We’re big fans of the idea behind distraction-free writing devices. However, we’re not as stoked with the keyboard computer form factors and tiny screens that seem to be the preferred design choices for the category. That’s why we’re pretty excited about the King Jim Pomera D250US.
Instead of pairing a full-size keyboard with a tiny screen like your usual offering in the category, the outfit is combining a bigger screen with a smaller keyboard in a clamshell form factor. It looks like a miniature laptop, in fact, making it incredibly easy to pack in your bag, while still accomplishing the digital typewriter function it’s meant to serve.
The King Jim Pomera D250US looks like a mini laptop, with a small seven-inch display on one side of the clamshell and a compact scissor-switch keyboard on the other. This allows you to easily angle the screen to a comfortable position, depending on your individual height and posture. Instead of using an E-Ink panel like many similar devices, they’re going with a simple black and white LCD screen with 1,024 x 600 resolution. Sure, it won’t be as power-saving as an E-Ink device, but you get to do your writing without the slow refresh speeds and ghosting that’s not uncommon with e-paper displays.
The display comes with light and dark modes, so you can write with either a white or black background, depending on your preferences, as well as adjustable backlighting, so you can make it brighter or darker as you see fit. No word on whether this is usable outdoors in bright sunlight, but it’s probably going to be a challenge using it in that setting, as is the case with many LCDs.
The King Jim Pomera D250US boots into a custom software that’s so lightweight, it immediately launches as soon as you open the clamshell. As such, you can start typing as soon as the device is opened, with none of the long boot times and startup wait you get with a typical laptop. It has a built-in word processor that offers more than just drafting, with built-in spell check, text selection, copy/paste, and word and character counter. It even has an Outline Mode and a Comparison Mode, so you get some useful writing features on top of the basic word processing functions, along with a proper folder and file management system.
The device has a rechargeable battery rated at 20 hours of continuous usage, so you can do a big load of writing on this before needing to plug in, with a charging time of around 5.5 hours when the battery is completely drained. There’s a built-in storage of just 1.3GB, which isn’t that small considering it’s meant to store text files, although it also has an SD card slot that supports up to 32GB memory cards. Other features include the ability to transform text into QR codes (so you can quickly capture it on your phone), wireless file transfer over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, and a compact size of 10.35 x 4.72 x0.7 inches (width x depth x thickness).
The King Jim Pomera D250US is currently collecting preorders on Indiegogo, priced starting at $374. This is exactly the same as the Pomera D250 currently available in Japan, albeit with a US keyboard layout and English language presets.
