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.
Yes, I was. I had a physical-keyboard phone for as long as I reasonably could.
What I realized is modern soft-keyboards are actually exceptionally good handling slight miss-clicks. I stopped worrying about hitting the key exactly and just punched it close enough. Auto-correct seems able to figure out that 5% off of a key should be weighed as that key being hit and gets the word right.
With a hard keyboard, I'd just end up with total garbage sometimes.
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.
Completely agree on the curved keyboards. BB Classic was the last proper one and I loved it. Android app compatibility was spot on as well, where it failed, not to RIM's fault, was that you had to hack around google play services, and as a result, apps that did "device security checks", like banking apps, failed.
One notable app that also failed this way was, the irony, the Work suite, soon owned by... BlackBerry. My dear employer dropped BES support and moved to Work, which didn't work on BBs after some time, and that was the end of it (BBOS) for me.
Only BB did it right, but - and I don't know to what extent - it still sits on some amount of IP/patents that cover the doing it right.
> For instance, the Beepberry project became Beepy – because of Blackberry, legally speaking, raising an eyebrow at the naming decision; it’s the kind of legal situation we’ve seen happen with projects like Notkia. If you ever get such a letter, please don’t hold any hard feelings towards the company – after all, trademarks can legally be lost if the company doesn’t take action to defend them. From what I gather, BlackBerry’s demands were low, as it goes with such claims – the project was renamed to Beepy going forward, and that’s about it.
I think to poke fun at it, they blur out the keeb haha
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.
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.)
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)
I can confirm, this is sensible advice. I backed the FxTec Pro 1x during a depressive period in depths of COVID. It took ~years of hamstringing for them to deliver, but they did eventually deliver the phone. Even aged as the phone is, it's really well designed, and I occasionally use it with Claude from my couch in the evenings.
Being LineageOS capable is a strong selling point (for the Pro 1x), so if that's on the table with this new phone then I would consider reserving one. But I wouldn't hold my breath that it will ship in 2026.
I have the clicks keyboard for the iPhone 16. I haven't used the older one, but I can say its a very solid product as well.
The only annoyance is rememberimg to hold the magic key combo before plugging it in for car play. Regardless, this is a real company that delivers real products of solid quality.
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.
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.
Without them making a statement of how long they will provide security updates for, this could easily go like past phones of mine.
My work tightens their mobile security policy, and the device can no longer meet it. This is for both Android version and security updates. Happened to me a few times where I had to stop using a perfectly good phone which wasn't that old.
(Now I bought a Pixel I only use on wifi - 7 years of updates, and actually better for my WLB, since I leave work at home by default, or stuff a second phone in my pocket if I want to take it with)
> Without them making a statement of how long they will provide security updates
They said this:
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.
That looks like it's trying to do too much and too little. Too smart for a dumb phone, too limited for a smart phone. The hard keyboard feels antediluvian now that we have swipe or voice recognition typing with relatively acceptable accuracy, or for typing in multiple languages.
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 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?
This is 100% the reason. I watched BlackBerry fail from the inside and there’s always been an extremely vocal minority of former BB users who want to go back to a physical keyboard. This is a niche product for that audience at best, it will never have mass market appeal as a primary device. I don’t think it will have mass market appeal as a secondary device for the same reasons as others have pointed out in this thread either, but I respect them shooting their shot I guess.
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.
From my experience as a parent, that market is also very small, because the time between “child is old enough to text and be away from parents for long enough” to “child wants to have a real phone” is not that long.
Is there any potential market of parents like this: "my child wants a real phone, but I won't give them one because they'll melt their brain with tiktok and instagram"? I'm not a parent, but I imagine I'd feel something like this.
The primary use case that I can see is following: you use your second phone — the communicator — to chat, while watching endless stream of tiktoks/reels/shorts on the first one.
At 3:45 in the launch video they give their "reasoning" saying "companion devices are on the rise" like using a smart watch and a smart ring (who does this?), or a tablet and a phone.
But... Two phones?
Everyone I've ever known with two phones has been embarassed to have to have the second one.
If they really wanted this to be about "doing", they'd give the USB-C port display out capability and let it be used with an external display, like Samsung does with DeX. Android phones with a lapdock and desktop UI are almost indistinguishable from a laptop.
If you don't mind me asking on here, what materials will the frame be made out of? Asking because I used my 15 Pro Max Clicks somewhat intensely and managed to dig through the rubber on the bottom right and bottom left edge with the friction from typing alone. Keyboard still works flawlessly, but the case looks like it's seen an apocalypse...
Also would love to see a video showcase of the touch functionality on the keyboard, I can already imagine a few ways that'll be useful.
Am personally waiting for the next Razr before deciding whether I'll replace my iPhone with a Communicator or the next Clicks for Razr (hoping that there will be one). Then again, Motorola has hinted at a book style foldable for CES so if that is interesting, might go for the PowerKeys instead. Or might there be something for larger phones, perhaps inspired by an old Samsung phone, dare we dream? That'd "zeal" my purchase for sure...
The keyboard is a really good lock in mind you, once I got the hang of it I really detested (a very strong word, but it is true) any time I had to use a smartphone without one, even if only briefly.
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.
If pictures are important to the buyer, they should get a high end Samsung, iPhone or specialty Huawei/Vivo models. Every other phone will have a generic camera lens and imaging algorithm. Source: I have purchased a lot of phones. A 4 year old Galaxy S22 will take better pictures than a 2025 Motorola or any other Tier 2 Android brand.
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.
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 :/
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 only thing shown of the UI is a screenshot of the launcher, I still don't understand how the system looks or feels to use. Besides, the entire launch video is too tedious and flashy. It's quite sarcastic of them to claim they hate long presentations full of nonsense at the very beginning.
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.
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.
If you had read the link you posted you would know those are various historic proposals for language reforms not something that's widely used. Same way there have been various proposals for English spelling reforms. That's not the normal way for writing or reading Russian. Russian uses Cyrilic alphabet which if anything is closer to Greek alphabet than Latin. There are other slavic langauges which actually use Latin based scripts. If you don't read Russian it might look like some of the letters look similar but that's only less than half of alphabet and from those half have completely different meaning than Latin lookalikes.
Yes there are various schemes for transliterating Russian into latin script, which people occasionally use for various reasons like typing on a computer or phone which hasn't been fully configured for use with Russian language, in contexts where unicode isn't supported or to make street signs legible for tourists. That's different from the "Russian Latin alphabet". In most cases where proper Cyrillic is problematic dedicated "Russian Latin alphabet" that's based on Latin with extra diacritic marks would also be problematic.
Similar thing could be said about other languages like Japanese or Chinese, but I don't think anyone would describe them as "languages that use the Latin alphabet".
As for typing on keyboard the main Russian layout is nothing like qwerty. Computer keyboards sold in relevant regions often have dual labels. I personally never learned touch typing in Cyrillic and use the phonetic layout in the rare cases I need to do so since for me it was a second foreign language.
Which exact approach Click chose - who knows. Will it be possible to choose your preferred Russian layout like on a desktop computer? Likely not. If they supported that I would have expect them to also add layouts for more languages. Although maybe they didn't want to promise anything for languages for which they don't have OS UI translations.
Fortunately, I then assumed that I knew nothing and asked anyways. I'm glad I did — this thread is now much more interesting than the one-word comment conveyed to me at first.
Transliteration is certainly a thing but it's only ever used as a last resort when you really have to pass Russian text through a system that only supports the Latin alphabet, or when you can't input Cyrillic for some other reason. It used to be somewhat common for SMS 20+ years ago.
Palm Treo/Pre and BlackBerry users! And probably Clicks users too. It's not a matter of "Does Russian language use the Latin script?" (it doesn't), but rather "What is the least annoying method to input Cyrillic on a BB-style keyboard, which doesn't have enough buttons for the йцукен layout?". Phonetic layouts such as яверты or яшерты were very popular for such devices back in the day.
For anyone one confused, the first part is an approximate transliteration into Cyrillic of the English sentence “Much like how you can/could spell English in Cyrillic.”
I'm interested in getting that standalone magsafe Clicks keyboard they also announced. I have the original Clicks keyboard case for my iPhone 15 and almost never use it because of how goofy the size is + I dislike hate that soft touch plastic that gets stuck in my pocket. The slide out keyboard looks way more appealing in comparison. Not sure how people lived using the keyboard case with any plus sized iPhone-- It's basically a weapon!
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 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.
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)
The Gmail app supports POP, IMAP, MS Exchange, and (though it got bugged into re-downloading the entire mailbox every day) even old-fashioned MS ActiveSync.
You can disable the Gmail app and install something like Thunderbird seeing as this is just a normal Android phone (which, of course, will also show you your Gmail emails if you set it up to do so).
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.)
Big corps were the ones to move away from Blackbery en masse towards a BYOD system. Before that, Samsung and Nokia both had a series of keyboard phones running Windows Mobile 6 or SymbianOS. I had the Samsung Blackjack II in 2008.
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.
I had my fair share of exposure to the super-hyper start-up scene. Did these every-smiling people just re-invent the blackberry, and practiced the pitch for a month? Does anyone ever tell them "no, don't do this"?
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.
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?
I find that the Unihertz Titan 2 with its capacitive scrolling physical keyboard to be an even better reading/doomscrolling vessel than a long touch screen phone where the act of scrolling may accidentally open something.
The Clicks Communicator appears to be a bit smaller than the chonky Titan 2, but for those looking to end doom scrolling, this might not be the phone for you.
That said, using a rectangular phone does make the device unappealing for most video based platforms (which are all either in widescreen or tall landscape mode). It'll do in a pinch, but a square screen is pretty good at making Youtube/Tiktok/etc. less appealing.
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 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".
I might buy/support this, because it seems like they’re actually listening to what [some] people want. But I don’t know that it’ll get me off iMessage.
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.
Marketed as "for doing" and not "for doomscrolling" but if it can host any Android app then what's really the distinction? Seems like at the end of the day it's a discipline thing regardless of the device, unless you truly have a "dumb" phone that is unable to install doomy apps
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.
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…
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.
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".
https://www.gpd-minipc.com/ has all kinds of models for the "tiny laptop" form factor as long as 7 inches is tiny enough for you. Their recent products seem to be pivoting more towards the "handheld gaming computer" space, but their Pocket 3 and MicroPC 2 seem to be pretty close to "pocket computers". As far as I know, these are plain old amd64 platforms that will run Linux as well as any other Chinese motherboard.
The small+portable nature of these phones make them unsuitable for amd64 chips (so far) so everyone is using ARM chips, which means dealing with weird and quirky bootloaders or hard-coded OS keys. Qualcomm is putting effort into getting some iterations of their hardware into a well-supported state, so hopefully we may see better mainline Linux support on their chips soon. However, you're not going to get your hands on Qualcomm chips if you don't beat their (high) minimum order quantities and these tiny keyboard phones are hardly mainstream devices, so they often end up with MediaTek chips which have absolutely terrible mainline Linux support (and even worse bootloader quirks).
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.
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.
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?
why do you equate second device with digital detox?
what happened to use the best tool for the job? use a phone with a physical keyboard when chatting on WhatsApp and then switch to a regular phone for Instagram and browsing web. not saying everybody should do this but if chatting is your life...
some people even use a phone and a laptop at the same time, they are already a second device person, so they could be a three device person
> [...] not sure if that makes them a power user [...]
If they are willing to pay quite a lot over alternative smartphones, wait half a year to have it delivered, then sit down for roughly two weeks, forcing themselves to slowly touch type so as to build the muscle memory required to actually be able to type on a Clicks then I'd say they are more than likely power users and dedicated ones willing to sacrifice quite a lot of convenience for quite a long time.
Nowadays I easily get 80wpm on my Clicks, but it took a while and I can assure you, anyone who doesn't have a true need for a physical keyboard on a smartphone in 2026, something they know they'll get a benefit from if they can type faster and without looking, they won't spend more than a minute trying it and won't be able to use it.
Heck, Michael Fisher, one of the cofounders said, for this very reason: "If you only give yourself 5 minutes with it you might as well not even bother. Getting into a physical keyboard takes time" [0]
Be honest, for a secondary device that is a massive effort to invest.
> [...] why do you equate second device with digital detox? [...]
Because if you are not willing to use a Clicks as your sole device for two weeks (so it cannot be your second phone), you won't be able to type on one in any meaningful way. Which is what happens if it were your second device. At that point the digital detox idea of "it introduces friction" is the only other angle you can have.
> [...] use a phone with a physical keyboard when chatting on WhatsApp and then switch to a regular phone for Instagram and browsing web [...]
But, again, Clicks has been making cases for regular phones for years now, which allow this far better than carrying a dedicated phone with a second contract alongside a phone solely for media consumption.
If you want a physical keyboard and also want the 21:9-16:9 aspect ratio of most smartphones, use a Clicks case. No need for a second device.
And once, like me, you've actually invested the effort, once you've gotten used to a Clicks and are reliant on it, you'll likely not want a device without it, so again, the idea that someone buys and uses a Clicks Communicator alongside a regular smartphone without a Clicks cases is not really realistic for me. If I am browsing social media or the web, I now want a reliable keyboard that doesn't steal screen real estate just as much as when I am working on a document.
Basically, Clicks enabled phones are devices that encourage users to become dependent on a unique input approach and thus make switching to devices without the keyboard less pleasant. In other words, Clicks, in my opinion, is detrimental to a two phone lifestyle, unless both phones have Clicks. The amount of effort you have to invest to become comfortable with it and the experience you get once you are both make it an appealing secondary device, unless again, one wants to have a worse experience to "detox".
> some people even use a phone and a laptop at the same time, they are already a second device person, so they could be a three device person
By that logic the average person nowadays is a fifteen+ device person, but I suspect you know this conversation is focused on within a device category.
Regardless of the viability of the second device category, what is confirmed in the Youtube comments, on Reddit and here on Hacker News, is that this secondary device approach has muddled their communication and confused potential customers.
If you are faced with questions like "can this make calls", "is it like a smartwatch" and "can I use this on its own", you have not communicated what you are doing properly and no matter how large the alleged second device market is, you can't reach them either if these are unclear even for your previous customers.
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
Jobs said a lot of things designed to make his tchotchke look better than the other guy's. He said he couldn't use a Samsung 8 inch tablet without filing his fingers down, while working on the iPad Mini at that same exact time.
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 totally get people being skeptical, I myself are not pre-ordering nothing :) let's be honest here. This is awesome idea with a lot of really nice touches, headphone jack, button lights up as a notification, keyboard as a touch pad...
So I have a lot of hope for this working and it will be fantastic influence on others. Niagara launcher, if they tweaked it, can be nice as well with keyboard.
I want them to succeed. I am on Google Fi, I have data card with my plan, this would be perfect use. I don't chat nearly as much but this would just me fantastic.
I watched full keynote, it is very good presentation, that thing alone should sell phones.
Price... I don't know, it is OK, it could be lower, but it is fine if it delivers. I am not getting anything until I get it reviewed by multiple people.
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.
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" :/
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
What I realized is modern soft-keyboards are actually exceptionally good handling slight miss-clicks. I stopped worrying about hitting the key exactly and just punched it close enough. Auto-correct seems able to figure out that 5% off of a key should be weighed as that key being hit and gets the word right.
With a hard keyboard, I'd just end up with total garbage sometimes.
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.
One notable app that also failed this way was, the irony, the Work suite, soon owned by... BlackBerry. My dear employer dropped BES support and moved to Work, which didn't work on BBs after some time, and that was the end of it (BBOS) for me.
Only BB did it right, but - and I don't know to what extent - it still sits on some amount of IP/patents that cover the doing it right.
it sounds like there is a slow and steady open source community around either replacement q20 keyboards, or a reverse-engineered one? https://hackaday.com/2025/06/04/the-blackberry-keyboard-how-...
and the beepy, which runs linux and for some reason has the keyboard blurred out on its homepage https://beepy.sqfmi.com/
Trademark stuff, as far as I remember.
> For instance, the Beepberry project became Beepy – because of Blackberry, legally speaking, raising an eyebrow at the naming decision; it’s the kind of legal situation we’ve seen happen with projects like Notkia. If you ever get such a letter, please don’t hold any hard feelings towards the company – after all, trademarks can legally be lost if the company doesn’t take action to defend them. From what I gather, BlackBerry’s demands were low, as it goes with such claims – the project was renamed to Beepy going forward, and that’s about it.
I think to poke fun at it, they blur out the keeb haha
Phones with hardware keyboard like this requires a good keyboard companion app, which Unihertz doesn't have.
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 need this desperately when the Claude app gets in a psuedo error state.
I really do hope they succeed, and will definitely buy one if it turns out to be a viable product, but not before that.
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)
Being LineageOS capable is a strong selling point (for the Pro 1x), so if that's on the table with this new phone then I would consider reserving one. But I wouldn't hold my breath that it will ship in 2026.
The only annoyance is rememberimg to hold the magic key combo before plugging it in for car play. Regardless, this is a real company that delivers real products of solid quality.
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.
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.
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.
> Can Communicator be used as my primary phone?
Without them making a statement of how long they will provide security updates for, this could easily go like past phones of mine.
My work tightens their mobile security policy, and the device can no longer meet it. This is for both Android version and security updates. Happened to me a few times where I had to stop using a perfectly good phone which wasn't that old.
(Now I bought a Pixel I only use on wifi - 7 years of updates, and actually better for my WLB, since I leave work at home by default, or stuff a second phone in my pocket if I want to take it with)
They said this:
You can go to Screen Time and disable Safari and App Store.
You can protect it with a passcode, which is what I did.
After a few weeks I just got used to my phone being dumb.
Now these apps are unlocked, but the habit is there, and I use it for utility only.
Also, who cares if it's beautiful.
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.
But... Two phones?
Everyone I've ever known with two phones has been embarassed to have to have the second one.
It's DOA.
If you don't mind me asking on here, what materials will the frame be made out of? Asking because I used my 15 Pro Max Clicks somewhat intensely and managed to dig through the rubber on the bottom right and bottom left edge with the friction from typing alone. Keyboard still works flawlessly, but the case looks like it's seen an apocalypse...
Also would love to see a video showcase of the touch functionality on the keyboard, I can already imagine a few ways that'll be useful.
Am personally waiting for the next Razr before deciding whether I'll replace my iPhone with a Communicator or the next Clicks for Razr (hoping that there will be one). Then again, Motorola has hinted at a book style foldable for CES so if that is interesting, might go for the PowerKeys instead. Or might there be something for larger phones, perhaps inspired by an old Samsung phone, dare we dream? That'd "zeal" my purchase for sure...
The keyboard is a really good lock in mind you, once I got the hang of it I really detested (a very strong word, but it is true) any time I had to use a smartphone without one, even if only briefly.
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.
> Cameras
> Rear: 50MP OIS
> Front: 24MP
Honestly, this sounds like a great deal
It does seem like a great deal either way though!
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.
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...
I've been using a lightphone for 3 years but i can't stand the touch screen and only having SMS is annoying.
If necessary I use a piece of paper for maps.
For music I have an ipod.
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...
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.
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.
I'm missing having LED colours for notifications on my current phone.
> As a real keyboard with the QWERTY layout, Communicator supports languages that use the Latin alphabet: [...] Russian
Weird
Clarify?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Latin_alphabet
Yes there are various schemes for transliterating Russian into latin script, which people occasionally use for various reasons like typing on a computer or phone which hasn't been fully configured for use with Russian language, in contexts where unicode isn't supported or to make street signs legible for tourists. That's different from the "Russian Latin alphabet". In most cases where proper Cyrillic is problematic dedicated "Russian Latin alphabet" that's based on Latin with extra diacritic marks would also be problematic.
Similar thing could be said about other languages like Japanese or Chinese, but I don't think anyone would describe them as "languages that use the Latin alphabet".
As for typing on keyboard the main Russian layout is nothing like qwerty. Computer keyboards sold in relevant regions often have dual labels. I personally never learned touch typing in Cyrillic and use the phonetic layout in the rare cases I need to do so since for me it was a second foreign language.
Which exact approach Click chose - who knows. Will it be possible to choose your preferred Russian layout like on a desktop computer? Likely not. If they supported that I would have expect them to also add layouts for more languages. Although maybe they didn't want to promise anything for languages for which they don't have OS UI translations.
Fortunately, I then assumed that I knew nothing and asked anyways. I'm glad I did — this thread is now much more interesting than the one-word comment conveyed to me at first.
Key word - variant
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.
- 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.
Presentation: The web site shows the same screen - show some variety of what the OS looks like in that format.
Also find it ironic how all these things are starting to look more and more like my old Palm Pilot.
Oh well.
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.
You can disable the Gmail app and install something like Thunderbird seeing as this is just a normal Android phone (which, of course, will also show you your Gmail emails if you set it up to do so).
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 don’t know - it feels to me that this is evidence that there _isn’t_ sufficient demand to sustain a successful product like this.
(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.)
Because it impacts ARPU. It's really not that difficult, you're the product being sold.
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.
How easy is it to build a custom android phone these days, with the help of Chinese suppliers of course?
Voice control makes for a fun scifi gimmick but it is incredibly impractical in real life without an alternative interface, in my experience.
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 Clicks Communicator appears to be a bit smaller than the chonky Titan 2, but for those looking to end doom scrolling, this might not be the phone for you.
That said, using a rectangular phone does make the device unappealing for most video based platforms (which are all either in widescreen or tall landscape mode). It'll do in a pinch, but a square screen is pretty good at making Youtube/Tiktok/etc. less appealing.
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.
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".
The small+portable nature of these phones make them unsuitable for amd64 chips (so far) so everyone is using ARM chips, which means dealing with weird and quirky bootloaders or hard-coded OS keys. Qualcomm is putting effort into getting some iterations of their hardware into a well-supported state, so hopefully we may see better mainline Linux support on their chips soon. However, you're not going to get your hands on Qualcomm chips if you don't beat their (high) minimum order quantities and these tiny keyboard phones are hardly mainstream devices, so they often end up with MediaTek chips which have absolutely terrible mainline Linux support (and even worse bootloader quirks).
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.
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.
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
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.
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...
the power user base you mention is probably too small to sustain them long term
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?
not sure if that makes them a power user
why do you equate second device with digital detox?
what happened to use the best tool for the job? use a phone with a physical keyboard when chatting on WhatsApp and then switch to a regular phone for Instagram and browsing web. not saying everybody should do this but if chatting is your life...
some people even use a phone and a laptop at the same time, they are already a second device person, so they could be a three device person
If they are willing to pay quite a lot over alternative smartphones, wait half a year to have it delivered, then sit down for roughly two weeks, forcing themselves to slowly touch type so as to build the muscle memory required to actually be able to type on a Clicks then I'd say they are more than likely power users and dedicated ones willing to sacrifice quite a lot of convenience for quite a long time.
Nowadays I easily get 80wpm on my Clicks, but it took a while and I can assure you, anyone who doesn't have a true need for a physical keyboard on a smartphone in 2026, something they know they'll get a benefit from if they can type faster and without looking, they won't spend more than a minute trying it and won't be able to use it.
Heck, Michael Fisher, one of the cofounders said, for this very reason: "If you only give yourself 5 minutes with it you might as well not even bother. Getting into a physical keyboard takes time" [0]
Be honest, for a secondary device that is a massive effort to invest.
> [...] why do you equate second device with digital detox? [...]
Because if you are not willing to use a Clicks as your sole device for two weeks (so it cannot be your second phone), you won't be able to type on one in any meaningful way. Which is what happens if it were your second device. At that point the digital detox idea of "it introduces friction" is the only other angle you can have.
> [...] use a phone with a physical keyboard when chatting on WhatsApp and then switch to a regular phone for Instagram and browsing web [...]
But, again, Clicks has been making cases for regular phones for years now, which allow this far better than carrying a dedicated phone with a second contract alongside a phone solely for media consumption.
If you want a physical keyboard and also want the 21:9-16:9 aspect ratio of most smartphones, use a Clicks case. No need for a second device.
And once, like me, you've actually invested the effort, once you've gotten used to a Clicks and are reliant on it, you'll likely not want a device without it, so again, the idea that someone buys and uses a Clicks Communicator alongside a regular smartphone without a Clicks cases is not really realistic for me. If I am browsing social media or the web, I now want a reliable keyboard that doesn't steal screen real estate just as much as when I am working on a document.
Basically, Clicks enabled phones are devices that encourage users to become dependent on a unique input approach and thus make switching to devices without the keyboard less pleasant. In other words, Clicks, in my opinion, is detrimental to a two phone lifestyle, unless both phones have Clicks. The amount of effort you have to invest to become comfortable with it and the experience you get once you are both make it an appealing secondary device, unless again, one wants to have a worse experience to "detox".
> some people even use a phone and a laptop at the same time, they are already a second device person, so they could be a three device person
By that logic the average person nowadays is a fifteen+ device person, but I suspect you know this conversation is focused on within a device category.
Regardless of the viability of the second device category, what is confirmed in the Youtube comments, on Reddit and here on Hacker News, is that this secondary device approach has muddled their communication and confused potential customers.
If you are faced with questions like "can this make calls", "is it like a smartwatch" and "can I use this on its own", you have not communicated what you are doing properly and no matter how large the alleged second device market is, you can't reach them either if these are unclear even for your previous customers.
[0] https://youtu.be/e2n2ftM-MwI?si=IUf1fZuLlegPYXgW&t=409
but if it's like using a Dvorak and a Qwerty at the same time, it makes sense it should be the only device
EDIT: was referring to their first product that is an iphone case plus keyboard (I just noticed they have a new keyboard offering).
So I have a lot of hope for this working and it will be fantastic influence on others. Niagara launcher, if they tweaked it, can be nice as well with keyboard.
I want them to succeed. I am on Google Fi, I have data card with my plan, this would be perfect use. I don't chat nearly as much but this would just me fantastic.
I watched full keynote, it is very good presentation, that thing alone should sell phones.
Price... I don't know, it is OK, it could be lower, but it is fine if it delivers. I am not getting anything until I get it reviewed by multiple people.
Wish them success.
what will stop you then from keeping your existing TikTok phone after buying this?
You do you. It was ment as a glimmer of hope for society at large.
And because of this it’s just another android phone. And it fails (will) because the screen ratio does not work for those apps.
This would be awesome if it would just be that a „communicator“ meaning a device that allows to communicate.
Think remarkable vs all the other e-ink android tablets.
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.
Just get a Pixel with GrapheneOS and put one of ZitaoTech's USB-C BB keyboards under it (or get a BT one).
If they're using the same keyboard in this phone, it won't be of interest to me.
>Communicator will run Android 16. We’re comfortable committing to 2 years of Android updates and 5 years of security updates