Foliodeck Is the Working Person’s writerDeck

I’ve covered quite a few writerDecks, which are DIY devices — usually portable — built specifically with distraction-free typing in mind. As someone who writes for a living, it is easy for me to understand the appeal. Heck, I even designed and built one of my own a few years ago. But most writerDeck projects tend to require time, technical expertise, and a healthy budget. Those requirements often dissuade writers who aren’t also makers. But those people deserve good tools, too, and they might find inspiration in Vagabondvivant’s Foliodeck.

Foliodeck is a writerDeck for the kinds of people who don’t care about showing off pictures of their writerDecks online. It is thick, but has a ridiculously small footprint and would be easy to fit into a purse of backpack. And when closed it up, it definitely isn’t going to draw any attention from would-be thieves or plagiarists. That’s because all of the electronic components fit into an old organizer, like the kind you might have used for your agenda back in school.

With the innards of the organizer removed, there was plenty of room for the three components: the display/computer, the keyboard, and the battery bank.

That first component is actually a Hisense A5 smartphone, which is a very unique model. It is an Android smartphone with a big 5.84” E Ink screen with a relatively high (for E Ink screens) resolution of 1440×720 pixels. That has a very fast refresh rate (for E Ink screens) and so it is suitable for typing. But because it’s monochrome and slower than an LCD or OLED screen, users will likely be less distracted by social media and mobile games.

Vagabondvivant stuck the Hisense A5 in the top half of the organizer in a block of CNC-cut wood with a magnetic mount for easy removal. The bottom half of the organizer contains the keyboard and the battery pack. Those stick onto the CNC-cut MDF frame with more magnets. The keyboard is the kind that you’ll commonly find on tablet cases and the battery bank is a Nitecore model with a massive 10,000mAh capacity. The Hisense A5 already has an internal 4,000mAh battery and low power consumption, so I assume that this will run for a very long time between charges.

In the future, Vagabondvivant plans to replace the keyboard with a custom-made mechanical keyboard that should provide a more comfortable typing experience. But even as it is, the Foliodeck has charm.