In my last post on distraction-free writing devices, I wrote about the Alphasmart Neo. It was my first recent attempt at finding a writing tool that would allow me to find flow and get words down without giving into the seemingly endless onslaught of distractions that computers, tablets, and smartphones put at our fingertips.
I also went into a bit of a manifesto about our notification filled world and the problems that arise from it. I won’t rehash that information here, but suffice it to say, I think our modern connected world isn’t always a great thing.
Soon after finding out about the Alphasmart product line, I stumbled across a Reddit post about the BYOK - Bring Your Own Keyboard. It is very much in the same lane as the Neo, but a modern version with a smartphone-sized footprint and an amber backlight.
I was intrigued by their marketing material and the idea of a device that could go anywhere, utilize MagSafe mounts, and pair with any bluetooth keyboard I wanted. They make these in small batches and you can only preorder them from their website. When I was shopping, they were around six weeks out from the next batch and I got a little impatient… okay, a lot of impatient and set up a search on eBay to notify me if anyone listed one.
Ironically, the very same day that I pulled the trigger on the Alphasmart Neo, a BYOK got listed, so I went ahead and purchased it as well to give it a go.
The first thing that I noticed was that the BYOK basically solved all the problems that the older Alphasmart products had. Namely, it has bluetooth support and a removable storage microSD card. Thus, you don’t have to connect the device to your computer and allow it to retype your words into a word processor, like the Neo, but you can simply allow cloud sync to happen or transfer your .txt file from the device to your computer for editing.
I quickly found a workflow that utilized the built-in disk mode for this. I’d write a blog post or chapter of my current novel project. Then I’d enter disk mode, connect the device to my MacBook and open the .txt file. Then I’d copy the text with a quick cmd+a followed by cmd+c. Finally, I’d create a new note in Obsidian and paste the contents into the note.
That entire process took maybe 90 seconds. Compared to the Neo, which could take several minutes to type your words into the note on Obsidian, that was blazing fast.
As far as the distraction-free aspect of the BYOK, it absolutely nails it. There is WIFI for syncing via the cloud, but I had it turned off most of the time. Even if I hadn’t, it wouldn’t have caused distractions. I just wanted to save battery and avoid cloud syncing once I figured out how to use disk mode.
I wrote close to ten thousand words on the device in just a little under two weeks. That’s pretty solid compared to what I typically experience on my laptop.
The BYOK is not good at writing in your lap. Well, correction, the device works fine if you have a good setup for it, but I just couldn’t figure out a way to use a keyboard in my lap and also have the BYOK mounted in a way that was easy to use. A laptop or tablet with a keyboard stand is so convenient for this style of writing, which I do like to do from time to time. The Neo is technically better at this, but the screen angle is terrible unless you have your legs at the right angle, which isn’t always possible.
The warm, amber colored front light is great on the eyes and doesn’t emit blue light, so you can write long into the evening without worrying about it effecting your sleep. I truly appreciated that, even though I don’t tend to write late at night myself.
Overall, I’d give the BYOK a solid 4.5 out of 5 stars. The only things I didn’t like were the power button (which feels a bit flimsy in my opinion) and the way the BYOK renders the text on screen.
The Neo font is very crisp and contrasted well against the reflective LCD. They BYOK text is also contrasted well, but it’s just not as pretty to look at. That’s totally subjective and it’s not really anything that bothered me in real use, but I did want to mention it, as it matters to some people.
If you’re thinking about buying a distraction-free writing device that’s ultra portable and allows you to use a mechanical keyboard (or any bluetooth keyboard for that matter), I’d definitely recommend the BYOK. I don’t get any incentive for sharing that. It’s my honest opinion.
Also, on a semi-related note, I crossed over 100,000 words written year to date during my morning writing session yesterday. You can see my stats anytime by going to the page here on my site. My goal is to write daily and to finish at least one book this year.