I originally backed the Bring Your Own Keyboard (henceforth: BYOK) in August of 2025 to the tune of $155 USD. My order included the unit itself ($129), a carrying case ($10), and a “magnetic tall stand” ($16). I received the device a few days ago, and after playing with it, I have some thoughts. What follows are my initial impressions of the device I received and its software and ecosystem. I recognize that the product may change as it continues its development (especially in the context of its software and “syncing”), but I can only provide thoughts on what I received, not a theoretical future product.
Positives
- The device is small enough to fit in the pocket; it’s basically the same size as my phone.
- The device includes a backlight with multiple light levels, meaning it can be used in a variety of lighting conditions. To that end, while I’ve never been one to work in the dark, the backlight does eliminate the shadow cast by the case / frame on the screen. (With that being said, the light only has “warm” tones; no “cool” light is available from the device.)
- The unit can be purchased in two colors: white and black. It isn’t a huge array of colorways, but it’s always nice to have options.
- I was able to connect my keyboard (Logitech Pebble K380) over Bluetooth without issue. Given that “bringing your own keyboard” is central to the premise of the device, I’m glad this worked well. With that said, I have not tried to connect a wired keyboard (or any other keyboard, really) to the unit.
- The integration of magnets has been a nice quality of life feature. The stand I bought (the “long stand”) keeps the device at my eye level without issue. The BYOK also included a magnetically-attached kickstand in the box. (I haven’t used the kickstand yet, but I will report back once I have more experience with it.)
- The user interface is dead simple. The unit only has 5 buttons: a power / status button, a backlight button that cycles through the light levels, and an “up,” “down,” and “select” button for navigating through the device’s menus.
- The device does allow “page up” and “page down” inputs, allowing for easier scrolling through larger documents.
Negatives
- There is no on-device formatting (e.g. bold, italic, underline, etc). To that end, the TAB key only inserts five presses of the space bar. (This also makes finding specific parts of larger documents more difficult.)
- At present, there is no way to select multiple words in the BYOK word processor. This feature is allegedly planned for a future update, however.
- Syncing was less than seamless. While attaching my BYOK unit to BYOK Studio was relatively easy, syncing the device while I had a document open in the Studio caused the document to glitch out; ultimately, I had to recreate the document from scratch. If the document had been longer (and not just a test of the device), this would have been devastating.
- Though syncing to Google Drive is another promised feature, it has yet to be implemented. Moreover, copy-pasting from BYOK Studio to Google Drive was far from seamless. I had to do a lot of “post-processing” to get the text to behave (e.g. for creating bulleted lists to not change the format of the entire document). I can only imagine how much of a pain this would be to deal with on a larger / longer document.
- BYOK Studio, the website used to pull text from the device, may become a subscription service in the near future. (It would be disappointing, if unsurprising, if the company went in this direction. I will not be paying for it, however; I don’t need more subscription services in my life.)
- There are obvious “hot spots” on the screen when the backlight is on. It doesn’t affect the performance of the device, but it may be a visual distraction for some.
- I’d describe the device’s latency over Bluetooth as “good, but not great.” I would call it better than many of the eInk devices I’ve used over the years, but not as good as my desktop PC or laptops.
- Certain characters seem to cause issues with syncing (e.g. pointed brackets <> causes a whole section of my document to not appear even after I synced to the Studio).
- The device only supports four languages currently: English, French, Spanish, and Deutsch.
- The microSD card protrudes from the device, even when it is fully inserted. This could be a design decision to allow easier access to the card, but given that the included 128 MB card can hold “millions of words,” (per the manufacturer), this feels like an oversight.
- The BYOK carrying case, which I paid $10 for, is unbranded and generic. This is more of a nit-pick than anything, but it was a small disappointment.
Unanswered Questions
- What’s the device’s battery life like?
- What’s the maximum microSD card size the device supports?
- Will more languages be added? (I won’t use them, but I’m sure folks who write in languages other than the four supported would appreciate it.)
- What format will the BYOK split out files in if I don’t use BYOK studio? (My initial internet search suggests they will be .txt files, but I have yet to confirm that myself.)
With all of this being said, I will continue to use the device and report back after I have more seat time with it. It’s price-point ($180 without crowdfunding discount) is considerably better than competitors (e.g. $499 for the Pomera 250 US and $550 for the Freewrite Traveler, oof), which I’m guessing will attract many to the device. With that being said, it remains to be seen if BYOK will make good on its promised features and if the quirks of the device are worth dealing with when “putting your phone in airplane mode” is also an option.
