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- cross-posted to:
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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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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.
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.
The average MDM software used to manage business phones won’t accept being a secondary user, usually they must be set as “device owner” as they need full controll on apps (automatically install apps, veto certain content, and so on), maybe they will allow the opposite, personal stuff in the secondary 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.
Yep, my last employer kept telling us about how we could access email on our phones and I kept asking why I would ever want that and telling them to send me a phone. I had a work laptop at home already.
Yup the dinky old 2009 style thing with the satisfying tactile buttons is for work. It works psychologically, for me, to separate tasks
Most people I know that have a second phone have it paid for by that company.
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.
Not a clue. Wouldn’t want that either. That’s why I want it as my only phone…
My guess is they want to preemptively Dodge the allegations thst it’s a bad phone because it might not have the top of the line camera.
Echoing that I’m really tempted to get this as a work phone. It would be great to turn my work phone off at the end of the day and not see it.
My work is great about boundaries, too; I want this for my challenges cycling out of “work mode” to be present for my family (and myself, for that matter).
8gig of RAM is a bit low
Manufacturers are going to ship laptops with 8gb ram in 2026!!
My smart phone has 6GB of RAM. I’ve managed.
Oh wow, my incredibly snappy phone currently has 8GB of ram.
Ram Good God! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing unless your cloud computing.
James Brown’s zombie, probably.
I mean, 640K ought to be enough for anyone anyway.
When bill the despot gates said that I only had 32k in my computer. A year later I had soldered in another 32k and I was really playing with power. Everyone thinks old bill is okay but I remember the asshole he was when was young and will never be able to see him as anything other than someone who destroyed the potential of computing. Some will say that asshole didn’t make that 640k quote but he was always making predictions that turned out to be untrue. Just like all of these AI/LLM dicks these days. The fact that one or two of them will get some of it right is just luck.
It will be rubbish but the problem is everyone’s doing it so there’s no options other than forking out half your mortgage to Apple for high spec MacBook.
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 guess well see what they go with.
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.
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.
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.
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.
RIM no longer own BlackBerry. The Clicks Communicator has some of the blackberry team on it’s team.
This looks awesome and would consider looking more into it as a real alternative to the current crap, BUT…
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I will never buy a product that isn’t already produced and ready to ship. Funding campaigns like this are imo most likely scams, very often not serious and if they truly are great, I’d rather wait for V2 or V3 to come, before buying
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the physical keyboard is great for english users but terrible for people who need to use 2 or 3 languages on their phones.
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I need android or iPhone to run the local authentication apps for banking, doctors appointments app and even some times payment methods
I will never buy a product that isn’t already produced and ready to ship. Funding campaigns like this are imo most likely scams, very often not serious and if they truly are great, I’d rather wait for V2 or V3 to come, before buying
To be fair this company already ships hardware in physical retail stores (keyboard cases for existing phones). I’m fairly certain they’re serious here but yeah waiting for the real deal is always a better bet.
the physical keyboard is great for english users but terrible for people who need to use 2 or 3 languages on their phones.
That’s true, or depends on which languages. Some use QWERTY layouts already like Spanish. I’m bilingual in Spanish and don’t forsee any issue with typing in Spanish on this. They have said that holding down a key works like you’d expect, bringing up diacritics/alternate symbols. The typing suggestions can be bilingual no issue. They said they do want to ship more keyboard variants (QWERTZ/etc) but can’t commit to more SKUs at this stage.
I need android or iPhone to run the local authentication apps for banking, doctors appointments app and even some times payment methods
Non-issue. This is an Android phone, that will supposedly have the latest version and full Play Store access.
I suspect that since they already make the keyboard cases, that all they’re planning on doing is making that but a bit smaller, and getting a no-brand Chinese phone manufacturer to make a small stubby square phone that fits in it.
I’m curious what the average Android app will do when presented with that little square aspect ratio. I’ve vaguely dabbled in phone dev before and there’s lots of twatting about to deal with different device sizes (tablets vs phones) and ratios. The proliferation of folding phones may mean there’s decent support for some apps, but I don’t expect that to be universal by any stretch.
On their website, they have videos or renders of how some features work and there seems to be a lot of wasted space to the left and right of the interfaces. So maybe just transparent margins?
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“Smart enough” would have been nice marketing, no?
Same. It would definitely be my daily driver. I’m using the Minimal Phone now but have often found that I would rather have this same form factor with a regular screen, and the Communicator seems to basically be that. I am still deciding if I want to pre-order but I’ve set a reminder to do or don’t before the window closes.
According to the support ticket I put in a week or so ago, the bootloader will be unlockable which is great news.
The only thing the specs don’t mention is how much RAM it will have.
8GB of ram, confirmed in various places, most recently on an AMA.
I was prepared for 6, but I’m good with 8. Thanks!
Has the Minimal Phone improved much since launch? Always curious to hear the thoughts of those who use minimalist/intentional tech devices.
The hardware is the same AFAIK but they’ve put out
twothree software updates since I’ve had it. One added some extra features to the eink control utility and the second fixed some really annoying bugs with the fingerprint sensor. Both also included the system security updates as well.There was a 3rd one a few weeks ago, but I think it was just a security bump. It wasn’t announced and just showed up. There may have been some tweak to the QWERTY keyboard utility because now the annoying bar that only indicated the ALT/Shift status at the bottom is no longer there and was happy to no longer see.
Is the software mostly bug-free now? It seemed to have quite a few issues at launch (not unusual for a first-gen crowdfunded product).
The base system is stable. The only instability I really had with mine was the fingerprint sensor resetting every week. It would just stop registering until you turn fingerprint detection off, reboot, and re-enroll all of your prints. The second update they pushed seems to have fixed that.
Their default launcher could use some work. I replaced Minimal Launcher with a similar one that works identically. The problem with Minimal Launcher is it is hardcoded to certain apps. I’ve de-googled mine so I don’t use Google clock or calendar. Clicking the time or date in Minimal Launcher will only take you to Google Clock or Calendar (respectively) rather than asking what app to open or trying to detect the default app for that. I submitted a bug for that a couple months ago but so far no fix.
They also seem to only update their software (launcher, quick settings, keyboard config, etc) through system updates rather than via apps. You also can’t disable any of them either.
I also haven’t heard anything more about them supporting non-Googled or third party Android builds.
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.
I think the only compromise is that it doesn’t have a flagship camera and a smaller screen which is a given for the keyboard. Not sure how the IP rating will be, though. But it looks really promising as a phone that would suit the majority of people who aren’t trying to use their phone as a gaming console
The camera and the IP rating are my hangups. IP might just be complacency, but I like not having to worry about rain or where to put the phone while paddleboarding or whatever.
Camera… I might be okay with a dedicated one of some kind. I have an old DSLR, but it’s too big to carry everywhere. Which means I have to purposefully go on a ‘photo trip’. Could of course get a decent pocket digital camera and the price of the Communicator + camera will probably be at on par with a new flagship phone.
Not looking to reserve but will probably have to think more about it once it’s out.
The best camera is the one you have on you the most
Agreed, just, that camera might as well be as capable as possible.
Just needs the right software honestly
Yeah. Praying for the camera to be good enough.
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.
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. 👍
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.
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
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.
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 🤔
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!
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?
Not the phone’s problem
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.
