This aluminium keyboard feels like it fell straight out of one of my abandoned sci-fi drafts—but thanks to its onboard word counter, I might just finish it now

The world is full of distractions, many of which are localised to the screens we all stare at day in and day out. The fact that the surface you turn to for necessary but boring life tasks, such as paying bills or sending strongly worded emails, is also the same setting for hours upon hours of cat videos is perhaps why writing this news story took far longer than it should have. In a tale as old as time, I’m yet one more writer prone to procrastination. Freewrite’s latest keyboard, featuring a mechanical word counter front and centre, may be just what I need.

Freewrite is a line of products from Astrohaus, a company that has taken it upon itself to create smart, distraction-free devices that ensure easily led astray writers such as myself actually get words on the page. Freewrite already offers a suite of ludicrously expensive smart typewriters, like the very pretty Valentine costing almost a grand. The company’s latest crowdfunding campaign touts a keyboard with a mechanical session timer plus a ‘wordometer’ to ensure writers meet all their deadline day goals.

The Wordrunner is a snazzy, die-cast aluminium keyboard that Jacob has previously covered when it was first unveiled at CES 2025. The promise of this wireless keyboard that will eventually retail for $449 has seen the crowdfunding campaign sail clear past its initial goal; originally only asking for $10,000, the Kickstarter has amassed almost 15 times that amount with more than a month still left to go. This may be a ‘keyboard for dorks,’ but it’s also a ‘keyboard for dorks with deep pockets. ‘ For everyone else, I’d recommend taking a look at the far cheaper options recommended in our best mechanical keyboards guide.

Rather than relying on a small on-screen display or thumbing through the Tools drop-down menu in Gdocs, the Wordrunner places its mechanical word counter right under your nose. The rotating wheels of this wordometer alongside the clicky session timer buttons and five-way media knob offers a tactile, distraction-limiting experience that feels straight out of a sci-fi story from the middle of last century.

Besides the incredibly powerful retrofitted vibes emanating from this keyboard, the onboard session timer and word counter have got me thinking about more novel applications of its feature set. For instance, if I keep track of my best word-per-minute scores, does that mean I can essentially race my own writing ghost data?

As for the actual typing experience, the Wordrunner combines layers of internal sound-dampening with Kailh tactile switches in the hopes of offering lovely clacks as opposed to metallic clangs. The function key row has also been reconfigured to offer “dedicated buttons for essential writing and editing functions.” For me, someone who keeps Googling the same keyboard shortcuts over and over, that’s a feature I genuinely welcome. Additionally, the Wordrunner also offers three reprogrammable macro keys for the real sickos out there.

Due to its metal body, the Wordrunner is a decidedly hefty bit of kit. So much so, in fact, that the campaign page notes, “One early reviewer said, ‘You could kill somebody with this.’ While not condoned, our engineers do take that as a compliment.” If the thought of death-by-keyboard doesn’t inspire, then can you really call yourself a writer?