Clicks Communicator is phone purpose-built for taking action and communicating in a noisy world with deeper context, versatile input and greater control in a compact design.
This feels like a solution looking for a problem. What is the benefit of this ‘companion’? If the point is really just to have a physical keyboard for messages, seems like I’d be better off with one of those little folding bluetooth keyboard for 1/10 the price.
Yeah their messaging is a bit fucked. At the same time they announced the Communicator they announced the potentially best and most flexible keyboard accessory they have put out to date, and for remarkably the least cost of anything they’ve released. It’s compatible with any phone or case that supports MagSafe, so…it’s just maybe not the best time to also announce a phone whose defining feature is its keyboard?
Not to sell it short, because the colored notification LED and notification-centered launcher are both nice concepts, and the squarish screen appeals to the would-be digital minimalist in me, since it will definitely ruin many apps like Unihertz phones have been doing for years. I bet that I could own and really love this phone. The thing is though, the Power Keyboard they announced, which is compatible with my existing phone, costs less than a fifth of the price, and comes out sooner, and does more things (because you can connect it to multiple Bluetooth clients), and the format is more flexible (because you can spin your magnetically-connected phone horizontally, and your phone can maintain a traditional aspect ratio by…being your existing phone), and…yeah. It’s just a weird time to announce a phone and a super cool accessory that almost completely undercuts it.
Still, I love what this company is up to, and I hope they keep at it.
There’s absolutely no way that magnetic keyboard delivers a typing experience even close to this device, which has clearly been designed entirely with typing in mind. Even the normal Clicks keyboards for iPhones were actually kinda dogshit because the phones they were designed for are so large that the weighting was entirely off. The Communicator will be way more balanced in the hand and it has a sloped back for even more comfort and security while typing. It’s a phone for people who prioritise the typing experience above all else, which is admittedly a small group, but it’s not the same as a magnetic accessory keyboard.
It’s meant to be your real phone. They’re just afraid to advertise it that way. It’s truly bizarre to choose this advertising theme, because it almost causes confusion, since there have been phones in the past which truly are companion phones, totally tethered to your primary phone for their connection but besides that little (huge) dependency, were meant to be like…minimalist, distraction-free devices. Advertising the Communicator as a “second phone” absolutely summons up that same idea, in my head at least. If they did some of the app curation or de-googling of, for comparison, the SLEKE phone project, then they could full-throatedly sell this as a minimalist dream. But they don’t want to lock out any kind of customer, and so they’re struggling to make a case for who the customer even is supposed to be here. So they just call it a “second phone” and let you decide for yourself whether it could be a primary or a second or nothing at all. I’d buy it in a heartbeat if I didn’t have a bunch of frugal reasons not to, and if they hadn’t also announced an accessory so seemingly excellent that it encourages me not to give up my current phone for many years to come.
For sure. I meant that as a point for why i would prefer to have that phone as my primary phone rather than a separate keyboard add on. But yeah that idea of it as a serving phone is bizarre except for as work/business phones.
IMHO it’s a dumb idea to have a “companion” smartphone to a “real” smartphone. Either the thing will do for your needs all day, then you don’t need a second one. Or it doesn’t, then it’s not the right one for you.
IMO this phone should be way enough and need not be accompanied by anything. We don’t actually need all that functionality in our pockets all day, every day.
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This feels like a solution looking for a problem. What is the benefit of this ‘companion’? If the point is really just to have a physical keyboard for messages, seems like I’d be better off with one of those little folding bluetooth keyboard for 1/10 the price.
Yeah their messaging is a bit fucked. At the same time they announced the Communicator they announced the potentially best and most flexible keyboard accessory they have put out to date, and for remarkably the least cost of anything they’ve released. It’s compatible with any phone or case that supports MagSafe, so…it’s just maybe not the best time to also announce a phone whose defining feature is its keyboard?
Not to sell it short, because the colored notification LED and notification-centered launcher are both nice concepts, and the squarish screen appeals to the would-be digital minimalist in me, since it will definitely ruin many apps like Unihertz phones have been doing for years. I bet that I could own and really love this phone. The thing is though, the Power Keyboard they announced, which is compatible with my existing phone, costs less than a fifth of the price, and comes out sooner, and does more things (because you can connect it to multiple Bluetooth clients), and the format is more flexible (because you can spin your magnetically-connected phone horizontally, and your phone can maintain a traditional aspect ratio by…being your existing phone), and…yeah. It’s just a weird time to announce a phone and a super cool accessory that almost completely undercuts it.
Still, I love what this company is up to, and I hope they keep at it.
There’s absolutely no way that magnetic keyboard delivers a typing experience even close to this device, which has clearly been designed entirely with typing in mind. Even the normal Clicks keyboards for iPhones were actually kinda dogshit because the phones they were designed for are so large that the weighting was entirely off. The Communicator will be way more balanced in the hand and it has a sloped back for even more comfort and security while typing. It’s a phone for people who prioritise the typing experience above all else, which is admittedly a small group, but it’s not the same as a magnetic accessory keyboard.
I really miss having a physical keyboard to type on, but not enough to carry a separate device that is disconnected from my phone.
It’s meant to be your real phone. They’re just afraid to advertise it that way. It’s truly bizarre to choose this advertising theme, because it almost causes confusion, since there have been phones in the past which truly are companion phones, totally tethered to your primary phone for their connection but besides that little (huge) dependency, were meant to be like…minimalist, distraction-free devices. Advertising the Communicator as a “second phone” absolutely summons up that same idea, in my head at least. If they did some of the app curation or de-googling of, for comparison, the SLEKE phone project, then they could full-throatedly sell this as a minimalist dream. But they don’t want to lock out any kind of customer, and so they’re struggling to make a case for who the customer even is supposed to be here. So they just call it a “second phone” and let you decide for yourself whether it could be a primary or a second or nothing at all. I’d buy it in a heartbeat if I didn’t have a bunch of frugal reasons not to, and if they hadn’t also announced an accessory so seemingly excellent that it encourages me not to give up my current phone for many years to come.
Hadn’t even seen their accessory. That is so close to what I would want as an accessory. If it was just much thinner and landscape orientation.
For sure. I meant that as a point for why i would prefer to have that phone as my primary phone rather than a separate keyboard add on. But yeah that idea of it as a serving phone is bizarre except for as work/business phones.
IMHO it’s a dumb idea to have a “companion” smartphone to a “real” smartphone. Either the thing will do for your needs all day, then you don’t need a second one. Or it doesn’t, then it’s not the right one for you. IMO this phone should be way enough and need not be accompanied by anything. We don’t actually need all that functionality in our pockets all day, every day.
Looking at the site, it appears to have everything. Even qi wireless charging