Awesome…but…but it’s an android and hence locked and riddled with google :-(
One of the headlining features of the Clicks Communicator is the Signal LED
Wow. they feature an LED. I’m baffled. What technology makes possible nowadays is simply mindblowing.
They’ve said the bootloader will be unlockable so presumably Google services can be ripped out.
And hey, a status LED on a phone is something they used to have and has become incredibly rare. It’s a useful thing.
Unlocking the BL is just one step…but would be great if.
And yes totally, I absolutely miss the LEDs. It’s just so fucking sad that this shit is now " a great new feature" again. It should be the fucking default again.
Are you sure about that? I’ve seen that it wouldn’t be possible
Warning: reddit link: https://www.reddit.com/r/ClicksKeyboard/comments/1qjldo5/comment/o12ylej/
(From an AMA with the Clicks team)
That’s such great news!!! Even more excited for it now
I would give it a try if I had a chance. I’ve been trying to buy one of their keyboards for nearly a year now with no luck.
How have you been trying to buy one? They are on there website and on/in Bestbuy. Do you live somewhere where they aren’t available?
I’d really love if they made a smartphone with a sliding keyboard, a-la blackberry priv. But this is cool as well, if the company survives this might be my next phone when my current dies in 5 years.
Have you checked out their other announced product, the Power Keyboard? It’s a sliding keyboard for other phones that attaches via Qi2 magnets/Magsafe.
But is it a good smartphone? Because as the preview says, they also make a keyboard.
I wouldn’t trust a clip-on keyboard though because it may not fit your next phone. Rather, look into keyboard/trackpad Bluetooth controllers. They look like gamepads and are meant to be held that way. They can pair to your HTPC (get an old junker PC and hook it up to your TV) or your phone (iPhone or Android) and you can prop the phone up on a kickstand or whatever and not have to hold its whole weight; ergo, you can get a more weighty, solidly built keyboard and accomplish the same.
They also announced a Bluetooth keyboard that attaches via Qi2/Magsafe to the back of your phone. It can pair to multiple devices so you can type on other devices too.
The Spacebar has a built-in fingerprint sensor, which could be handy for unlocking the phone quickly. The keypad is touch-sensitive, which means that you can slide your fingers over it to scroll through messages. And before you ask, yes, it also has a 4.03-inch OLED touchscreen display for those of us who like scrolling on a smoother surface.
Some of you may also be pleased to know that the Clicks Communicator has a 3.5mm headphone jack and that it supports microSD cards for storage expansion. It ships with 256GB storage and you can add a microSD card with up to 2TB of capacity.
The device runs Android 16, supports Qi2 wireless charging, has a USB-C port, and has a 50-MP rear camera with optical image stabilization, alongside a 24-MP front camera. It’s powered by a 4nm MediaTek chip that has 5G support. It’s a dual-SIM phone with one physical SIM slot and an eSIM
It also has NFC for mobile payment support. I’m not seeing many compromises here except perhaps the camera and processor. I’m gonna use this as my next phone.
The Clicks marketing team has been marketing this as a “second device”. I think that’s a miss-step. Very few people want to have two phones. They exist, but it seems like this device should be a completely capable phone on it’s own. It’ll be a niche device either way but I think the “people who want a small phone with physical buttons” niche is larger than the “people who want two phones of of which is small with physical buttons” crowd. And it causes confusion. Some people saw the announcement and didn’t realize it’s a full fledged independent phone…
I do have two phones. One strictly at home for all the banking-apps i would never carry around with me but refuse to run in an emulator.
