- cross-posted to:
- clickscommunicator@thelemmy.club
- cross-posted to:
- clickscommunicator@thelemmy.club
All the other discussions I found on Lemmy dismiss it because they find the idea of a second phone ridiculous. Or because they don’t buy into the “dumb phone” concept. But I think it makes a compelling phone on it’s own, and you wouldn’t need a second.
But really look into it. By every indication it appears designed to be a fully featured main phone. It has some compromises made to fit the keyboard first philosophy, but it has everything you’d need and more. Dual SIM (eSIM+physical), a headphone jack, micro SD Card support, a 50mp camera with OIS (I know megapixels don’t mean much but I think it shows it’s not gonna be the cheapest crap camera), NFC/Google Pay support, Android Auto, Qi2… That doesn’t read “second phone” to me. It’s just… phone.
They have now said that it will have an unlockable bootloader too. I’m not finding much to dislike here. 8GB of RAM is somewhat low but should be fine. The processor is still a question mark but honesty as long as it’s not bottom of the barrel it should be perfectly fine. I have always gone for flagship phones but honestly I’ve started analyzing what I actually do on my phone and I pretty much never push the hardware. I like knowing I have the top of the line but I basically just web browse, message, read email, scroll Lemmy, and listen to music/podcasts. Very occasionally watch some YouTube but that’s usually on my TV or PC. No gaming or anything. I should be able to do all of that on this device, some of it won’t be as good on that screen obviously but it should still be doable. I need the camera to at least be decent. Not great just not garbage. Like it’s fine if the low light performance is meh and the video isn’t the best. But I don’t want to look at my photos and regret taking it with that device, so we’ll see.
I don’t want a dumb phone, and I don’t think this is one. You should be able to do everything any other phone can. I don’t think it’s a second phone either. I think they’re just leaning into that for marketing reasons, so that when anyone points out the tradeoffs of this form factor they can just wave it away as a secondary device.
It appeals to me because it’s a small phone. Seriously nobody makes one worth using. Unihertz sure, if you want a bad software experience with no updates ever. But otherwise you just have the non-plus sized iPhone/Galaxy S. Those are considered small. Or maybe the flip-foldables. It also appeals to me because it has major character and (imo) style. I’m bored of glass and metal sandwiches. Give me this! A plastic device with a swappable back that has a (vegan?) leather option? Hell yeah.
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8gig of RAM is a bit low
Manufacturers are going to ship laptops with 8gb ram in 2026!!
Oh wow, my incredibly snappy phone currently has 8GB of ram.
If it has even decent custom ROM support I would 100% consider it. I hate it as a second device but as a main I love the design.
Someone in the last thread said that the Mediatek SOC makes ROM support unlikely.
I might be in the minority here but I will not use a phone that I can’t strip Google Play and other Google services out of, so it would need support from something like Lineage, Graphene, e, Linux, etc before I would consider it.
I mean they said the bootloader is unlockable so at least being able to disable Google services should be possible. We’ll see how community support goes.
If it’s flashable and the community support is good enough then this might be my next device. Will have to check on it once the community drops support for my ancient secondhand phone. XD
I recall someone here on Lemmy emailing their support and they replied confirming it’s bootloader unlockable.
Graphene is unlikely because of their ultra tight security requirements (I really believe the only time we ever get a supported phone outside of the Pixel is when Graphene makes their own or partners directly with a OEM) but hey, most likely Lineage!It definitely looks intriguing but I’m also holding out for either a capable Linux phone or the next Graphene OS device. If I can’t strangle Google on my phone or be completely separate of it, then no thanks.
256GB on-board + expandable MicroSD card storage up to 2TB
$400. Reservation 200.
I’m not thrilled about the processor, but this guy is still on my radar because of the physical keyboard and expandable storage, not upset to see a headphone jack either.
Do they even say what processor it has? All I see is “4-nanometer, 5G IoT SoC platform from MediaTek” which means nothing to me.
No, they are waiting to announce. People have speculated as there’s only a few that would be viable.
MediaTek processors are known for being not so great.
They’ve gotten way better with the Dimensity line last I heard, to the point that the high end ones were topping Qualcomms high end offerings
I think it’s highly unlikely it has a high-end chip, based on the price, niche market and advertised use case.
Oh yeah for sure. I’m just saying Mediatek doesn’t automatically mean bad like it used to.
I guess well see what they go with.
Why would you need a lot of RAM on a phone that I assume you would want to use less? Isn’t that really what this is for? People who want to stare at their phone less?
I never mentioned RAM, my only criticism was the Mediatek processor. This thing has 8GB of RAM, which should be plenty.
I don’t know. That’s not what I want it for. I just want to use it as a regular phone.
It would really have to be bad for me to hate it I think. I don’t do anything that needs crazy performance, I’ve come to realize.
RIM should blow everyone’s mind and release a new QWERTY BlackBerry. The market would lose their shit.
I’d rather have a new Palm device, too bad their management shit the bed and destroyed the company.
I loved my palm. It was great.
Capitalize, folks.
“Smart enough” would have been nice marketing, no?
While I fully understand why it doesn’t have umlauts that’s a dealbreaker for me for this and probably pretty much every such device that will ever come out nowadays.
If they make a model with a QWERTZ keyboard I might consider it as my next phone.
I’m sure if this sees any kind of success more localization is inevitable.
Same here. If you type in - possibly several - non-English languages, these keyboards will be pretty useless. But if all you need is a burner for work, then, it’s likely a little expensive.
Clicks did an AMA over on Reddit yesterday. Was actually pretty good.
I don’t get the keyboard appeal… Not since swiping became a thing. Sure, back in 2005 it was awesome, but what year is it?
Swiping has become increasingly shitty for me and predictive text is approaching unusable. I would love to have a physical keyboard again.
This has puzzled me for a long time. I had the same phone from the introduction of the original swype to it becoming inexplicably worse, to gboard being functionally better if you can ignore it probably spying on you via goog services even with internet permission removed, to that also becoming mysteriously worse, and all the other attempts at implementing it coming and going while never reaching the level of swype or gboard at their peaks.
I considered maybe my old phone had a deteriorated touch panel but three phones later and it’s still never been as good. I’ve been wondering if the tired scenario occurred of some common code like an unattributed foss library that had an update that broke the original functionality of multiple swipe keyboards and none of the keyboard devs ever noticed.I’ve also noticed that swipe typing has become increasingly shitty, until I realized it’s me. I’ve become too proficient, and/or sloppy/clumsy. I’m too fast, basically, causing inaccuracy and imprecision. If I just slow down and swipe with more precision, it’s a lot better.
But see, you cant become too proficient at a physical keyboard, you either hit the correct button or you didn’t and there’s no computer deciding edge cases the wrong way because there aren’t edge cases.
My last keyboard phone was the Motorola Photon Q ( which was awesome, had that thing for years) I’ve had 3 total touch screen only phone since then, and only in the last year has it gotten truly terrible. I’m actually in the process of converting a Razr 40 Ultra outer screen into a slider phone with a blackberry q20 keyboard. But if it keeps being a pain in my ass I’ll probably just get the Clicks.
Regarding the first paragraph, I still think a physical keyboard at this size is slower than swipe typing, regardless of inaccuracies with the display keyboard. But I bet it’s simply a matter of subjectivity.
As someone who considers themselves a large proponent of swipe texting i have been increasingly running into issues where a word i want to type is almost unreachable with swipe texting because the letters are in too straight of a line on the keyboard and so it only interprets the beginning and ending letters or it takes another word that lies an a similar line
I’ve also noticed this, and it has a simple solution: slowing down and simply pausing slightly on the letters on the way. 👍
Physical keyboard > touch keyboard.
I hate touch keyboards. 9 times out of 10 they’re fine. But there’s that one time where I keep missing the exact same letter for maybe 5 attempts, even when I carefully try to click it exactly spot on 🤬
I’d have become a murderer if not for completion suggestions and spell checkers
Same thing but flipped: I have never understood the appeal of fat-fingering the screen and vaguely rolling over the keys of a word so software can take a wild guess at wtf you are trying to say. “byrpkugs”? Ah yes, buttplugs, clearly.
My first phone was a bar slider qwerty dumbphone, followed by a bar slider qwerty running android 2.1, if I remember right. The phones were both garbage but the physical keys were fucking fantastic.
I’m disabled now and so only have the use of one hand, otherwise I’d be all over phones like this. Shit, even though this is not ideal for me, I’m still like 🤔
Actually the keyboard is touch sensitive. I’m wondering if they couldn’t make it so that you could swipe to type even on this…
Would be cool. Might even consider it as an option for my kids when it’s time for their first phone.
Too bad it will not work in Canada for some carrier like Rogers who VoLTE blacklist phones they don’t sell…
Also what is the target price of this phone?
I’m pretty sure that’s not even legal in the US where corporations have the same rights are humans.
$400 pre-order, $500 normally.
I’m into it. Would make a great work device. The power keyboard product also looks like an interesting product.
That’s a cool idea
I was considering one just the other day as my main phone for all of the reasons tou stated. You can treat it as a dumb phone if you want sure but it certainly isn’t.
This looks cool but what exactly is it doing to be productivity focused other than having a screen that would suck to watch videos on and a keyboard that never goes away?
The reason the Blackberry was adopted as a work productivity device was because other mobile options you had to type using T9 and with a Blackberry you could get your emailing done on a mobile device. But that’s been every phone now for almost 20 years.
So I get it as something nice for people who are nostalgic for Blackberries, but Click’s focus on this somehow being “communication focused” while a smartphone is, I guess, not, doesn’t make much sense to me.
I have no nostalgia for blackberry as I never had one. My first mobile phone was a touchscreen. It just appeals to me as it has a lot of style and personality, at a decent price. It’s also plastic in a world of glass covered phones, with a headphone jack and expandable storage. And I don’t watch a lot of videos (on my phone) and think this screen would work just fine for 99% of what I do. But it still CAN watch video or anything any smartphone can do.
The marketing stuff is whatever.
Yeah it’s a cool device, whoever is pitching it though needs to realize why people might actually want one. Cause it’s the reasons you said, it’s a cute little device that’s different, inexpensive, tough, and with features that other phones have taken away. “Teeny low-cost android phone with a keyboard and audio jack” would be way better positioning for them than this “second phone” and “productivity device” silliness. But for real at that launch price I might have to roll the dice on one and see if they actually managed to make something that doesn’t feel like baby’s first kickstarter blackberry clone lol.
“Productivity” is a sort of euphemism for addiction within the phone space. A lot of the hardware and software tools designed to combat addiction are marketed in this way because, for whatever reason, people still feel embarrassed about admitting they have a phone addiction problem.
I don’t even see how this is supposed to help with phone addiction. Sure, if short form video is your poison of choice, it could help. But if your addiction is more of the reddit, lemmy, discord, or group chat variety, or anything else text-based, wouldn’t making typing easier make these addictions even worse?
Speaking from personal experience, I find smaller screens to be significantly less addictive because they’re less engaging and more frustrating to use. It forces me to choose between having text large enough to avoid eye strain and having enough content on the screen to not be constantly needing to interact with it. Either way, I end up with an annoying trade-off that makes me not want to use my phone for anything more than the essentials. The smaller the display is, the less I get sucked in. It’s no coincidence that the smartphone I had the healthiest relationship with was the Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact; my smallest by far.
Additionally, the Communicator’s physical keyboard would make typing slower for me (it might be more comfortable for some, but I’m not sure I agree it’s easier). Personally, there is absolutely no way I would be using a physical keyboard for anything other than messaging with my friends, short emails, basic web searches, etc. They might be comfortable but they’re just too slow compared to modern touchscreen keyboards. And technically I might be able to use a touchscreen keyboard and bypass the physical keyboard entirely, but that’s also very annoying on a small screen for anything other than the essentials. Not that I am going to buy the Communcator (I backed the iKKO Mind One instead), but I can understand why some people might find the design appealing from a minimalist/intentional tech perspective.
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Man, if this thing can run one of the various Linux phone OSes, I’m buying it in a heartbeat. Shame about the huge corner radius on the screen, though. That’ll make it annoying for terminals.
