Jason wasn't in love with the original Freewrite for long, and when Astrohaus announced a more portable model, Seamus was skeptical. But the Freewrite Traveler is now available and has a lot going for it: it's a great form (recall Sony's Vaio P and other write-with-me clamshells) with a nearly-full size keyboard, 4 weeks on a charge, and is small enough to slip in cargo pants or a purse. You're here for the minimalism, so its lack of features and its monochrome e-ink display are desirable. But it's also weird and unintuitive, the display is tiny in the middle of its lid, and honey, it's listed at six hundred American dollars. You can grab one at launch for $430 plus shipping, but that's a lot of dough for a portable text editor.
At The Verge, Adi Robertson likes the idea, but homes in on the screen.
…the Traveler feels especially compromised. Astrohaus removed a backlight that was built into the original Freewrite screen, and in low light, you're stuck peering at a dim gray-on-gray window. Meanwhile, the original matte finish has been replaced with a pane of highly reflective plastic, so using it in bright directional light is almost as bad. … The Traveler gets its particular job done, but it often doesn't feel good — and for such an expensive, specialized device, that removes a major part of its appeal.