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.

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.

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.

It ships to Australia and NZ but not to Singapore or Japan. Care to say why?

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?

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.

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.

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 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 website shows no additional screens. hard to make up my mind about it.

It’s just a blackberry. We all had those, they were trash compared to iPhones. That’s why they went extinct.

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...

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.

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...

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!

While the communicator is nice, I just pre-ordered the power keyboard: https://www.clicks.tech/powerkeyboard

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.

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.

Ah man this hardware looks amazing — I just don’t know if I could give up living on iOS…

> What languages will be supported?

> As a real keyboard with the QWERTY layout, Communicator supports languages that use the Latin alphabet: [...] Russian

Weird

This looks really interesting. Sidephone also falls into this camp since I haven't seen it mentioned so far: https://www.sidephone.com/

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"?

For people who miss blackberry.

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.

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.

I would like it to have an open bootloader and support for some open source OS

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?

Reminds me of the old Peek: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peek_(mobile_Internet_device)

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.

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).

>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 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.

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.

Sounds like a competitor to the Minimal Phone?

Device form factor looks attractive. This one might even fit in a pocket, unlike all modern phablets and their protruding camera "islands".

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.

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.

It would be nice to have something like this with a privacy OS

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…

The user interface looks very similar to Niagara Launcher. I found it a really fresh and comfortable alternative to the default android launchers

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!

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.

Pretty neat. I have the Clicks keyboard and I just wish the keys weren't so stiff. Too hard to type on, sadly.

Discipline yourself before buying a new device.

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".

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.

Isnt this just a blackberry?

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).

Sooo a Blackberry?

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 :(

I may eventually get one of these just to use with Claude code. Been looking for the lightest best machine to use with agents.

One of these running linux would be nice, but definitely not buying one to run Android.

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 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

This feels very scammy.