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.
Clicks Communicator
131–140 of 272 posts
Re: Clicks Communicator
#132The 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?
If you’re aiming for the second phone market you don’t have to beat the iPhone. Probably the easier pitch.
Re: Clicks Communicator
#133I 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…
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.
Re: Clicks Communicator
#134I 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…
Holy shit I just learned about using space to navigate between characters. That's amazing, thanks.
My life just changed forever too...
Re: Clicks Communicator
#135This 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.
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.
Re: Clicks Communicator
#136I 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…
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 functiona…
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.
Re: Clicks Communicator
#137Seems 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 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)
Re: Clicks Communicator
#138The 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?
If you’re aiming for the second phone market you don’t have to beat the iPhone. Probably the easier pitch.
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.
Re: Clicks Communicator
#139I 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…
Holding the spacebar down... I never knew about this... are there any other Apple keyboard secrets?
Re: Clicks Communicator
#140>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?
The "small" screen is supposed to deter social media and video use.
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.