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Freewrite Review vs Alphasmart Neo

4/3/2016

19 Comments

 
Wired has posted this review of a new writing machine and I thought I'd compare it against what I think is the ultimate writing machine – the Alphasmart Neo. I recently watched a Cats Vs Dogs programme on TV which compared the two species against one another in various tests and aspects. Ultimately of course, it was just a bit of fun comparing the dogs and cats, and I hope this review is received in a similar way. Also, I'm not strictly comparing two new products as the Alphasmart Neo isn't available new any longer, but you can still pick them up on Ebay. Also, I'm not dismissing the Freewrite – if you want to buy one to free yourself from distractions while writing, crack on, go right ahead, I'm not going to stop you. And I wish the company making them well with the venture, it's just that not everyone has $600 lying around to buy a one purpose device, and I want to show you there are other options for distraction free writing.


Picture
This is what the Neo looks like. Pretty utilitarian. It fits on a plane tray table, or your lap easily. It's just a bit bigger than its full sized keyboard.
First, a bit of background to the Freewrite: it started life as the Hemmingwrite, but has since changed its name. It came about after a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2014 to fund it. And now, finally it is available for everyone to buy. For those who didn't pay into the Kickstarter campaign, it can be bought for… $598.80 – let's call it $600 including taxes which works out at £435. I think that's an awful lot of money for what is essentially an electronic word processor. I only paid £65 more than that for my new Dell laptop – and that writes, blogs, connects to the internet and everything else. But let's not get ahead of ourselves, I like to be systematic with things so let's take the Freewrite's functions and compare them with my Alsphasmart Neo.

If you want some background on the Alphasmart Neo, I've blogged about writing with it too.

Price
As a comparison, the Alphasmart Neo was £150 new including taxes etc, but you can pick them up on ebay, used with the cables and batteries required for 25-45GBP each. I bought two for 60 – because I wanted to have a spare!

Freewrite £435 does seem expensive.
Verdict: Alphasmart Neo 1: Freewrite 0.

No internet

The main joy of the Freewrite is that it only writes words, and it doesn't have an internet browser, so when you're writing on it, that is all you can do. It is NOT an alt tab away from the internet. As the article says, 'It's just you, the Freewrite, and a blank piece of e-paper.'

The Neo is exactly the same. No operating system, no menus, no mouse. It doesn't connect to the internet.
Verdict: Alphasmart Neo 1: Freewrite 1.

Cloud storage

The Freewrite saves documents onto its own storage, but also connects through WIFI to so you can save through the cloud – Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive and Icloud to come later.
OK, hands up, I'll admit it, the Neo doesn’t have this. When I said it doesn't connect to the internet, I really meant it. It does not connect to the internet at all. If you want to back up and transfer your words, you have to connect the Neo to a computer, open the file and it 'sends' the text, one letter at a time to whatever application you have open. This could be a Word document, a web browser, even an email. So if you were, say, travelling around for a few months and wanting to write about your travels, you could do all this with the Neo, and its USB cord. You'd just go to an internet cafe, open an email in your account. Connect the Neo to the computer using the USB socket, and send your words to the email as if you were typing them in real time. So that's pretty neat isn't it?
Verdict: Alsphasmart Neo 0: Freewrite 1. (Although personally I think the way the Neo works is just fine, but I'm giving the Freewrite the benefit of the doubt.)

Keyboard

The Freewrite has a 'full-size mechanical keyboard, one built on top of wonderfully clacky cherry MX Brown switches.'
The Neo has a full-size keyboard. It also, unlike the Freewrite, includes cursor keys. Useful for scrolling through your words on the screen. I'll say that again, the Freewrite doesn't have cursor keys. I have no idea how you move about in the text you've written on it. If anyone else knows do let me know. The Neo doesn't have a mechanical keyboard, but it does have a nice clacky action that's as strong and satisfying as my Dell laptop's. Do you need a mechanical keyboard with all the jazzy Cherry business? I don't think you do, but only you can answer that for yourself.

Verdict: Alsphasmart Neo 1: Freewrite 1.

Display

The Freewrite has a 'smartphone-size e-ink display.' Sounds pretty snazzy doesn’t it? It's viewable outside in the sun.

The Neo has a chocolate bar sized LCD display. It's not back lit – which for me isn't a problem as I don't tend to write in the dark. I have mine set to display 4 lines of text at once, which is just enough to see what you've written and that's all. Works fine for writing – and remember, that's all these devices are for. Writing.
Verdict: Alsphasmart Neo 1: Freewrite 1.

Durability

The Freewrite has an aluminium body and a handle.
The Neo has a plastic body and no handle. It was, however, designed for use in schools, so is pretty rugged. Allegedly you can drop it from chest height without it breaking. I've not tried with mine, but it's definitely sturdy enough for being thrown into a bag and used on planes, trains.
Verdict: Alphasmart Neo 1: Freewrite 1.

Storage

Without storing to the cloud, the Freewrite can store 'over one million pages' of documents in plain text format to its own internal drive. That's a lot of pages to store. Very impressive really. But is it really necessary? When these devices are all about drafting words which you'll edit on another device? I worked out if you base a page on 250 words I'd need to write 4000 pages or 10 x 100,000 word novels to fill up the Freewrite's storage. So if I averaged 50,000 words per month I could write for 20 months before I filled up the Freewrite's storage. Without ever uploading to the cloud or putting anything on my laptop to edit. Because, remember, there's no cursor keys on the Freewrite. I'll leave that statement out there for now.
The Neo, I'm afraid, is much more modest in its storage abilities. It has 8 file slots, each carrying approximately 20,000 words (I filled one up when I first bought mine, to see how much it could carry, having read wildly varying claims about this storage online). This is 160,000 words. So using the same pages analogy as above, that is 640 pages, or at 50,000 words per month just over 3 months of writing before needing to download to another device.
Verdict: Alphasmart Neo 0: Freewrite 1.

Weight

The Freewrite weighs four pounds which is 'half way between the weight of the 13 and 15 inch MacBook Pro.'
The Neo weighs just under 2 pounds.

Verdict: Alphasmart Neo 1: Freewrite 0.

Battery life

The Freewrite apparently gets 'more than four weeks worth of battery life from a single charge.' No more plug socket anxiety which you'd have with a laptop after 4-6hours.
The Neo, according to the owners manual, lasts 700 hours on the 3 x AA batteries – the ones I used to call Walkman batteries, but now are more often found in TV remote controllers. In normal use, this is likely to be a year. I've seen other Neo users online saying after 2 years of regular use they changed the batteries anyway, despite them showing 1/3 charge. This amazing battery life is due to it not having a backlit screen – which also helps reduce eye strain – and having no moving parts such as fans, hard drives and DVD drives.
Verdict: Alphasmart Neo 1: Freewrite 0.

Keeping things analogue

The Freewrite has buttons for uploading to the cloud and switching between folders for saving documents. This is to keep as much of the functions 'off the device' so it doesn't need manus and avoids feeling too much like a computer. This is great as it keeps things just you and the words on the screen. And as we're only about writing words with these devices, that's perfect.
The Neo is very similar. It has 8 buttons for selecting where to save your documents. It has a CLEAR FILE button and a SEND button for sending to another device, as well as CTRL which accesses spell check keyboard shortcuts and a word count shortcut. So the Neo is admirably analogue too in this way.
Verdict: Alphasmart Neo 1: Freewrite 1.

In summary

If you like buying new technology and the purity and high spec design of the Freewrite appeals to you, I think you'd enjoy the Freewrite. Go on, knock yourself out, spend the money and I hope you'll be happy with it. If, on the other hand, you want a simple way to write new words on the move, outside, without internet distractions and aren't so bothered about the device looking cool or being new, then I think the Alphasmart Neo will serve you very well. OK, so it's not as smart looking at the Freewrite, but for writing new words, in simplicity it is amazing. It weighs about as much as a paper note pad and costs 1/10th the price as a Freewrite. That's why I'm buying another couple of Alphasmart Neos to keep as spares to hopefully see me through the next 10 plus years of writing.

Final Score: Alphasmart Neo 8: Freewrite 7.
So, according to my scientific scoring, the Alphasmart Neo wins, by a whisker. My review doesn't include coolness factor or how swish a new piece of kit looks compared against a second hand device; and undoubtedly the Freewrite would win that. However, let's not forget, these devices are simply for writing – they are effectively an electronic note pad and pen. The Alphasmart won on price, weight and battery life, which if all you want to do on a device is write, they would seem to me to be the most important factors. Although it doesn't look as cool as a Freewrite, rest assured, writing during a flight on an Alphasmart Neo has always started a conversation with the person next to me, and I think that's pretty cool in its own way.

Anyone tempted by the Freewrite? Anyone bought one and like to prove me wrong with this just for fun review? I'd love to hear from you.
Until next time, Liam Livings xx





19 Comments
Sharon Moss
4/3/2016 12:58:56 pm

As my Alphasmart Neo didn't come complete with a case, I've been trying to find one on the internet. Though I've been unsuccessful with that search, I have come across similar comparisons of the Neo against other machines whilst searching.

It seems that many writers find the Neo an invaluable tool and can't find much fault with it. The weight, battery life and portability are all very well liked as is the fact that you can just turn it on and off with no buffering, warming up or other such messing about. Also the fact that no internet connection provides no unnecessary distractions is also a hit.

My laptop cost me around £700 and was built with one major project in mind which was video production. It also however, provides me with a reader, a writer, a shopping mall, an art studio, a games hub, a music player and a messenger service. I could no more compare the Alphasmart Neo to my laptop than I could my Kindle.

I would never pay four hundred odd quid for a new something that comes off a whole point worse than the Neo, but if anything happened to my Neo and I had to replace it, I would try to do so very quickly.

Liam, take a look at images for one of the compared devices for the Neo, the apple eMate. This also came off worse fortunately as you might get some rather odd looks taking one of those onto the train!

Reply
Liam Livings
6/3/2016 09:18:19 am

thanks Sharon. I bought my Neo a mac book 14 inch case and it fits fine. It also takes a4 paper, notebook and pen or pencils as well as the Neo which is exactly what I need as I always need my plot notes when writing. I brought my Neo to a pc world shop to try out which laptop cases fitted it. Good luck finding one to protect your Neo.

Reply
Tana
7/7/2016 08:10:38 am

If the freewtite had stuck with the retro look of the early prototypes, and offered the red color option shown in some photos, I'd have been tempted to cough up the dough for it. Silly, I know, but that was half the cool factor for me. The larger screen size with backlighting wild be nice, and saving to a cloud with wifi sounds nifty, but not enough of an enticement to replace my NEO. I got mine--and four more for friends--on Amazon for $60 each. (They paid for theirs.)
If your main objective is to stay off the internet and other distractions, the NEO serves the purpose perfectly. If you like having all the latest electronic gadgets as soon as they come on the market, and money is no object, then go for the freewtite. The heart wants what it wants.

Reply
Liam Livings
7/7/2016 02:59:05 pm

I agree. for me it's not worth the money to buy the Freewrite. the Neo is perfect for mobile distraction free writing. I've 2 and will probably buy another spare.

Reply
Ellie
7/8/2016 04:19:32 am

Hi, Liam, thanks for the many interesting posts.

A question: Does the Alphasmart include other languages or is it only in English?

Reply
Liam Livings
8/8/2016 04:19:41 am

Hi Ellie, the Neos I have are only in English, but I gather, from the internet, you can buy others with non standard English keyboards set up for other languages.

Reply
Ellie
8/8/2016 05:18:51 am

Great! I had seen it for Dana but not for Neo. Thanks for taking the time to answer!

Sharon Moss
7/8/2016 05:32:29 am

Reply
Intreeged
27/11/2016 11:09:36 am

Thanks for giving the perspective of each product but my question after reading is why are so many of you talking about having to buy multiple units for the NEO? Is this so you can leave one it the car and one at home, or do they fail? And if they fail you would lose your work?

Reply
Liam Livings
27/11/2016 05:17:38 pm

hi, I think most people who have one buy more than one because they're not making them any longer so it's good to have a backup for when it eventually breaks. If the unit did fail I'm not sure how or if you could get your words off of it. Same risk with any device if it failed. I transfer my words from my Neo as soon as I'm back by my laptop. And I email it to myself too. With anything electric it's important to back up data. Neos are no different.

Reply
Miguel de luis link
31/1/2017 02:14:38 am

I have a Freewrite, I might have bought a Neo, but here on Canary Islands that isn't easy to get. I'm still interested in one, though.

Anyway, on a Freewrite you navigate using the Pg Down, Pg Up. Yet, I don't usually bother, I just type and forget, and then edit on my main computer.

Reply
Liam Livings
31/1/2017 02:55:27 am

Hi Miguel,
I'm sure you could get a Neo delivered to the Canary Islands from ebay if you paid postage. In my view, a Neo's worth a try because you can get them so cheaply at the moment.
That's good to know about the page down function on the Freewrite.

Reply
Miguel de Luis
11/6/2017 12:10:49 am

Update: I'm sure you can't. I have tried. :(

Jason Smith
3/4/2017 08:40:40 pm

The Freewrite cannot relocate the cursor...you cannot skip back a word or two to make an edit. All you can do is backspace, deleting as you go. You can page up and down, but only for reading purposes. It is deeply limiting for anything other than fiction writing binges. for that, it may be useful, not my cup of tea.

Thanks for the nice comparison essay. my very best to you, --Jason

Reply
Liam Livings
4/4/2017 10:35:02 am

That's very interesting to know, Jason. And I would imagine, irritating when you use it. I thought the Neo was pretty limited in terms of scrolling through text but that's even worse for the Freewrite. I won't be buying one any time soon. I've a Neo and 3 spares with their batteries removed for when my Neo fails!

Reply
Marie
26/10/2020 03:49:29 am

Your article has pretty much summed up my findings - I have purchased a Neo2 after debating the new Freewrite Traveler which has $210 preorder discount that runs out today.. So I paid just under £70 (GBP) for the Neo2 and shipping and import taxes from Amazon and I'm very excited to receive it! Thanks for going through all aspects (I know it's not a direct comparison but ultimately output is the same - distraction free writing)!

Reply
Liam Livings
27/11/2020 01:49:19 am

I'm glad you found it useful. You're right, it's not a direct comparison because one is a new product and the other used. But they do *in essence* perform the same task. I am a complete Neo convert and it's fully integrated into my writing work process.

Reply
Paul
26/11/2020 12:21:48 pm

Great review - big help - thanks!!

Reply
Liam Livings
27/11/2020 01:47:15 am

Glad you found it useful. I still write all my first drafts on my Neo!

Reply



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    Liam Livings

    Gay romance & gay fiction author

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