[HN Gopher] Clicks Communicator
___________________________________________________________________
Clicks Communicator
Author : microflash
Score : 218 points
Date : 2026-01-02 17:22 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.clicksphone.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.clicksphone.com)
| vpol wrote:
| For people who miss blackberry.
| KingOfCoders wrote:
| Me.
| SunshineTheCat wrote:
| 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.
| voxleone wrote:
| If only form factors like these could run general use/free
| OS's...
| 9021007 wrote:
| This is running Android
| Elidrake24 wrote:
| 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.
| wowczarek wrote:
| Well, seems to have all the right ingredients:
|
| - PKB (check) with gestures / navigation (check) -
| Customisable, colour notification LED (check) - Unified inbox
| (check).
|
| So far though only BB got all of it right though - very curious
| how this one works out.
| LunicLynx wrote:
| 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 :(
| memoriuaysj wrote:
| do you have so little agency that you can't stop yourself from
| installing TikTok?
|
| what will stop you then from keeping your existing TikTok phone
| after buying this?
| LunicLynx wrote:
| Uhhh judgey...
|
| You do you. It was ment as a glimmer of hope for society at
| large.
| kgwxd wrote:
| Education is the hope we need, not yet another
| "innovative", centrally controlled device.
| pseidemann wrote:
| Agreed. Most people still don't see the gamification
| built into everyday products and apps.
| memoriuaysj wrote:
| ah, sorry, you just want to control what apps other people
| can use
| LunicLynx wrote:
| I think you misunderstood. My point was: This would be a
| great device if there wasn't a need for it to support
| these apps.
|
| 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.
| BoredPositron wrote:
| Innovation?
| analogpixel wrote:
| re-innovation; it'll be one the first first phones in 20
| years to have an actually different form factor than,
| "rectangular screen"
| LunicLynx wrote:
| Exactly. And I would love a phone that commits to be a
| ,,communicator", eg. optimizing the simplicity of talking,
| instead of a consumption device.
| steviedotboston wrote:
| 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.
| drcongo wrote:
| One of these running linux would be nice, but definitely not
| buying one to run Android.
| adenta wrote:
| why not?
| drcongo wrote:
| Had to use it at a prior job and hated it. Plus, you know,
| Google.
| automathematics wrote:
| 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" :/
| gumby271 wrote:
| I wish they'd specify if the bootloader was unlock/relockable.
| Could have been cool to see GrapheneOS support.
| Fnoord wrote:
| This device misses some of the requirements for GrapheneOS.
| It wouldn't be as secure as a Pixel.
|
| Just get a Pixel with GrapheneOS and put one of ZitaoTech's
| USB-C BB keyboards under it (or get a BT one).
| gue5t wrote:
| 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.
| muppetman wrote:
| Wouldn't you want battery life of more than 2 hours though?
| adenta wrote:
| 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!
| nikhizzle wrote:
| I may eventually get one of these just to use with Claude code.
| Been looking for the lightest best machine to use with agents.
| vosper wrote:
| Maybe dictation is the way to go? It's a quick way to interact
| with agents and works really well.
| yoz-y wrote:
| 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.
| crtasm wrote:
| 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.
| KingOfCoders wrote:
| Loved the LED on my Blackberry Passport.
| reconnecting wrote:
| I had two Blackberry Passport even after EOF. Best email
| experience ever and LED for emails was particularly useful.
| summermusic wrote:
| I really hope the bootloader is unlocked and something line
| LineageOS could be adapted to work well with it.
| aleksi wrote:
| > What languages will be supported?
|
| > As a real keyboard with the QWERTY layout, Communicator
| supports languages that use the Latin alphabet: [...] Russian
|
| Weird
| dullcrisp wrote:
| Japanese too
| altairprime wrote:
| > Weird
|
| Clarify?
| paxys wrote:
| Russian does not use the Latin alphabet
| altairprime wrote:
| Oh! Okay. I'm not an expert, but the depth of information
| here _appears_ to disagree?
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Latin_alphabet
| Kirth wrote:
| Much like khov Iu kan/kuld spel English in Kirilik.. but
| who in their right mind actually does that?
| throwaway74354 wrote:
| 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
| itsuken layout?". Phonetic layouts such as iaverty or
| iasherty were very popular for such devices back in the
| day.
| altairprime wrote:
| I'm considering the linked-above device to replace my
| mom's Q10 later this year, so this is a specifically
| helpful answer for me -- thanks!
| CrazyStat wrote:
| 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."
| paxys wrote:
| > The Russian Latin alphabet is the common name for
| various variants of writing the Russian language by means
| of the Latin alphabet.
|
| Key word - variant
| grishka wrote:
| 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.
| Topfi wrote:
| 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.
| memoriuaysj wrote:
| people still need their IG and TikTok
|
| you can fight that, and lose (no market)
|
| or accept second device status (for werk), optimize that use
| case, and be honest that it will not be the main device
| Topfi wrote:
| 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
| EUR 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.
| joshlemer wrote:
| 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.
| Topfi wrote:
| 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...
| memoriuaysj wrote:
| yes, it can run IG and Tiktok, but you'll have a bad
| experience due to the screen aspect ratio, and small screen
| size
|
| the power user base you mention is probably too small to
| sustain them long term
| Topfi wrote:
| 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?
| scienceman wrote:
| Ah man this hardware looks amazing -- I just don't know if I
| could give up living on iOS...
| mertd wrote:
| They have a standalone keyboard product that snaps with
| magsafe.
| Topfi wrote:
| 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.
| onesandofgrain wrote:
| Isnt this just a blackberry?
| yoz-y wrote:
| "Just"? A blackberry was a lot of a thing.
| analogpixel wrote:
| 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.
| onesandofgrain wrote:
| 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
| analogpixel wrote:
| At least on the iphone, the onscreen keyboard has gotten
| worse with every release, so I guess maybe something new
| is in order.
| rchaud wrote:
| 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.
| as1mov wrote:
| 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...
| juancn wrote:
| Sooo a Blackberry?
| jadbox wrote:
| Sounds like a competitor to the Minimal Phone?
| steve-atx-7600 wrote:
| 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).
| Waterluvian wrote:
| 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.
| thehamkercat wrote:
| You could create a 3D printed case maybe
| solomonb wrote:
| 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.
| joshlemer wrote:
| 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.
| solomonb wrote:
| I pay for parking with quarters or a credit card.
|
| If necessary I use a piece of paper for maps.
|
| For music I have an ipod.
| Klonoar wrote:
| The Keyphone they are referencing is Android, so those things
| can be worked around to some degree.
| IlikeKitties wrote:
| >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
| spenczar5 wrote:
| 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?
| cptskippy wrote:
| > I wonder why the big players (Google, Apple, Samsung, HTC)
| haven't made a big-corp product for this market.
|
| Because it impacts ARPU. It's really not that difficult, you're
| the product being sold.
| jrmg wrote:
| _I feel like I see an independent low-noise phone project like,
| every 3 months. Clearly there is some latent demand here._
|
| I don't know - it feels to me that this is evidence that there
| _isn't_ sufficient demand to sustain a successful product like
| this.
| mystifyingpoi wrote:
| > Clearly there is some latent demand here
|
| No, there demand is negligible. It's just typical hacker news
| people who want to suddenly become productive Silicon Valley
| trope hustle style, or people who want to change their damaging
| habits in a day, so instead of uninstalling TikTok which takes
| 15 seconds to do, they will spend money a separate device.
|
| Although the keyboard may be useful.
| altairprime wrote:
| 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.)
| rchaud wrote:
| 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.
| pmarsh wrote:
| 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.
| petrey wrote:
| The site lists the following specs for cameras:
|
| > Cameras
|
| > Rear: 50MP OIS
|
| > Front: 24MP
|
| Honestly, this sounds like a great deal
| pmarsh wrote:
| Thanks, I saw that, but I never can make heads or tails of
| just MP. Feel like some phones have much lower MP but the
| quality of the photo is much higher.
|
| It does seem like a great deal either way though!
| rchaud wrote:
| 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.
| kgwxd wrote:
| 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.
| nicksergeant wrote:
| Pretty neat. I have the Clicks keyboard and I just wish the keys
| weren't so stiff. Too hard to type on, sadly.
| microflash wrote:
| This has been my complaint as well. I didn't realize how stiff
| those keys were when I recently got to try it.
| coder543 wrote:
| 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.
| reconnecting wrote:
| 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.
| microflash wrote:
| It is supposed to run Android, so if you need another client,
| it might be as easy as installing it through an APK.
| 8organicbits wrote:
| If it's android, presumably you'd just install via the Google
| Play Store?
| reconnecting wrote:
| I found out that it's sister product of keyboard accessory
| company, so most probably this will be usual android with
| keyboard as accessory.
| muppetman wrote:
| 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)
| jeroenhd wrote:
| 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).
| jama211 wrote:
| 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...
| jstummbillig wrote:
| This feels very scammy.
| analogpixel wrote:
| 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.
| SkyPuncher wrote:
| 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.
| hasperdi wrote:
| 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.
| backscratches wrote:
| This one says the keyboard is touch sensitive, like the old
| android blackberries, so you can still do some swipe gestures
| savolai wrote:
| 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.
| wowczarek wrote:
| 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.
| rchaud wrote:
| 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.
| SkyPuncher wrote:
| 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.
| phreeza wrote:
| Holy shit I just learned about using space to navigate between
| characters. That's amazing, thanks.
| cocomutator wrote:
| My life just changed forever too...
| afandian wrote:
| 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.)
| jeroenhd wrote:
| 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.
| lanyard-textile wrote:
| Holding the spacebar down... I never knew about this... are
| there any other Apple keyboard secrets?
| reconnecting wrote:
| 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...
| aduwah wrote:
| It would be nice to have something like this with a privacy OS
| feelamee wrote:
| The user interface looks very similar to Niagara Launcher. I
| found it a really fresh and comfortable alternative to the
| default android launchers
| paxys wrote:
| It is Niagara Launcher. They say so in the demo video.
| dzink wrote:
| 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.
| mystifyingpoi wrote:
| Yep, this confused me as well. They claim it's a normal
| Android, so... this is just the fullscreen notification view?
| That's it?
| analogpixel wrote:
| 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.
| memco wrote:
| This company makes cases with a physical keyboard for iPhone
| 14+ so if you just want the keyboard you might be able to get
| one of those instead.
| websiteapi wrote:
| 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).
| drakythe wrote:
| 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.
| wowczarek wrote:
| 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.
| websiteapi wrote:
| You would still have a screen. The device itself could just
| be smaller.
| gspr wrote:
| 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".
| drakythe wrote:
| 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.
| oytis wrote:
| 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.
| jeroenhd wrote:
| 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).
| thrtythreeforty wrote:
| 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.
| backscratches wrote:
| 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.
| CGMthrowaway wrote:
| >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?
| tabiv wrote:
| The "small" screen is supposed to deter social media and video
| use.
| jeroenhd wrote:
| 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.
| paxys wrote:
| 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.
| xp84 wrote:
| 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.
| mbreese wrote:
| 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.
| jaustin wrote:
| 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)
| hasperdi wrote:
| looking at this
| https://youtu.be/u7Uz1YZ5hQA?t=309&si=LvSzi7vXmUCJ2LY3 I think
| they're in mocking/prototyping phase at the moment.
| jaysonelliot wrote:
| 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.
| thecrumb wrote:
| 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.
| chabad360 wrote:
| 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.
| pimlottc wrote:
| 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.
| butz wrote:
| Device form factor looks attractive. This one might even fit in a
| pocket, unlike all modern phablets and their protruding camera
| "islands".
| mt_ wrote:
| Discipline yourself before buying a new device.
| bicx wrote:
| How many lashes must I give myself before I buy this phone?
| kh_hk wrote:
| 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.
| mawax wrote:
| Did not know these existed. Just ordered a duo sim from my
| carrier, thanks!
| Void_ wrote:
| I just keep my iPhone locked up.
|
| 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.
| twalichiewicz wrote:
| Reminds me of the old Peek:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peek_(mobile_Internet_device)
| paxys wrote:
| 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".
| class3shock wrote:
| 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?
| growt wrote:
| If you're aiming for the second phone market you don't have to
| beat the iPhone. Probably the easier pitch.
| philistine wrote:
| 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.
| growt wrote:
| 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.
| bicx wrote:
| 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.
| rchaud wrote:
| 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.
| throwawayExSUSE wrote:
| 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"?
| thekurst_ wrote:
| This looks really interesting. Sidephone also falls into this
| camp since I haven't seen it mentioned so far:
| https://www.sidephone.com/
| asadm wrote:
| While the communicator is nice, I just pre-ordered the power
| keyboard: https://www.clicks.tech/powerkeyboard
| laweijfmvo wrote:
| 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.
| stormed wrote:
| 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!
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