A Review of the BYOK: The Ultimate Distraction-Free Writing Tool

The writing device joining the war against declining attention spans and constant brain rot.

What is the BYOK?

Created by Nick Sjolinder, the BYOK (short for Bring Your Own Keyboard) is a portable word processor. It doesn’t do anything else. You type words, it displays them, it saves your files to a microSD card. That’s it.

There are similar devices already out there, from the Alphasmart (no longer in production), the Japanese Pomera, and the recently popular Freewrite and Freewrite Alpha being the main options with some other handmade options available like the Micro Journal. Making your own word processor also seems to be a popular option, with people commonly repurposing e-ink tablets and other similar devices to fashion their own homemade versions.

BYOK is the most recent addition to the party with its standout feature being that it, in accordance with its name, doesn’t have an attached keyboard, thus leaving only the screen. Its Kickstarter launched on August 21st, 2024 with its initial wave of final products having shipped December 2025, not necessarily on time for the holidays but right on time for the new year.

Okay cool, so its a device where you write things. But with computers and tablets and cell phones already among us… why would anyone want that?

Distraction Is Killing Our Creative Fuel

A difficulty to stay focused seems to be plaguing everyone en masse these days, and that can make pursuing creative endeavors even more out of reach than normal. Every single thing on the internet wants your attention. The more an app or website can keep your eyes on the screen, the more ad revenue (and user data) they can farm to turn a profit. And even if you manage to log off social media and sit at your own computer to work, there’s notifications and video games and one quick search away from distraction all over again.

I’ve fallen prey to it just like everyone else has, with my writing practice dying a slow and painful death by the wayside. I’ve written less in six years than I used to in one year as a fresh-faced twenty-year-old!

It was truly becoming a herculean task for me to just sit down and write, well, anything. For the longest time I just wanted a device that would allow me to type words on a screen and nothing else — everything available to me online was just too tempting. I thought about buying a cheap laptop and not connecting it to the internet, of getting handy and trying to DIY my own device using a Raspberry Pi (a stripped back mini computer you can turn into almost anything you’d like), I thought about stripping back my iPad and just using it for writing and art, but none of these options were really that appealing to me. They all had too much stuff going on, too much temptation for something else to distract me from writing.

Eventually I looked into some of the distraction free writing devices I just talked about. I almost opted for one of the popular Freewrite devices, but decided against choosing them as their designs seemed more focused on the aesthetic appeal of the devices themselves to a degree that, at least for me, was more of a nuisance than a feature. That, and they were larger than I wanted, and I was hoping for something I could easily add to my everyday bag without sacrificing too much space or added weight. Freewrite was technically what I wanted, but with too many concessions. Finding a functioning Alphasmart on eBay was too tedious, and I didn’t actually care for the functionality of the Pomera. I just wanted a singular device dedicated solely to writing without all the extra bells and whistles that tended to distract more than they tended to enhance the writing experience.

BYOK on the other hand seemed designed in honor of the “less is more” approach that appealed to me specifically. It wasn’t designed with a keyboard like all the other options, which already set it apart. The design was sleek and simple, and everything was saved directly to a microSD— no syncing to the cloud necessary. So I backed the Kickstarter and waited. The regular updates on the manufacturing progress, including all setbacks, was a wonderful sign that I was actually (hopefully) going to get what I paid for.

On January 14th, 2026, it arrived.

My white BYOK, backlit on the first light setting.

Finally, My Review

My BYOK arrived with an attachable magnetic mount, a charging cable, and a 128mb microSD card. Simply holding the device in my hand proved to me that I had made the right choice. It’s roughly the size of my iPhone, which means carrying it in my bag or on my person isn’t any more cumbersome than holding someone else’s phone for them. Carrying convenience, above all else, was my main desire (aside from working of course).

Setup was easy and straight forward — after pairing my bluetooth keyboard and connecting to the Wi-Fi to ensure I had the latest firmware update, I was able to jump right into writing in less than five minutes. I created my first Project and my first file, and got a-typing.

Aside from firmware updates or syncing capabilities, the BYOK doesn’t require a Wi-Fi connection to operate, making it possible for it to be a completely offline device. As such, I turned the Wi-Fi connection off as a personal preference.

It wasn’t made to support the use of a mouse, so the only way to navigate the screen is with the arrow and escape keys on your keyboard. This isn’t a problem for me, and in fact forced me to slow down and have patience (a nice added bonus in my view; if I’m getting annoyed by how long it takes to scroll up and down a document, then how can I have the patience to write an entire book?). The monochrome LCD display gives it a retro vibe that I find nice (although I can imagine that being a downside for someone who wants a more modern and clean look to their writing experience). There is no lag between typing and the text appearing on the screen, a notable complaint I’ve previously seen with users of Freewrite devices.

The BYOK menu screen.

The only hiccup (thus far) that I’ve encountered was trying to understand the Project and File system, but after some experimenting I figured it out easily enough. The main screen is a menu selection, with “Projects” at the very top and “File” listing second. Once you make a project and open it, you find yourself once more staring at the menu, making it unclear that anything changed. This is what originally threw me off for a bit.

Luckily, I tend to not be shy about pressing buttons when exploring a new device, and one quick click of the home button triggered an information pop-up, detailing the current project, file, word count, and other such important information. I made one project with a file called “Test”, and another project without any files at all. Then, as expected, when I entered the first project, there the test file was, and when I entered the second project, there were no files to be found. Wonderful!

The BYOK menu scree with information pop-up.

This might cause some confusion and frustration for the less technologically inclined, but nothing a short tutorial or manual won’t fix.

Once the BYOK is properly set up with projects and files galore, it opens upon start up to whatever document you were last working on, making it easy to pick up right where you left off (a feature I enjoy).

The BYOK also has four lighting options (which dim after inactivity), and a baseline setting with no lighting at all, making it able to be used comfortably in the sun and in a dark environment.

Once again, the BYOK honors the “less is more” approach, and as such it only supports txt files. Just to check, I tried taking the microSD card and adding a markdown file from my laptop then reinserting it into the BYOK, and as expected it wasn’t able to open the file. So, for now, I will be using my BYOK only for first drafts. Any further drafts requiring edits and formatting will be brought onto my computer where my trusty Scrivener lives. I’m okay with this, as I wanted my BYOK to do one thing and one thing only for me — write words.

There is a companion app for syncing to the cloud if one so chooses, but I opted out of that option and thus have not explored the app at all. I’m perfectly okay switching my microSD from BYOK to laptop and back again.

Overall, I would say I’m very pleased with my purchase, and my BYOK was well worth the wait. I have no complaints for the stripped back simplicity of its design and functionality seeing as that was exactly what I’d been looking for in the first place.

This is the very first version of the BYOK, and the very first version of its firmware, so I’m anticipating some glitches and hiccups down the line, but I’m pleased to say that I have yet to experience any since using it.

I’m looking forward to see what comes of the BYOK in the future, and honestly? I might buy the BYOK 2.0 when it eventually hits the shelves. I’m officially a fan.