First released in Japan in 2008, the pomera pocket typewriter is now being offered to US audiences via a new Kickstarter campaign. pomera is similar in concept to the much larger, but also more premium and feature-rich Freewrite, a product I whole-heartedly endorse. In fact, there’s even a minimal price gap between the two as well.

The major areas where the pomera differs from the Freewrite is that the former is foldable and pocketable, and lacks any wireless connectivity (although you can add a Flashair SD card to hack the feature in). I would say it actually makes a good companion to the Freewrite – and could even be a replacement in some cases – but you do give up the premium keyboard experience that writers such as myself tend to crave. With that said, I do like the idea of an extremely portable note taking device, just not for $349 – $449+! I also don’t like that the screen isn’t back- or front-lit in any way, which rather limits where it can be used.

Here are the pomera‘s key features:

• Tri-fold keyboard
• 6″ electronic paper display
• 20 hours of battery life from two standard AA batteries
• microUSB, SD card, and QR-code output support

 

Should the Kickstarter hit its goal of raising $90,676 by Thursday, June 14, 2018, 10:59 AM EDT, mass production of the pomera is expected to start by October 2018. I think it’s a tough sell, but I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on the project.