changing textual content to title case or inserting the date. I don’t but know what I’d use them for, however having customizable keys is a table-stakes characteristic for many fanatic keyboards so I’m glad to see them right here.
In all probability essentially the most visually putting factor in regards to the Wordrunner are the 2 mechanical counters you’ll see up high. One is a timer you should utilize for writing sprints or simply staying centered for a bit. Extra intriguing is the Wordometer dead-center on the high of the keyboard. It’ll observe your phrases with its whopping eight-digit mechanical counter, and because it saves your phrase depend so long as you need, you could possibly attempt to max it out sometime. After all, you too can reset it at any time or pause it when you don’t need it to advance whilst you’re chatting with buddies or sending emails.
Past that, the Wordrunner options an aluminum physique that I’m trying ahead to seeing in particular person — I really like the aluminum shell of the Freewrite Good Typewriter and I’m hoping that the keyboard feels related.
The mechanical keys are backlit, however Astrohaus isn’t saying who’s making them but. However it additionally has some sound dampening in-built so you should utilize it with out subjecting everybody round to you overly loud key clacks (this can be a plus or minus relying on how you want your keyboards). As for connectivity, the Wordrunner makes use of Bluetooth or USB-C, and you may pair the keyboard with three completely different gadgets and rapidly swap between them with devoted hotkeys.
Lastly, there’s the ever-present query of availability. Astrohaus is launching the Wordrunner on Kickstarter, because it has completed with most of its different {hardware} during the last 10 years. The marketing campaign ought to begin in February with early fowl pricing, however we don’t know what that worth will probably be but. Happily, there’s a fairly low-commitment strategy to get the perfect worth when you’re curious. Astrohaus says you may place a $1 reservation for precedence entry and the very best pricing, with plans to ship the primary batch of keyboards earlier than the tip of the 12 months. That’s an extended methods out, however a buck isn’t a foul funding when you’re .
Astrohaus is exhibiting off a protoype of the Wordrunner at CES, and I will be updating this submit after I get my fingers on it and see the way it feels at this stage of growth.
