The PocketMage is a retro-styled e-ink PDA ("personal digital assistant," remember?) with a clamshell case, a tactile QWERTY keyboard, and a "wizard-inspired" operating system built for notes, journaling and calendars. At under 4 by 3 inches, it actually fits in a pocket, unlike similar gadgets such as the chunky PicoCalc and the tablet-sized Alpha.
There are two displays on it. A 3.1", 320×240 e-paper panel handles reading and writing, while a 1.8" OLED strip above the keyboard provides fast-refresh feedback for typing and menus. A capacitive scroll bar stands in for a touchscreen. Inside is an ESP32-S3 microcontroller with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, a microSD slot, USB-C charging, and a 1200mAh battery that creators Talisman Design says lasts about a week. Hardware and software are open source, with an expansion port for add-ons.
For engineers and hackers, PocketMage acts as a portable IDE, terminal, and hardware bridge. The ESP32-S3's Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities, combined with the tactile interface, make it an ideal companion for writing your own on-the-go programs and scripts. An expansion port is even included for custom hardware add-ons!
The kit costs $185, or $235 preassembled, in "parchment" or "royal purple." PocketMage is being crowdfunded at Crowd Supply, with a privisional shipping date of March 2027.
The project began as Ashtf's "eInkPDA", refined by beta testers but still recognizably the same design. Third-party apps arrive through a storefront called the Bazaar, which is already stocked with an e-book reader, a text-mode web browser, a Tarot deck, and "Mage's Descent," a dungeon crawling RPG. Probably worth the price of entry all by itself!
In the Hacker News thread on this, a commenter notes that these "distraction-free" gadgets aren't any such thing and just end up purchased by the same assholes who already own three Freewrites. This is libelous: I actually own all six of them.
