The Detroit-based firm Astrohaus has been making its “distraction-free writing tools” beneath the Freewrite identify for a few decade. To date, 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 referred to 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 often known as the Maestro. However the firm ultimately 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 change into the area of players; the corporate needed to construct a tool for individuals who make their dwelling 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 shortly discover that the perform row has been changed by a customized set of keys that’ll make zipping round textual content paperwork quicker. That features discover and change, undo and redo, paragraph up and down in addition to again, ahead and reload keys. I’d be upset about dropping media controls from the perform row, however the Wordrunner has it lined with the brilliant pink joystick / button. It strikes in all 4 cardinal instructions and will also be pressed in vertically to skip tracks, play media or regulate 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 steered 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.
Most likely probably the most visually hanging factor concerning the Wordrunner are the 2 mechanical counters you’ll see up high. One is a timer you need to use for writing sprints or simply staying targeted for a bit. Extra intriguing is the Wordometer dead-center on the high of the keyboard. It’ll monitor your phrases with its whopping eight-digit mechanical counter, and because it saves your phrase rely so long as you need, you may try to max it out sometime. In fact, you may also reset it at any time or pause it should you don’t need it to advance whilst you’re chatting with mates or sending emails.
Past that, the Wordrunner options an aluminum physique that I’m trying ahead to seeing in individual — I really like the aluminum shell of the Freewrite Good Typewriter and I’m hoping that the keyboard feels comparable.
The mechanical keys are backlit, however Astrohaus isn’t saying who’s making them but. Nevertheless it additionally has some sound dampening in-built so you need to use 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 shortly 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 carried out with most of its different {hardware} during the last 10 years. The marketing campaign ought to begin in February with early chicken pricing, however we don’t know what that value will likely be but. Luckily, there’s a reasonably low-commitment strategy to get one of the best value should 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 top of the 12 months. That’s a protracted methods out, however a buck isn’t a foul funding should you’re .
Astrohaus is displaying off a protoype of the Wordrunner at CES, and I will be updating this publish after I get my arms on it and see the way it feels at this stage of improvement.
