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.
I agree, I would totally but it as a main phone. Especially if it gets Lineage OS!
But last year I already bought F(x)tec Pro 1X, which is also a great keyboard phone and I usually don’t update phones too often 🙂
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
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.
My smart phone has 6GB of RAM. I’ve managed.
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.
Anyone got a a link to the unlockable bootloader confirmation?
If that’s confirmed, its a big deal - to me at least though I’d also want some comments or info from clicks about other OSs running on the device?Best I could find was a reddit AMA from the cofounders of the company, who say in one of the replies that you can request a code to unlock the bootloader. (Ctrl + F bootloader should show it up.)
Warning: reddit link
https://www.reddit.com/r/ClicksKeyboard/comments/1qjldo5/comment/o12ylej/
Whether or not we’ll actually see full ROMs or Linux distros isn’t going to really be knowable until developers have one in hand.
I’m gonna reserve a green one in 3 weeks before the price goes up, I want a smaller sleeker phone with a keyboard. I don’t use Instagram or YouTube or anything much on my current phone that’s going to stop receiving updates soon.
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 just want actual buttons like this thing has. If I can just get a keyboard that attaches to the phone without making it unwieldy, that would be sick.
Did you see their other product? The Qi2/Magsafe keyboard? https://www.clicks.tech/powerkeyboard
It looks like basically the best you can get with that concept and typical phones realistically.
My first thought is how well it actually stays connected to the phone and would work through a case, as it appears to attach via just magnets. Does look pretty slick tho, and it also doubles as a powerbank.
Yeah that’s the big question. I mean they also make keyboard cases which work well technically and are well made but having to redesign it for every new model phone seems unrealistic and also it makes your phone comically long and unbalanced.
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.
Why the hell would I want a “second phone”? I don’t like my first phone. I want a phone that I don’t hate, not a second phone to add to my misery.
I think the intent is to be a “work device”
A lot of companies will be lazy or have a BYOD policy. You will likely be asked to install extra security and monitoring software on your personal device to view work related info or check email.
The simple way to avoid this is to just get a second phone, and given how this device is has a smaller profile than a mid-range smart phone, its a good marketing bit.
You will likely be asked to install extra security and monitoring software on your personal device to view work related info or check email.
You can set up another user on Android which will practically completely isolate this software from your main user. Since it’s your phone and it gets installed by you it gets treated as any other user app and AFAIK cannot break the isolation between multiple users like system or organisation apps probably could do. You just saved yourself few hundred dollars.
The only disadvantage I could see is you not getting notifications from your work user applications when you are using the main user.
Having your work info on a personal device opens you up to a whole bunch of ass-ache if your employer ever gets sued. If they need data that touched your phone, they can technically seize it as evidence, for instance.
The only disadvantage I could see is you not getting notifications from your work user applications when you are using the main user.
I’d reverse that. Not getting notifications of the personal user is a problem. Not getting work notifications during your free time is a big plus.
Not a clue. Wouldn’t want that either. That’s why I want it as my only phone…
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.
Looks like OP made a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Yeah I thought I made it clear what I was trying to say. This looks like a good phone on it’s own. Like sell your old phone and buy this to replace it. Not a second phone.
I believe just buying a normal phobe or Pixel+Graphene if you want privacy and make it dumb instead.is it that hard to contron oneself from staying away from addicting apps?
I do not want a dumb phone. I don’t buy the concept of dumb phones. I want to use this like a normal phone and do all the normal phone stuff like I said in the post…
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?
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
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.
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
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.
I’d rather have T9 than swiping. T9 actually worked.
i use thumbkey works like a charm - just takes a little getting used to. Plus no text prediction/autocorrect. Its highly customizable. Even has a t9 layout!
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.
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 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.
You always wonder how much support they will have?
