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.
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.
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 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 :/
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".
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.
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. Also the fact that Telegram is at the top tells me this team is possibly affiliated with Russia.
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.
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?
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.
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…
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 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'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!
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.
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.
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...
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" :/
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 :(
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 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.
Voice control makes for a fun scifi gimmick but it is incredibly impractical in real life without an alternative interface, in my experience.
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'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...
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 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!
Presentation: The web site shows the same screen - show some variety of what the OS looks like in that format. Also the fact that Telegram is at the top tells me this team is possibly affiliated with Russia.
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.
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 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.
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
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.
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.
Because it impacts ARPU. It's really not that difficult, you're the product being sold.
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.
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.
EDIT: was referring to their first product that is an iphone case plus keyboard (I just noticed they have a new keyboard offering).
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 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.
>Communicator will run Android 16. We’re comfortable committing to 2 years of Android updates and 5 years of security updates
Just get a Pixel with GrapheneOS and put one of ZitaoTech's USB-C BB keyboards under it (or get a BT one).
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.