Distraction-free writing tools are nothing new. Over the years, we’ve seen quite a few releases for this very niche category of devices that lets you focus on writing and nothing more. So far, the BYOK is easily the most compact of these writing devices and we’re guessing it’s going to attract a fair amount of attention because of that.
Like many distraction-free writing devices, it breaks down your usual digital writing tools to their barebones components. In fact, this goes even further, eliminating the keyboard entirely. Instead, you’re supposed to pair with any keyboard you have available, making it even more portable than other similar devices.
The BYOK, short for Bring Your Own Keyboard, is a small rectangular device measuring 6.5 x 3.2 x 1.6 inches (length x height x thickness), making it small enough to fit in most pockets, so you can take it anywhere. It has a small display that measures 5.1 x 1.5 inches (width x height), which should fit around half a dozen lines of text or less, depending on font size and other settings. Instead of using E-Ink’s epaper displays like other distraction-free devices, it uses a monochrome LCD panel, so you get instantaneous screen response with none of the lag or weird screen refresh common in e-readers and similar E-Ink devices.
The device gets a power button out front with a LED indicator, so you know exactly when it’s turned on, as well as four additional button in the back for navigating the menus, adjusting brightness, and more. Around the back, there’s a round magnet not dissimilar to Apple’s MagSafe design that can be used to attach various mounting solutions. By default, the device comes with a kickstand that can be snapped onto that magnet, which you can use to hold the display at a tilted angle on a flat surface.
The BYOK doesn’t have any input other than those physical buttons, so you’re going to have to add a separate keyboard for actually typing words onto the screen. There’s built-in Bluetooth, so you can pair it with any Bluetooth keyboard, although it also has a USB-C port, so you can plug in a wired keyboard if that’s all you have available. You can save all your writing to the 16MB of onboard storage (yes, only 16 megabytes), which, they claim, should be enough to accommodate around 1,000,000 words. Alternatively, you can back up all your writing to a PC via USB or sync it to Google Drive via a Wi-Fi connection.
The onboard battery will allow the device to keep running for up to 20 hours continuously, although this is only with the backlighting turned off. At the lowest lighting level, it can run for 15 hours, while the brightest one will only keep it going for around five hours. Other features include three font sizes, a status screen available with a button press (shows word count, battery level, free space, and more), two optional stands (one tall, one medium height), and an optional carrying case.
A Kickstarter campaign is currently running for the BYOK. You can reserve a unit for pledges starting at $129.