The Communicator is interesting but why are they marketing this as a "second" phone? I can see buying this as a primary but who is really looking for a phone they carry specifically as a backup for when they want a keyboard?
A second phone market has never been a thing. History is filled with failed attempts.
They should focus on the largest potential market: parents who buy a phone like this to text with their kids without allowing them to have a completely internet connected phone.
I had the Unihertz Titan for a while . It was a fun experiment, but I ultimately found it too annoying for continued daily use
First, typing was actually slower and more error prone. Even nearly a year into owning it, I was constantly misclicking and spending loads of time correcting myself.
Second, you loose a ton of navigate functionality with the hardware keyboards. Holding space to navigate between characters is gone. Emojis are gone. GIF keyboards are gone.
Third, none of the apps are built for this aspect ratio or screen size. Often this is just an annoyance - but there are times this became an actual, legitimate blocker. Items would be laid out off screen in a way that you couldn’t access them. The solution: a scaled view where everything was ridiculously tiny.
Three B: too many situations where the virtual keyboard would come up and you’d literally have the entire screen covered.
I didn’t realize how much value I lose with these issues until I experienced them. Every thing you’ve relied on essentially become unreliable because you might not be able to use certain functionality.
I have the Titan 2 and I find that with the right software, these problems aren't as bad in the new release. The typing itself is a personal preference, of course; the keyboard needs to happen to be the right size for your hands or you're going to have a bad time. For navigating between characters, there's an excellent open source keyboard (https://github.com/palsoftware/pastiera) that provides a lot of features normally present in a soft keyboard that Unihertz didn't include in their keyboard. I switch between that and Swiftkey, though Swiftkey likes to open a full soft keyboard interface for no reason no matter how many ways I try to disable it.
The aspect ratio/screen size issue is annoying, but I find that a combination of the screen lock setting (for annoying apps that rotate the screen when they go "full screen") combined with scrolling using the capacitive keyboard works just fine without blocking the entire screen.
The one problem I have with the phone, and the reason I'm not dailying it, is that Unihertz is notoriously bad at providing software updates. I'm not too impressed with the Clicks phone either on that front, though at least they're beating Unihertz:
> Communicator will run Android 16. We’re comfortable committing to 2 years of Android updates and 5 years of security updates.
The clicks launcher looks pretty slick, though. I'll definitely try to run that on my Titan 2 when the APK eventually gets dumped.
As for the typing itself, just curious, were you a Blackberry user in the past? I was for 15+ years, but I've never used a Unihertz. But my typing experience was always running circles around every poor soul with a touch keyboard.
As to the rest - I owned one of every model of BlackBerry's Android PKB phones and none of this was an issue, so I'd say a lot of it may be Unihertz's execution. Losing navigation functionality with a PKB? That's shocking, you should have _gained_ advantage rather than lost anything.
Makes me almost happy I haven't gone for a Unihertz when my last Key2 croaked.
Not the person you're replying to, but I was a big BB user in the 2000s and had the Blackberry Passport briefly in 2015 to test its Android app compatibility (it was pretty damn compatible!).
What I discovered was that the best BB keyboards for error-free typing were the curved 4-row keyboards on the Bold 9000, 9700 and 9900. The Passport kb was flat, rectangular and only had 3 rows over a very wide layout and placed at the very bottom of the phone, making it cramped to type on. I love the idea of keyboard phones but only BB of yore did it right.
I had a Motorola Dext, HTC Desire Z, Blackberry Passport, Blackberry KeyOne, and Titan Pocket. And Gemini PDA.
The Passport was pretty much perfect, and I've not loved a phone as much before or since.
ISTR Unihertz had to make some significant UX tradeoffs to avoid a Blackberry patent infringement (how else do you explain that shift key). I also found it tiresome to use.
And the screen was square, which many websites didn't like. And high resolution and small, which made it fiddly to use.
I don't know if I'll get the Clicks Communicator. Mostly because looking at the above list, I'd have to admit that I have a phone problem...
(I also have another phone problem, which is that I can't seem to type anything accurately on my iPhone keyboard. Solidarity with hardware-keyboard-users.)
I have the Titan slim, and my experience is similar to what you described. I think most of the bad experience is caused by Unihertz half competent implementation.
Phones with hardware keyboard like this requires a good keyboard companion app, which Unihertz doesn't have.
It’s funny we have gone full circle. I still miss the nokias and bbs for being able to just write without typoing all the time and without the cognitivr load thay comes wiyh foxinh typos ally yeh time. Authentic samplr.
Seems like they have a good idea for a phone and want to fund the development using "pre-orders" (aka a Kickstarter). I went through the website and all the marketing and watched the launch video to find out how this thing works, but all I see is the same rendered home screen and lots of promises. Even in the video they show plenty of models of the phone lying around but not a single shot of one turned on and working.
I really do hope they succeed, and will definitely buy one if it turns out to be a viable product, but not before that.
I have a Clicks Keyboard and love it. As far as I can tell the team behind the Clicks are pretty intertwined with https://www.fxtec.com/ - in that FX Tech staff seem to be involved in Clicks support, etc.
The Clicks Keyboard for iPhone (14) was a great concept, and pretty well executed for a V1 - I haven’t tried their follow-up devices.
But assuming it’s the same team, there’s a history of shipping devices behind them.
(That isn’t to encourage you to pre-order! Just to perhaps contribute some more optimism to your hope that they succeed)
Indeed. I am highly skeptical of kickstarters (and their ilk) outside of a small subset which is mainly forms of art. Art is something you ought to know for sure if you can achieve it before launching your kickstarter. (And even if the album/photo book/whatever doesn't turn out exactly how you imagined it, you can still give the backers some art of equivalent value.)
Electronics are the exact opposite. Coming up with an idea and getting some renders done is at least 1,000x easier than the remaining work from idea to shipping 10,000 units, therefore it's reasonable to expect that at least 90% of kickstarters for such products will fail to deliver, leaving backers holding the bag, since all our money has been spent already on the failed attempts.
Furthermore, I tend to think that if, due to some combination of their existing reputation + the amount of the work they've already completely finished, the project were a safe bet, then they'd be able to get investors to front them any further needed startup funds the normal way.
Because of their existing product lines, I look at this more like marketing or market research. I'm pretty confident that this will actually be made. For one, the company actually has experience making and selling devices. This is a bit more ambitious than an accessory keyboard, but it's at least experience making something. Second, the pre-order reservation is about half of the full pre-order price. Unlike most Kickstarters where you have to front 100% of the money.
At some point, Kickstarter (et al) campaigns switch from high-risk speculative products to marketing pitches (get in early!). I think this is one of the later. You're right that they could probably have (or have already) funded the product development themselves. I think this pitch is trying to build a market early in the year before potential competitor products are announced.
This is very exciting to me, I have been reluctant to upgrade from my Pixel 4a because I've been looking for a small form factor phone, and those seem to have gone extinct. Now here comes a product that both provides a small form factor, and even better, is aimed at reducing distractions and provides features to that effect.
It's running regular Android with a custom version of Niagara launcher (which it seems I need to try), and seems like it's a product built by people who want to use it. Which makes me hopeful that a lot of care was put into designing it. It seems like they're aiming it towards people that want a second device for work, which -in my mind- means there might be some compromises, so I'll be waiting for reviews to decide if it can hold up as a daily driver or not.
It should be noted, they claim that the keyboard is touch sensitive and can be used for scrolling, so it might actually solve some of the usability issues that immediately come to mind.
TBH, I'm a little surprised by all the hate. This might not be a product for you, or it might not speak to you for other reasons. The fact is that this company has seen success with their phone cases (I don't get it either), and has now announced two new products that should reach more of the market (the other is a magsafe slide out keyboard, it's very cool). If you don't like it, fair enough, but that doesn't mean it's a bad product.
Beautiful hardware. If they'd commit to GrapheneOS's hardware requirements https://grapheneos.org/faq#future-devices, I'd preorder... I'm stuck on Pixels because Graphene is so nice.
Seconded. Graphene has spoiled me. Here's to hoping graphene's future collaboration with an OEM results in a small physical keyboard device! Not holding my breath, and will choose graphene over any other feature.
The back panel design, shape, and customizability reminds me a bit of the old Moto X that Motorola built while being owned by Google. Brings back some nostalgia.
This is looking great, hope the camera can at least produce decent photos. So many other phones with a QEWRTY keyboard just have awful cameras.
The Razr 2024/25 + the clicks keyboard is probably the "best" so far. Although I just got a Zinwa Q25. Amazing how good that formfactor feels after having candy bars this long.
Thanks, I saw that, but I never can make heads or tails of just MP. Feel like some phones have much lower MP but the quality of the photo is much higher.
My recommendation for someone considering a minimalist / dumbphone / detox / whatever is to avoid expensive products that over-promise their utility. There's no middle ground, it's either usable or it is not, so any in between will just become e-waste eventually.
The alternative I went with, and which I recommend, is getting both a smartphone and a nokia shitphone (no internet). Then ask the carrier for a sim duplicate. These exist, and are in fact a new number that redirects to your number. Use and carry whichever you want, knowing that calls will all go to both phones.
This might actually get me to switch away from apple. Although I've gotten to the point where I realize that phones are mostly gimmicky sales portals, and it's just easier to do stuff on a real computer.
I second/third/forth all the other comments on this already, it would be better if I didn't have to buy into the google android system; seems like google has lost most of the trust with most people.
This actually looks nice! I'd prefer a slide out horizontal keyboard like the X10 Mini Pro[1], but beggars can't be choosers.
I've never gotten used to the touch keyboard, since writing anything while code-switching multiple languages doesn't really work well with the predictive input. Especially if the other language has to be transliterated from a non Latin script.
Though the update policy doesn't sound too promising, 2 years of OS updates + 5 years of security updates is too short :/
The only thing I remember about Peek is how they sold "lifetime service" with the device for an extra $300 or so and a couple years later went "Sike! Your device isn't supported on our network anymore".
Wow I wish they had announced this sooner. I just ordered a keyphone but this looks way more suited to my use case. I just want a basic feature phone + qwerty keyboard + signal + whats app.
I've been using a lightphone for 3 years but i can't stand the touch screen and only having SMS is annoying.
What do you use for maps? Or paying for parking which maybe isn't the case for you but in my city requires use of a smartphone app. What about music and podcasts? Asking cause I would like to use a dumb phone if possible but it seems like it would actually introduce a lot of friction into daily life.
Also, the existing suite of Clicks Keyboard Cases for iPhone, which while making the phone longer than the slide out magsafe PowerKey, keep the depth nearly unchanged.
Personally got an iPhone solely because Clicks initially was only available for Apples product line and have to say after two years that while Android was never bug free either, iOS doesn't really keep me on polish alone. In other words, neither is less issue prone/has fewer bugs and glitches than the other.
It still has a touchscreen, right? And it even has a blinky light up button on the side, something iPhone doesn't. I read the homepage, but I couldn't figure out how this phone was "anti-doomscrolling" - what am I missing?
The hero image makes it look like the phone is an inch thick. I didn’t realize it was actually showing two phones (front and back) until I saw the rest of the gallery.
I'm surprised this is a thing. with the advances in STT I want the other extreme - a smaller and smaller device that leverages better voice control - super efficient inferencing chip on board and low power mic that's worn on your person to make said STT very very accurate (>95% word accuracy).
The thing I am always curious about with voice controlled devices is how do you use them in public? On the bus? Subway? How do you discretely check a message while in a lecture hall?
Voice control makes for a fun scifi gimmick but it is incredibly impractical in real life without an alternative interface, in my experience.
This. Speak to type I can understand, to a degree, but for proper voice control to be quick and effective and anything more than a gimmick, it would need to rely on some shorthand - kind of how full-on screen reader action for those visually impaired is very intense - just the other way round.
What's funny is I actually use to have a Palm Treo and I feel like I stopped being able to text even remotely efficiently ever since I switched from that to my first iPhone.
Probably just a me problem, but I feel like I've never been able to get any good at typing on a screen keyboard no matter how long I do it.
That said, I may consider this just for the fact that I won't have to retype/correct every other word in a text lol.
Hell yeah it is. They've found some success with their cases, and I'm excited to switch to their new magnetic keyboard for horizontal portable work, but I do worry this is a moonshot that will sink them.
I feel like I see an independent low-noise phone project like, every 3 months. Clearly there is some latent demand here. I wonder why the big players (Google, Apple, Samsung, HTC) haven't made a big-corp product for this market.
I am always reluctant to jump on with these independent ambitious projects. The first version is understandably rough, and the company seems to fold before they get to a second or third version.
But maybe advances in manufacturing in China are making high-quality, small-batch products like this more tractable?
Same reason Acura stopped making small cars like the Integra/RSX: costs scale more slowly than revenue as car size increases, so selling to the small car market segment results in unearned potential profits — even if the small car segment is a majority, it’s better to make a higher profit per unit on fewer unit sales if your most primary goal is to min/max labor/profit.
(Small phones, unlike small cars, also have costs in UI development to maintain their form factor’s OS support, which can create an additional pressure to withhold devices for a viable and profitable market.)
No, there demand is negligible. It's just typical hacker news people who want to suddenly become productive Silicon Valley trope hustle style, or people who want to change their damaging habits in a day, so instead of uninstalling TikTok which takes 15 seconds to do, they will spend money a separate device.
The first rendering made me think it was as thick as a brick, and that got me kind of excited for a moment…
Any device that isn’t as thick and heavy as the original Game Boy feels uncomfortably cramped in my hands.
Being unable to fit in a pocket would be a plus. I want a device I have to consciously choose to carry with me to a new room, like a tablet or a pound of butter.
The Gmail app on Android supports 3rd party email servers via IMAP and has done for as long as I can remember (I have Gmail accounts but my primary account is a self hosted one and I use the Gmail app for all the accounts)
Cool, I have a friend who always mourned the loss of his physical keyboard, I will tell him. I wish it could run standard Linux though (perhaps it can) - would make it a sweet little cyberdeck…
Slight digression: why isn't a computer – a general purpose computer, open enough to run mainline Linux – in this form factor readily available? I'm fine with not calling it a phone. I just don't understand why we don't have (connected) open pocket computers by now, with all the innovations introduced by smartphones more or less commoditized by now.
By "open" above, I don't necessarily mean open hardware (though that would be great). I just mean "as open as a random consumer x86 computer you can just throw any Linux distro at without any special secret sauce".
Linux phones exist, but I don't see a huge market for it. Most people don't really need a general-purpose computer in their pocket. The most used app on my phone is a web browser, and I also need a banking app, authorization apps and all the parking, public transportation apps for wherever I happen to be today to work.
Miniaturization is expensive and often these kinds of devices rely on some form of subsidy to be cheap enough to reach popular adoption levels. Not to mention the user interfaces these days seem to be built for touch or game controller, and not a lot else.
Your options are things like the CHIP (which is dead, now, I think?), Pocket GPD or other gaming focused ultra-portable, or something like the Pinephone.
I've been rocking a Razr 2025 Ultra and just try to do everything on the front screen. Its not the best experience, just pre-ordered this, excited to try it!
Is it their original launch edition keyboard, or the later refined version? The launch edition one I have is like you describe, but I hope they have improved things since then.
I wouldn’t buy this with Android - especially not out their software expiration policies. It’s designed to be obsolete. Put another OS on it and it would be great.
Presentation: The web site shows the same screen - show some variety of what the OS looks like in that format.
Have used a Clicks keyboard on my Pro Max to great effect. Being able to touch type without looking, even whilst walking around/changing trains has been truly game changing. Writing SOPs, editing spreadsheets, answering long mails, typing without the atrocious autocorrect making it impossible, all that is far better with the Clicks keyboard. I feel that this is their differentiator and a key customer market they should lean into, people who need reliable input and are willing to sacrifice other things for it.
Personally wish their marketing leaned into the productivity more than in this "second-device" trend. Never understood that if I am totally honest. The logic for buying a $ 700,- Light Phone over just installing a launcher and muting the colours is allegedly that it creates more friction, but there is just as much keeping you from just using your existing phone once you purchased a Light Phone as there is preventing you from uninstalling the launcher. Basically, I see this category as rather dishonest, at most holding on by a treat with the sunk cost argument that anyone truly addicted is unlikely to even feel, so I'd rather see them lean into what makes them great rather than chase an artificial category, often more focused on signaling the intent to lessen phone user over actually facilitating it.
State clearly, proudly and with full conviction that yes, this is a main device and yes, there are things this will do better than arguably anything else on the market, mainly because Clicks does keyboards a multitude better than any alternative, be it Unihertz or Minimal.
There is nothing preventing the use of Insta and TikTok. It is a regular Android phone and unlike a Light Phone can have a target market beyond those thinking if they buy a treadmill, that spend will force them to keep exercising. It rarely works, of course, same with second phones.
In the comments below the Verge Article and announcement video on the Communicator, there is already confusion because of their second device marketing. Whether you can use it without another device, whether it can share data contracts like a smartwatch, what keeps one from using it as their sole smartphone, some even asking whether this actually allows for phone calls or is just for mailing.
They have clearly just confused the messaging for the core audience of Clicks and devices of this type by chasing what I'd argue is a mirage, a customer base that doesn't exist.
Keep in mind, Clicks doesn't need to speculate who will buy this. They already have a loyal consumer base (I paid over € 150,- including import fees for just the case and am far from alone), made up of power users who mostly will use this as their sole smartphone, just like we have been doing with our Clicks equipped iPhones, Pixels, Razrs and Galaxies.
Second device is a wholly different market, one that I suspect does not intersect much with the existing base of heavy power users, using their phones to reliably control e.g. IDEs and remote desktops on the go.
I'd argue the two are in fact polar opposites, someone who needs reliable input on the go is likely not the same someone who wants to use their phone less and equally would not want to just have reliable input only on e.g. their work device. For me, it's always a pain when I have to use a touch only keyboard despite previously doing fine with swiping, etc. so if a Communicator user wanted to have physically separate devices for work and private, they'd more likely go for a second Clicks, the keyboard is that nice and arguably locks you in tight.
I agree about the marketing. I just heard about this phone now and was confused about if I could just use it as a primary phone. It would be nice if they talked more about what the phone is like to use, show what is the home screen and stuff. I'm wondering if I can use it well with some other utility apps that I don't think I'd want to do without like Maps, Parking payment apps, Podcasts and Spotify.
For the Home Screen, they've announced a collaboration with Niagara Launcher and it appears to be close to AOSP+GServices, so I suspect that'll all work out of the box, but yeah, they really should be clearer. Also has both a NanoSim slot and eSim support powered by a not yet public Mediathek SOC.
Major concern as is often the case with new phone startups is the update policy and more importantly whether they'll be able to actually deliver over the years. Has been literally half a decade since I last used a Mediathek device, so maybe this changed, but back then they didn't have the best reputation for long term maintenance, providing drivers to enable updates, etc...
Genuine question, why would a none power user want a physical keyboard on their phone?
Or from the other side, why would the digital detox, second device crowd go for a fully featured Android phone with a color AMOLED with all the temptations that brings over a smartwatch or black and white screened device?
even it is "JUST" a blackberry, seems like there is a market for that again. Although it would be nice if they had their own OS like blackberry and ditched android.
Do we really wanna go back to using keyboards? Like Steve Jobs said, the keyboard shouldnt be visible when not in use, but I dunno, seems more like a niche nostalgia product
I was disappointed by their iPhone keyboard offering. I felt like their product was superficially good: fancy adds, fancy web-page, the keyboard looked nice, BUT the functionality was not well thought out. They seemed to not realize that they need to provide a hell of a lot of benefit to warrant making an iPhone - especially a max - bigger and heavier. So, sure, they provided physical qwerty. But, they did not make it easy to bind keys or combos to all/most of the Apple supported shortcuts that a bluetooth keyboard would be able to take advantage of. The result is that even if I liked the qwerty, I still have to take my fingers off of it to touch the damn screen to do basic navigation. With better leadership, they would be a much stronger company.
EDIT: was referring to their first product that is an iphone case plus keyboard (I just noticed they have a new keyboard offering).
I love it. Finally some innovation. Now make it incapable of instagram and TikTok and other invasive social media crap and we might have the winner for the next decade.
As if :(
Shellfish on iOS to ssh into a vps with tmux with Gemini-cli, lazygit and neovim worked quite well for me.
The clicks keyboard does not have ctrl, arrows, page up, down or really any special keys so I’m not sure it would be that much more pleasant. I know iOS keyboard has been quite meh in the recent releases but for thumb typing I’m not convinced that physical keyboard are superior.
I have fond memories of my LG enV2, so much that I tried a hardware keyboard again a few years ago. Hardware solves the tactile problem but the most painful part of mobile typing is cursor navigation, basic editing, and tiny text areas. So, now I can feel the keys, but it does nothing to enhance navigation, or basic editing; I get a smaller screen for text areas (and all other non-typing related tasks); and if any of those tiny keys breaks, the entire device is useless.
It's a MediaTek SoC, so the Linux experience will be Bad to say the least. This thing will be running the oldest kernel possible with all kind of nasty vendor hacks.
I'm with you. But what phone are you using day to day? I keep watching for linux phones or even start to wonder if Apple is finally the "lesser of two evils" :/
While I do like the product Idea, I'll agree that their video came off as stiff/fake/forced? I guess we'll just have to wait to see what actually gets released.
The Communicator is interesting but why are they marketing this as a "second" phone? I can see buying this as a primary but who is really looking for a phone they carry specifically as a backup for when they want a keyboard?
If you’re aiming for the second phone market you don’t have to beat the iPhone. Probably the easier pitch.
A second phone market has never been a thing. History is filled with failed attempts.
They should focus on the largest potential market: parents who buy a phone like this to text with their kids without allowing them to have a completely internet connected phone.
I had the Unihertz Titan for a while . It was a fun experiment, but I ultimately found it too annoying for continued daily use
First, typing was actually slower and more error prone. Even nearly a year into owning it, I was constantly misclicking and spending loads of time correcting myself.
Second, you loose a ton of navigate functionality with the hardware keyboards. Holding space to navigate between characters is gone. Emojis are gone. GIF keyboards are gone.
Third, none of the apps are built for this aspect ratio or screen size. Often this is just an annoyance - but there are times this became an actual, legitimate blocker. Items would be laid out off screen in a way that you couldn’t access them. The solution: a scaled view where everything was ridiculously tiny.
Three B: too many situations where the virtual keyboard would come up and you’d literally have the entire screen covered.
I didn’t realize how much value I lose with these issues until I experienced them. Every thing you’ve relied on essentially become unreliable because you might not be able to use certain functionality.
Holding the spacebar down... I never knew about this... are there any other Apple keyboard secrets?
I have the Titan 2 and I find that with the right software, these problems aren't as bad in the new release. The typing itself is a personal preference, of course; the keyboard needs to happen to be the right size for your hands or you're going to have a bad time. For navigating between characters, there's an excellent open source keyboard (https://github.com/palsoftware/pastiera) that provides a lot of features normally present in a soft keyboard that Unihertz didn't include in their keyboard. I switch between that and Swiftkey, though Swiftkey likes to open a full soft keyboard interface for no reason no matter how many ways I try to disable it.
The aspect ratio/screen size issue is annoying, but I find that a combination of the screen lock setting (for annoying apps that rotate the screen when they go "full screen") combined with scrolling using the capacitive keyboard works just fine without blocking the entire screen.
The one problem I have with the phone, and the reason I'm not dailying it, is that Unihertz is notoriously bad at providing software updates. I'm not too impressed with the Clicks phone either on that front, though at least they're beating Unihertz:
> Communicator will run Android 16. We’re comfortable committing to 2 years of Android updates and 5 years of security updates.
The clicks launcher looks pretty slick, though. I'll definitely try to run that on my Titan 2 when the APK eventually gets dumped.
As for the typing itself, just curious, were you a Blackberry user in the past? I was for 15+ years, but I've never used a Unihertz. But my typing experience was always running circles around every poor soul with a touch keyboard.
As to the rest - I owned one of every model of BlackBerry's Android PKB phones and none of this was an issue, so I'd say a lot of it may be Unihertz's execution. Losing navigation functionality with a PKB? That's shocking, you should have _gained_ advantage rather than lost anything.
Makes me almost happy I haven't gone for a Unihertz when my last Key2 croaked.
Not the person you're replying to, but I was a big BB user in the 2000s and had the Blackberry Passport briefly in 2015 to test its Android app compatibility (it was pretty damn compatible!).
What I discovered was that the best BB keyboards for error-free typing were the curved 4-row keyboards on the Bold 9000, 9700 and 9900. The Passport kb was flat, rectangular and only had 3 rows over a very wide layout and placed at the very bottom of the phone, making it cramped to type on. I love the idea of keyboard phones but only BB of yore did it right.
I had a Motorola Dext, HTC Desire Z, Blackberry Passport, Blackberry KeyOne, and Titan Pocket. And Gemini PDA.
The Passport was pretty much perfect, and I've not loved a phone as much before or since.
ISTR Unihertz had to make some significant UX tradeoffs to avoid a Blackberry patent infringement (how else do you explain that shift key). I also found it tiresome to use.
And the screen was square, which many websites didn't like. And high resolution and small, which made it fiddly to use.
I don't know if I'll get the Clicks Communicator. Mostly because looking at the above list, I'd have to admit that I have a phone problem...
(I also have another phone problem, which is that I can't seem to type anything accurately on my iPhone keyboard. Solidarity with hardware-keyboard-users.)
I have the Titan slim, and my experience is similar to what you described. I think most of the bad experience is caused by Unihertz half competent implementation.
Phones with hardware keyboard like this requires a good keyboard companion app, which Unihertz doesn't have.
It’s funny we have gone full circle. I still miss the nokias and bbs for being able to just write without typoing all the time and without the cognitivr load thay comes wiyh foxinh typos ally yeh time. Authentic samplr.
This one says the keyboard is touch sensitive, like the old android blackberries, so you can still do some swipe gestures
Holy shit I just learned about using space to navigate between characters. That's amazing, thanks.
My life just changed forever too...
Seems like they have a good idea for a phone and want to fund the development using "pre-orders" (aka a Kickstarter). I went through the website and all the marketing and watched the launch video to find out how this thing works, but all I see is the same rendered home screen and lots of promises. Even in the video they show plenty of models of the phone lying around but not a single shot of one turned on and working.
I really do hope they succeed, and will definitely buy one if it turns out to be a viable product, but not before that.
I have a Clicks Keyboard and love it. As far as I can tell the team behind the Clicks are pretty intertwined with https://www.fxtec.com/ - in that FX Tech staff seem to be involved in Clicks support, etc.
The Clicks Keyboard for iPhone (14) was a great concept, and pretty well executed for a V1 - I haven’t tried their follow-up devices.
But assuming it’s the same team, there’s a history of shipping devices behind them.
(That isn’t to encourage you to pre-order! Just to perhaps contribute some more optimism to your hope that they succeed)
Indeed. I am highly skeptical of kickstarters (and their ilk) outside of a small subset which is mainly forms of art. Art is something you ought to know for sure if you can achieve it before launching your kickstarter. (And even if the album/photo book/whatever doesn't turn out exactly how you imagined it, you can still give the backers some art of equivalent value.)
Electronics are the exact opposite. Coming up with an idea and getting some renders done is at least 1,000x easier than the remaining work from idea to shipping 10,000 units, therefore it's reasonable to expect that at least 90% of kickstarters for such products will fail to deliver, leaving backers holding the bag, since all our money has been spent already on the failed attempts.
Furthermore, I tend to think that if, due to some combination of their existing reputation + the amount of the work they've already completely finished, the project were a safe bet, then they'd be able to get investors to front them any further needed startup funds the normal way.
Because of their existing product lines, I look at this more like marketing or market research. I'm pretty confident that this will actually be made. For one, the company actually has experience making and selling devices. This is a bit more ambitious than an accessory keyboard, but it's at least experience making something. Second, the pre-order reservation is about half of the full pre-order price. Unlike most Kickstarters where you have to front 100% of the money.
At some point, Kickstarter (et al) campaigns switch from high-risk speculative products to marketing pitches (get in early!). I think this is one of the later. You're right that they could probably have (or have already) funded the product development themselves. I think this pitch is trying to build a market early in the year before potential competitor products are announced.
This is very exciting to me, I have been reluctant to upgrade from my Pixel 4a because I've been looking for a small form factor phone, and those seem to have gone extinct. Now here comes a product that both provides a small form factor, and even better, is aimed at reducing distractions and provides features to that effect.
It's running regular Android with a custom version of Niagara launcher (which it seems I need to try), and seems like it's a product built by people who want to use it. Which makes me hopeful that a lot of care was put into designing it. It seems like they're aiming it towards people that want a second device for work, which -in my mind- means there might be some compromises, so I'll be waiting for reviews to decide if it can hold up as a daily driver or not.
It should be noted, they claim that the keyboard is touch sensitive and can be used for scrolling, so it might actually solve some of the usability issues that immediately come to mind.
TBH, I'm a little surprised by all the hate. This might not be a product for you, or it might not speak to you for other reasons. The fact is that this company has seen success with their phone cases (I don't get it either), and has now announced two new products that should reach more of the market (the other is a magsafe slide out keyboard, it's very cool). If you don't like it, fair enough, but that doesn't mean it's a bad product.
Beautiful hardware. If they'd commit to GrapheneOS's hardware requirements https://grapheneos.org/faq#future-devices, I'd preorder... I'm stuck on Pixels because Graphene is so nice.
Seconded. Graphene has spoiled me. Here's to hoping graphene's future collaboration with an OEM results in a small physical keyboard device! Not holding my breath, and will choose graphene over any other feature.
The back panel design, shape, and customizability reminds me a bit of the old Moto X that Motorola built while being owned by Google. Brings back some nostalgia.
This is looking great, hope the camera can at least produce decent photos. So many other phones with a QEWRTY keyboard just have awful cameras.
The Razr 2024/25 + the clicks keyboard is probably the "best" so far. Although I just got a Zinwa Q25. Amazing how good that formfactor feels after having candy bars this long.
The site lists the following specs for cameras:
> Cameras
> Rear: 50MP OIS
> Front: 24MP
Honestly, this sounds like a great deal
Thanks, I saw that, but I never can make heads or tails of just MP. Feel like some phones have much lower MP but the quality of the photo is much higher.
It does seem like a great deal either way though!
My recommendation for someone considering a minimalist / dumbphone / detox / whatever is to avoid expensive products that over-promise their utility. There's no middle ground, it's either usable or it is not, so any in between will just become e-waste eventually.
The alternative I went with, and which I recommend, is getting both a smartphone and a nokia shitphone (no internet). Then ask the carrier for a sim duplicate. These exist, and are in fact a new number that redirects to your number. Use and carry whichever you want, knowing that calls will all go to both phones.
This might actually get me to switch away from apple. Although I've gotten to the point where I realize that phones are mostly gimmicky sales portals, and it's just easier to do stuff on a real computer.
I second/third/forth all the other comments on this already, it would be better if I didn't have to buy into the google android system; seems like google has lost most of the trust with most people.
This company makes cases with a physical keyboard for iPhone 14+ so if you just want the keyboard you might be able to get one of those instead.
This actually looks nice! I'd prefer a slide out horizontal keyboard like the X10 Mini Pro[1], but beggars can't be choosers.
I've never gotten used to the touch keyboard, since writing anything while code-switching multiple languages doesn't really work well with the predictive input. Especially if the other language has to be transliterated from a non Latin script.
Though the update policy doesn't sound too promising, 2 years of OS updates + 5 years of security updates is too short :/
[1] https://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_xperia_x10_mini_pro-3...
Actually, this was initially a phone accessory (1) with a keyboard.
App reviews (2) saying that there was lot of glitches with keyboard app.
I assume same approach will be for the this phone: accessory keyboard over android phone.
1. https://www.clicks.tech/en
2. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.clicks.com...
Reminds me of the old Peek: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peek_(mobile_Internet_device)
The only thing I remember about Peek is how they sold "lifetime service" with the device for an extra $300 or so and a couple years later went "Sike! Your device isn't supported on our network anymore".
Wow I wish they had announced this sooner. I just ordered a keyphone but this looks way more suited to my use case. I just want a basic feature phone + qwerty keyboard + signal + whats app.
I've been using a lightphone for 3 years but i can't stand the touch screen and only having SMS is annoying.
What do you use for maps? Or paying for parking which maybe isn't the case for you but in my city requires use of a smartphone app. What about music and podcasts? Asking cause I would like to use a dumb phone if possible but it seems like it would actually introduce a lot of friction into daily life.
The Keyphone they are referencing is Android, so those things can be worked around to some degree.
I pay for parking with quarters or a credit card.
If necessary I use a piece of paper for maps.
For music I have an ipod.
Can wait to get my Clicks jeans with 18 pockets for all my devices. Or my Clicks sport coat which includes a hood.
Also find it ironic how all these things are starting to look more and more like my old Palm Pilot.
Looks great and the price is a pleasant surprise. Can we flash a custom OS to it?
I'm missing having LED colours for notifications on my current phone.
I really hope the bootloader is unlocked and something line LineageOS could be adapted to work well with it.
Loved the LED on my Blackberry Passport.
I had two Blackberry Passport even after EOF. Best email experience ever and LED for emails was particularly useful.
Ah man this hardware looks amazing — I just don’t know if I could give up living on iOS…
They have a standalone keyboard product that snaps with magsafe.
Also, the existing suite of Clicks Keyboard Cases for iPhone, which while making the phone longer than the slide out magsafe PowerKey, keep the depth nearly unchanged.
Personally got an iPhone solely because Clicks initially was only available for Apples product line and have to say after two years that while Android was never bug free either, iOS doesn't really keep me on polish alone. In other words, neither is less issue prone/has fewer bugs and glitches than the other.
> What languages will be supported?
> As a real keyboard with the QWERTY layout, Communicator supports languages that use the Latin alphabet: [...] Russian
Weird
> Weird
Clarify?
Russian does not use the Latin alphabet
Oh! Okay. I’m not an expert, but the depth of information here appears to disagree?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Latin_alphabet
Japanese too
Device form factor looks attractive. This one might even fit in a pocket, unlike all modern phablets and their protruding camera "islands".
>Designed for doing, not doomscrolling.
It still has a touchscreen, right? And it even has a blinky light up button on the side, something iPhone doesn't. I read the homepage, but I couldn't figure out how this phone was "anti-doomscrolling" - what am I missing?
The "small" screen is supposed to deter social media and video use.
The hero image makes it look like the phone is an inch thick. I didn’t realize it was actually showing two phones (front and back) until I saw the rest of the gallery.
I'm surprised this is a thing. with the advances in STT I want the other extreme - a smaller and smaller device that leverages better voice control - super efficient inferencing chip on board and low power mic that's worn on your person to make said STT very very accurate (>95% word accuracy).
The thing I am always curious about with voice controlled devices is how do you use them in public? On the bus? Subway? How do you discretely check a message while in a lecture hall?
Voice control makes for a fun scifi gimmick but it is incredibly impractical in real life without an alternative interface, in my experience.
This. Speak to type I can understand, to a degree, but for proper voice control to be quick and effective and anything more than a gimmick, it would need to rely on some shorthand - kind of how full-on screen reader action for those visually impaired is very intense - just the other way round.
You would still have a screen. The device itself could just be smaller.
For people who miss blackberry.
Well, seems to have all the right ingredients:
- PKB (check) with gestures / navigation (check) - Customisable, colour notification LED (check) - Unified inbox (check).
So far though only BB got all of it right though - very curious how this one works out.
What's funny is I actually use to have a Palm Treo and I feel like I stopped being able to text even remotely efficiently ever since I switched from that to my first iPhone.
Probably just a me problem, but I feel like I've never been able to get any good at typing on a screen keyboard no matter how long I do it.
That said, I may consider this just for the fact that I won't have to retype/correct every other word in a text lol.
Hell yeah it is. They've found some success with their cases, and I'm excited to switch to their new magnetic keyboard for horizontal portable work, but I do worry this is a moonshot that will sink them.
If only form factors like these could run general use/free OS's...
This is running Android
Me.
I feel like I see an independent low-noise phone project like, every 3 months. Clearly there is some latent demand here. I wonder why the big players (Google, Apple, Samsung, HTC) haven't made a big-corp product for this market.
I am always reluctant to jump on with these independent ambitious projects. The first version is understandably rough, and the company seems to fold before they get to a second or third version.
But maybe advances in manufacturing in China are making high-quality, small-batch products like this more tractable?
I feel like I see an independent low-noise phone project like, every 3 months. Clearly there is some latent demand here.
I don’t know - it feels to me that this is evidence that there _isn’t_ sufficient demand to sustain a successful product like this.
Same reason Acura stopped making small cars like the Integra/RSX: costs scale more slowly than revenue as car size increases, so selling to the small car market segment results in unearned potential profits — even if the small car segment is a majority, it’s better to make a higher profit per unit on fewer unit sales if your most primary goal is to min/max labor/profit.
(Small phones, unlike small cars, also have costs in UI development to maintain their form factor’s OS support, which can create an additional pressure to withhold devices for a viable and profitable market.)
> I wonder why the big players (Google, Apple, Samsung, HTC) haven't made a big-corp product for this market.
Because it impacts ARPU. It's really not that difficult, you're the product being sold.
> Clearly there is some latent demand here
No, there demand is negligible. It's just typical hacker news people who want to suddenly become productive Silicon Valley trope hustle style, or people who want to change their damaging habits in a day, so instead of uninstalling TikTok which takes 15 seconds to do, they will spend money a separate device.
Although the keyboard may be useful.
Discipline yourself before buying a new device.
How many lashes must I give myself before I buy this phone?
The first rendering made me think it was as thick as a brick, and that got me kind of excited for a moment…
Any device that isn’t as thick and heavy as the original Game Boy feels uncomfortably cramped in my hands.
Being unable to fit in a pocket would be a plus. I want a device I have to consciously choose to carry with me to a new room, like a tablet or a pound of butter.
You could create a 3D printed case maybe
It would be nice to have something like this with a privacy OS
The user interface looks very similar to Niagara Launcher. I found it a really fresh and comfortable alternative to the default android launchers
It is Niagara Launcher. They say so in the demo video.
It looks more like hype than a real product.
What makes me suspicious is the Gmail icon instead of a generic email app.
So if I have my own email server, does that mean no mail? Or would there be one Gmail app and another separate email client? Unclear.
The Gmail app on Android supports 3rd party email servers via IMAP and has done for as long as I can remember (I have Gmail accounts but my primary account is a self hosted one and I use the Gmail app for all the accounts)
It is supposed to run Android, so if you need another client, it might be as easy as installing it through an APK.
If it's android, presumably you'd just install via the Google Play Store?
I found out that it's sister product of keyboard accessory company, so most probably this will be usual android with keyboard as accessory.
Cool, I have a friend who always mourned the loss of his physical keyboard, I will tell him. I wish it could run standard Linux though (perhaps it can) - would make it a sweet little cyberdeck…
Slight digression: why isn't a computer – a general purpose computer, open enough to run mainline Linux – in this form factor readily available? I'm fine with not calling it a phone. I just don't understand why we don't have (connected) open pocket computers by now, with all the innovations introduced by smartphones more or less commoditized by now.
By "open" above, I don't necessarily mean open hardware (though that would be great). I just mean "as open as a random consumer x86 computer you can just throw any Linux distro at without any special secret sauce".
Linux phones exist, but I don't see a huge market for it. Most people don't really need a general-purpose computer in their pocket. The most used app on my phone is a web browser, and I also need a banking app, authorization apps and all the parking, public transportation apps for wherever I happen to be today to work.
Miniaturization is expensive and often these kinds of devices rely on some form of subsidy to be cheap enough to reach popular adoption levels. Not to mention the user interfaces these days seem to be built for touch or game controller, and not a lot else.
Your options are things like the CHIP (which is dead, now, I think?), Pocket GPD or other gaming focused ultra-portable, or something like the Pinephone.
I've been rocking a Razr 2025 Ultra and just try to do everything on the front screen. Its not the best experience, just pre-ordered this, excited to try it!
Pretty neat. I have the Clicks keyboard and I just wish the keys weren't so stiff. Too hard to type on, sadly.
Is it their original launch edition keyboard, or the later refined version? The launch edition one I have is like you describe, but I hope they have improved things since then.
This has been my complaint as well. I didn't realize how stiff those keys were when I recently got to try it.
Sounds like a competitor to the Minimal Phone?
I wouldn’t buy this with Android - especially not out their software expiration policies. It’s designed to be obsolete. Put another OS on it and it would be great.
Presentation: The web site shows the same screen - show some variety of what the OS looks like in that format.
Yep, this confused me as well. They claim it's a normal Android, so... this is just the fullscreen notification view? That's it?
I've been very impressed by the attention to detail Clicks puts into their products. It might be a niche but it seems like one that deserves to exist.
Have used a Clicks keyboard on my Pro Max to great effect. Being able to touch type without looking, even whilst walking around/changing trains has been truly game changing. Writing SOPs, editing spreadsheets, answering long mails, typing without the atrocious autocorrect making it impossible, all that is far better with the Clicks keyboard. I feel that this is their differentiator and a key customer market they should lean into, people who need reliable input and are willing to sacrifice other things for it.
Personally wish their marketing leaned into the productivity more than in this "second-device" trend. Never understood that if I am totally honest. The logic for buying a $ 700,- Light Phone over just installing a launcher and muting the colours is allegedly that it creates more friction, but there is just as much keeping you from just using your existing phone once you purchased a Light Phone as there is preventing you from uninstalling the launcher. Basically, I see this category as rather dishonest, at most holding on by a treat with the sunk cost argument that anyone truly addicted is unlikely to even feel, so I'd rather see them lean into what makes them great rather than chase an artificial category, often more focused on signaling the intent to lessen phone user over actually facilitating it.
State clearly, proudly and with full conviction that yes, this is a main device and yes, there are things this will do better than arguably anything else on the market, mainly because Clicks does keyboards a multitude better than any alternative, be it Unihertz or Minimal.
people still need their IG and TikTok
you can fight that, and lose (no market)
or accept second device status (for werk), optimize that use case, and be honest that it will not be the main device
There is nothing preventing the use of Insta and TikTok. It is a regular Android phone and unlike a Light Phone can have a target market beyond those thinking if they buy a treadmill, that spend will force them to keep exercising. It rarely works, of course, same with second phones.
In the comments below the Verge Article and announcement video on the Communicator, there is already confusion because of their second device marketing. Whether you can use it without another device, whether it can share data contracts like a smartwatch, what keeps one from using it as their sole smartphone, some even asking whether this actually allows for phone calls or is just for mailing.
They have clearly just confused the messaging for the core audience of Clicks and devices of this type by chasing what I'd argue is a mirage, a customer base that doesn't exist.
Keep in mind, Clicks doesn't need to speculate who will buy this. They already have a loyal consumer base (I paid over € 150,- including import fees for just the case and am far from alone), made up of power users who mostly will use this as their sole smartphone, just like we have been doing with our Clicks equipped iPhones, Pixels, Razrs and Galaxies.
Second device is a wholly different market, one that I suspect does not intersect much with the existing base of heavy power users, using their phones to reliably control e.g. IDEs and remote desktops on the go.
I'd argue the two are in fact polar opposites, someone who needs reliable input on the go is likely not the same someone who wants to use their phone less and equally would not want to just have reliable input only on e.g. their work device. For me, it's always a pain when I have to use a touch only keyboard despite previously doing fine with swiping, etc. so if a Communicator user wanted to have physically separate devices for work and private, they'd more likely go for a second Clicks, the keyboard is that nice and arguably locks you in tight.
I agree about the marketing. I just heard about this phone now and was confused about if I could just use it as a primary phone. It would be nice if they talked more about what the phone is like to use, show what is the home screen and stuff. I'm wondering if I can use it well with some other utility apps that I don't think I'd want to do without like Maps, Parking payment apps, Podcasts and Spotify.
For the Home Screen, they've announced a collaboration with Niagara Launcher and it appears to be close to AOSP+GServices, so I suspect that'll all work out of the box, but yeah, they really should be clearer. Also has both a NanoSim slot and eSim support powered by a not yet public Mediathek SOC.
Major concern as is often the case with new phone startups is the update policy and more importantly whether they'll be able to actually deliver over the years. Has been literally half a decade since I last used a Mediathek device, so maybe this changed, but back then they didn't have the best reputation for long term maintenance, providing drivers to enable updates, etc...
yes, it can run IG and Tiktok, but you'll have a bad experience due to the screen aspect ratio, and small screen size
the power user base you mention is probably too small to sustain them long term
Genuine question, why would a none power user want a physical keyboard on their phone?
Or from the other side, why would the digital detox, second device crowd go for a fully featured Android phone with a color AMOLED with all the temptations that brings over a smartwatch or black and white screened device?
Isnt this just a blackberry?
“Just”? A blackberry was a lot of a thing.
even it is "JUST" a blackberry, seems like there is a market for that again. Although it would be nice if they had their own OS like blackberry and ditched android.
Do we really wanna go back to using keyboards? Like Steve Jobs said, the keyboard shouldnt be visible when not in use, but I dunno, seems more like a niche nostalgia product
At least on the iphone, the onscreen keyboard has gotten worse with every release, so I guess maybe something new is in order.
I was disappointed by their iPhone keyboard offering. I felt like their product was superficially good: fancy adds, fancy web-page, the keyboard looked nice, BUT the functionality was not well thought out. They seemed to not realize that they need to provide a hell of a lot of benefit to warrant making an iPhone - especially a max - bigger and heavier. So, sure, they provided physical qwerty. But, they did not make it easy to bind keys or combos to all/most of the Apple supported shortcuts that a bluetooth keyboard would be able to take advantage of. The result is that even if I liked the qwerty, I still have to take my fingers off of it to touch the damn screen to do basic navigation. With better leadership, they would be a much stronger company.
EDIT: was referring to their first product that is an iphone case plus keyboard (I just noticed they have a new keyboard offering).
I bought their Clicks phone case for iPhone and was very disappointed. The keyboard was dismal to type on and slowed me down significantly.
If they're using the same keyboard in this phone, it won't be of interest to me.
I love it. Finally some innovation. Now make it incapable of instagram and TikTok and other invasive social media crap and we might have the winner for the next decade. As if :(
do you have so little agency that you can't stop yourself from installing TikTok?
what will stop you then from keeping your existing TikTok phone after buying this?
Uhhh judgey…
You do you. It was ment as a glimmer of hope for society at large.
ah, sorry, you just want to control what apps other people can use
Education is the hope we need, not yet another "innovative", centrally controlled device.
Agreed. Most people still don't see the gamification built into everyday products and apps.
Innovation?
re-innovation; it'll be one the first first phones in 20 years to have an actually different form factor than, "rectangular screen"
I may eventually get one of these just to use with Claude code. Been looking for the lightest best machine to use with agents.
Maybe dictation is the way to go? It’s a quick way to interact with agents and works really well.
Shellfish on iOS to ssh into a vps with tmux with Gemini-cli, lazygit and neovim worked quite well for me.
The clicks keyboard does not have ctrl, arrows, page up, down or really any special keys so I’m not sure it would be that much more pleasant. I know iOS keyboard has been quite meh in the recent releases but for thumb typing I’m not convinced that physical keyboard are superior.
Sooo a Blackberry?
I have fond memories of my LG enV2, so much that I tried a hardware keyboard again a few years ago. Hardware solves the tactile problem but the most painful part of mobile typing is cursor navigation, basic editing, and tiny text areas. So, now I can feel the keys, but it does nothing to enhance navigation, or basic editing; I get a smaller screen for text areas (and all other non-typing related tasks); and if any of those tiny keys breaks, the entire device is useless.
>What version of Android will be supported?
>Communicator will run Android 16. We’re comfortable committing to 2 years of Android updates and 5 years of security updates
One of these running linux would be nice, but definitely not buying one to run Android.
I wish they'd specify if the bootloader was unlock/relockable. Could have been cool to see GrapheneOS support.
This device misses some of the requirements for GrapheneOS. It wouldn't be as secure as a Pixel.
Just get a Pixel with GrapheneOS and put one of ZitaoTech's USB-C BB keyboards under it (or get a BT one).
It's a MediaTek SoC, so the Linux experience will be Bad to say the least. This thing will be running the oldest kernel possible with all kind of nasty vendor hacks.
Wouldn't you want battery life of more than 2 hours though?
why not?
Had to use it at a prior job and hated it. Plus, you know, Google.
I'm with you. But what phone are you using day to day? I keep watching for linux phones or even start to wonder if Apple is finally the "lesser of two evils" :/
This feels very scammy.
While I do like the product Idea, I'll agree that their video came off as stiff/fake/forced? I guess we'll just have to wait to see what actually gets released.