'Clicks Communicator' Unveiled — Will You Carry This With Your iPhone?

[code-m]

im all for a physical keyboard but a $500 dedicated companion device?

this will be in the bargain bin soon. where do they the money for such bad ideas?

Unfortunately when ideas have stagnated or withered at any company this is the result.

 

[realdangerdan]

This will fail and disappear within a year.

 

[JMalone]

You sound like a well informed individual. Thank you for enlightening me. 😂

Double survivor of attempted phone theft thank you very much.

As for one of the thieves…he is disabled now and **** him.

 

[avro707]

Yet they don't support Teams or Outlook. 🙄

Yes, if it doesn’t have teams or outlook it’s no use to my organisation.

 

[theorist9]

The purpose-built device is designed to be used as a second phone alongside your iPhone, with the intended focus being communication over content consumption.

I do like the idea of the physical KB, though I can't imagine many would carry both this and a phone.

"Communicator is to a smartphone what a Kindle is to an iPad," said Jeff Gadway, Chief Marketing Officer at Clicks Technology, in a press release.

Nope. The Kindle is for content consumption, and he's trying to position the Communicator as a content creation device (i.e., with the emphasis on sending stuff rather than receiving stuff), so his analogy doesn't work.

What he should have said is that Communicator is to a smartphone what a laptop is to an iPad. That would emphasize the physical KB, and the focus on content creation.

Though to really be a content creation device, it needs something like Office, which other commenters have said it doesn't have.

 

[buddhistMonkey]

You obviously never had a real Kindle in hand.

I have, actually, my mom has one. I don’t get the allure, but then again, I don’t go to the beach to read books, either. That seems like a niche case that more or less proves my point.

 

[l0ken]

I do have a second smartphone but i only use it at home. Android is for me at least, just stable enough for shi-posting, doomscrolling and pirated apks. I will never trust it for any form of communication and banking because it failed me on so many occasions.

However I would not mind using this thing for work, but it has to have QWERTZ with a price point at 200€

 

[Apple_Robert]

No, I will not be carrying this.

"The two-phone lifestyle is becoming more common?" Citation needed. Who does this nutjob think he is?

If someone legitimately needs two numbers, like a different number for work, I don't see why they wouldn't just get a second eSIM and run both lines off the same device. That's what I would do if that were my case.

I have a separate work phone and it’s not because it is required. It is because once you put the work line on your single phone, the work line and all the work contacts etc. get merged with what was once your personal and private life phone. That means getting notifications in CarPlay from your work line and all the other times you really didn’t want to be interrupted by work, not to mention running the risk of having work people find out your private number because the iPhone exposed it to them in an attempt to keep you notified.

 

[adib]

If someone legitimately needs two numbers, like a different number for work, I don't see why they wouldn't just get a second eSIM and run both lines off the same device. That's what I would do if that were my case.

MDM is one reason. I don't want my employer's spyware to monitor my personal phone.

 

[adib]

Nice, if it were a standalone phone. The form factor is similar to the iPhold, 1 cm taller and 0.5 cm narrower.

Yep — a standalone phone, perhaps with an e-ink screen, will carve a niche for this device. Maybe a slightly bigger screen and a retractable "tuck-under" keyboard.

 

[ProbablyDylan]

Nice, if it were a standalone phone. The form factor is similar to the iPhold, 1 cm taller and 0.5 cm narrower.

It is a standalone phone. Has a regular sim slot and accepts eSIMs, can make calls, no weird pairing shenanigans.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

I don’t know about the communicator.
However, I did preorder the MagSafe slider Clicks Power keyboard, and I am very much looking forward to it.

It’s also a battery pack.
I have been wanting a device like this since my iPhone 5.

 

[Izauze]

If this folded out for a fullscreen experience inside, I’d be super tempted.

 

[teh_hunterer]

I absolutely hated having to carry an extra phone for work. That extra phone caused so many mix-ups and lapses in communication, which was the opposite of its purpose. Who the hell would voluntary give themselves this burden?

Not that I am at all interested in this product, but the idea is that all the same communication is on both this and your phone, so it's not the same kind of confusion you would get from having two distinct phones each with its own line.

That said, I'm increasingly disgruntled with the iPhone keyboard and wish there were a more accurate way to type. Swiping, predictive text and autocorrect have been useless.

It honestly feels like the keyboard on the iPhone has gotten less accurate over the last year or so.

 

[attila]

Maybe if this had an e-ink display so the focus could be noise-less AND less eye strain.

 

[elrojo69]

tempting

 

[jjudson]

Would love to see an iPhone version of this...

 

[RaoulDuke42]

That’s a perfect analogy, because a Kindle is completely unnecessary if you have an iPad. There’s even a Kindle app for the iPad, so no need at all for a physical Kindle.

Well except the e-ink display of a Kindle is much easier on the eyes for extended reading times. I guess these Clicks guys would argue that a physical keyboard is the big benefit over an iPhone, but the market disproved that theory about fifteen years ago now.

 

[Hajj.david]

Unfortunately when ideas have stagnated or withered at any company this is the result.

What? A seemingly well made device going after a growing niche?

Yes, if it doesn’t have teams or outlook it’s no use to my organisation.

I dont know why some people on this thread are making outlandish claims without any knowledge (I can’t use the “i” word despite being a perfect descriptor, lest I get banned, again). This is a fully functional Android 16 phone, any app that runs on Android will run fine on this, including office, teams, outlook etc. This is NOT a custom OS. Even the software is extremely vanilla except a few keyboard enhancements like enabling touch support on a physical keyboard for scrolling and swiping.

I do like the idea of the physical KB, though I can't imagine many would carry both this and a phone.


Nope. The Kindle is for content consumption, and he's trying to position the Communicator as a content creation device (i.e., with the emphasis on sending stuff rather than receiving stuff), so his analogy doesn't work.

What he should have said is that Communicator is to a smartphone what a laptop is to an iPad. That would emphasize the physical KB, and the focus on content creation.

Though to really be a content creation device, it needs something like Office, which other commenters have said it doesn't have.

It is a fully functional phone with a sim card, eSIM, Android 16 to run literally any android app including office and teams. This is a STANDALONE device, it does not sync with any other device (unless you explicitly want it to)

Maybe if this had an e-ink display so the focus could be noise-less AND less eye strain.

This already exists, its called “The Minimal Phone”. e-ink is trash the refresh rate is like 10 fps and you have to do regular manual refreshes to clean the screen. But it exists!

Well except the e-ink display of a Kindle is much easier on the eyes for extended reading times. I guess these Clicks guys would argue that a physical keyboard is the big benefit over an iPhone, but the market disproved that theory about fifteen years ago now.

Not everything has to win the entire market. AMEX makes up less than 1% of credit cards and it has its purposes. There is nothing wrong with alternative options and choices. This company, Clicks, makes some of the best keyboard cases for iPhones and other devices and has a whole team of former BB engineers. People have been asking for keyboard phones to make a return and given how many people buy clicks and other small chinese phone companies (such as unihertz) and even minimal phone they decided there is enough of a market to make money on it.


Personally I preordered the clicks despite owning a Unihertz Titan II (keyboard phone also) to give it a try. I regularly have to answer messages on teams and emails on the go and typing on the iphone sucks for more then a sentence or two.

 

[jtfolden]

Not that I am at all interested in this product, but the idea is that all the same communication is on both this and your phone, so it's not the same kind of confusion you would get from having two distinct phones each with its own line.

This is a stand alone phone, with its own sim, running Android. You certainly *could* have it configured with the same accounts as on another phone but it absolutely can be configured with unique, work only or home only, accounts and apps.

 

[adib]

I have been wanting a device like this since my iPhone 5.

I bought my father a device like this for his iPhone 4 at the time.

 

[theorist9]

It is a fully functional phone with a sim card, eSIM, Android 16 to run literally any android app including office and teams. This is a STANDALONE device, it does not sync with any other device (unless you explicitly want it to)

Ah, OK. Other commenters took the original post's wording to mean one would carry these together, so I assumed that was the case as well. From the original post:

"The purpose-built device is designed to be used as a second phone alongside your iPhone," and "The two-phone lifestyle is becoming more common," added Michael Fisher, co-founder of Clicks Technology and host of the tech-focused YouTube channel MrMobile."

But based on what you wrote, I see that's not what's intended.

 

[Hajj.david]

Ah, OK. Other commenters took the original post's wording to mean one would carry these together, so I assumed that was the case as well. From the original post:

"The purpose-built device is designed to be used as a second phone alongside your iPhone," and "The two-phone lifestyle is becoming more common," added Michael Fisher, co-founder of Clicks Technology and host of the tech-focused YouTube channel MrMobile."

But based on what you wrote, I see that's not what's intended.

Yea what they were trying to do (my personal guess, I am not a mind reader) is to go the route of 'you should get this even though you have a phone because you want to be more productive and keep your work and play separate'

The mistake they made in the intro video is they leaned WAYYYY to heavy on it, making it seem like this is just a PDA or something to work WITH your phone and not AS a phone. Even going as far as comparing it to an Apple Watch. I think they realized their mistake because all over their website they went on and on about how its a phone and does not need another phone to work lol.

 

[Hajj.david]

This will fail and disappear within a year.

Unihertz has been releasing phones with keyboards for more than half a decade with increasing success. On kickstarter their first keyboard phone raised 700k, their latest one just raised around 2.5m and thats just the kickstarter not to mention post sales.

 

[Howard2k]

No chance.

I have the super power of being able to ignore my phone when I want to. I don't need a second device to "focus" for me.