I was looking at that, but ended up buying an Alphasmart Neo2 for $30 instead. No cloud integration; you upload to any text editor asynchronously via USB.

It's basically a keyboard with local memory allowing you to type away from distractions. I've really loved my experiences with it.

Here's another cheap idea: Get a Raspberry Pi Zero ($10-$15), connect it to an old monitor, and use it as an Emacs-only machine, in the framebuffer, no X required. You get all the features of Emacs (magit! org-mode!), none of the distractions.

Of course, this wouldn't be portable, but a typewriter isn't either.

I tried using an AlphaSmart, and it was pleasant, but I couldn't make it work because it separated me from all of my digital research materials. I never did find a good solution to that. Of course that was the late 1990s, perhaps today a tablet with Evernote or similar would fill the gap.

That's a cool device, and I thought about getting one -- but for me, I wanted the satisfaction of putting ink to paper.