FYI if you like the UI in the promo, just download Niagara. It's minimalistic and one-handed. The pay wall limits customization, though. Also, there's phone cases that have keyboards built in if you miss your black berry. Here's my home screen/ ui:
Edit: I use viral as my icon pack
I'm using it, it's still really useable without paying. and they offer a subscription and a one time payment, overall, not bad
It's weird how it's being advertised as a second phone - it looks like it has the same capabilities of any other android phone? Just a smaller screen and a physical keyboard
They're afraid to go full bore advertising it as a minimalist alternative. If they weren't, they would have offered more thoughtful features beyond the (admittedly great) notifications-only home screen. But that's secretly who this phone is for. I am sure they're just afraid to pigeonhole it. Calling it a second phone is silly and will sell it to about 50 people but it leaves any other potential buyer to interpret what it is and why they might want it for themselves. It's a...whatever strategy.
I know why I want it, and the early bird price (slash threat of the higher price later) is certainly compelling, but:
I think the home screen is just Niagra launcher
It's made in collaboration with them, but Fisher claimed it was made for the phone.
They’re afraid to go full bore advertising it as a minimalist alternative. If they weren’t, they would have offered more thoughtful features beyond the (admittedly great) notifications-only home screen. But that’s secretly who this phone is for. I am sure they’re just afraid to pigeonhole it. Calling it a second phone is silly and will sell it to about 50 people but it leaves any other potential buyer to interpret what it is and why they might want it for themselves. It’s a…whatever strategy.
I do think there is also just an aspect of the people running this company living in a bit of a tech bubble where they are constantly changing their phones and carrying around multiple at the same time. The "second phone" thing gets pushed constantly by tech YouTubers like Michael Fisher (who is behind Clicks), so much so that the term "daily driver" has become normal lexicon for these people. No one in the real world talks about their phone like this, it's just our phone. We don't have another one, unless it's an older model sitting in a drawer somewhere. I'm not sure YouTubers understand this, though.
100%. His handle on social media is CaptainTwoPhones, haha. It's a positively, ridiculously insulated angle. But I don't think they're entirely naive, either. I think he even acknowledged in the announcement that it's a pretty uncommon, upper-crust, eNtHuSiAsT thing to do. I can only speak for myself, but I find the notion of being so engulfed in obsession with these horrible little gadgets that if you keep two of them on you for any reason except being a professional tech reviewer or needing a second one for your job...that is, if you carry two phones just for the love of phones...well, that's extremely off-putting to me to the degree that I have nothing polite to say about it, and I think I just should stop myself instead. I know life is short and it's unsavory to 'yuck someone else's yum'. But. Meh.
I think the element of it that I don't particularly like is how they frame themselves as people who value their time and mental health because they carry around a second, intentionally limited device. They kind of play this "social media is really bad, phones are really addictive" angle but then they don't actually give up on any of that stuff because they still have their extremely expensive high-end folding phone on them at all times as well. It all feels so performative to me, like they're not actually willing to make sacrifices themselves but still want the social cred/respect from pretending to be aware of the problem and part of the solution. But they're not, really, because they're entertaining this fantasy where phone addicts can magically get their lives back without changing their relationship with phones. If anything, they are contributing to the problem by encouraging people to buy and use even more devices.
I much prefer the anti-addiction/"minimal" phones that are either a) very small or b) have an e-ink screen, but are still marketed as an actual phone (not a "secondary" device). Those manufacturers intentionally put up walls to frustrate and force the owner to change their habits and re-wire their brain, rather than pushing this fake "you can have your cake and eat it too" philosophy to combating addiction.
I'd like something like this, I hate virtual keyboards compared to my old Palm smartphones.
According to the support ticket I put in last week when I saw the first post about this, the bootloader will be unlockable. Or, at least that's what they said. So here's hoping we see nice debloated/de-googled ROMs.
At the very least, it should be immediately rootable with Magisk.
It has a MediaTek chip, so I wouldn't be so optimistic about custom ROMs, but as you said, at least you could root it and de-Google
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.
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.
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.
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.
They have a feedback page. Never hurts to toss that idea out. I'm sure they've brainstormed like crazy but they are surely likelier to take that idea seriously, if they have thought of it, if they hear it from the people. I wished dearly that the FxTech X1 or whatever had turned out not to be a scammy piece of shit because I agree, that landscape style is really enticing. As you say, if they could make the same basic thing work as a horizontal version of the Power Keyboard, I'd be super here for it. Everything they advertise as a positive about the Power Keyboard, like controlling other devices, would be better if it was just...way bigger. Haha.
Couldn't find the page quickly otherwise I totally would leave that feedback.
You're right. I was thinking of the 'report a bug' page.
Lol it is a bug to me. A bug in their design.
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 guess we'll have to see!
I've been looking for a mobile Linux terminal so I can ssh without hunt and peck, if this was under $200, it looks like it would be perfect...
Edit: If anyone had a recommendation for a non-build-your-own (I'm not in a living position where I can diy) mobile dumb terminal, I'm all ears!
I think its like 5/600$
More $ than my current phone 🤑🤑🤑
Same company sells a magsafe keyboard addon.
Unihertz Titan 2 Elite looks better
I'm fascinated by the accusation (guess?) that the Titan 2 Elite and the Communicator share a platform from some common manufacturer. They have the same screen (just to eyeball it; I have not checked the specs to compare so please don't flame me if I'm wrong) and they both have the top-left punch-out camera. They both look slick as hell and if I was in need of a phone right now I bet I could have a good time with either one, but between them I've definitely got a little more brand loyalty for Clicks since I've enjoyed their QWERTY experience more, and I also think their launcher looks slick as shit. But I've always wanted to love the Unihertz phones I've bought and my heart is always open to them finally nailing it one day. If they were built on the same platform and they both turned out to be...ya know, pretty good...I think the world would be in a great place (at least as far as QWERTY resurgence is concerned).
It's more common than people realise within the phone industry. The Titan 2 is using old Blackberry Passport displays and the new iKKO Mind One is using a display that is seen on some handheld retro gaming devices. Fairphone has historically used a lot of generic parts too. These smaller companies generally don't have the money or power to get everything custom designed, and re-using existing parts ensures long-term stock availability.
This is going to sound super generalized and possibly ethnocentric, but that's not my meaning: buying shit on Amazon since the advent of the non-brand (you know, like ZMDRROI or BRRWE or CLQQIU or whatever) has brought to my ordinary consumer attention how much overlap there is in suppliers overseas. You can buy like, a skin care set, and a cake decorating set, and a nail care set, and a model kit set, and a clay working set of tools and there will be overlapping pokers and curvy pokers and hoopy-doos that appear in every single one. And I put this crude topology together in my head of what must be going on over there, and it's just like, "I'm a factory that churns out little pokers the way some villages produce nails or bullets from raw metal, and I need to sell to second-level manufacturers and convince them that my poker is a good fit for skin care, cake decoration, nail scraping, Gundam model detailing, and clay art," and then those second tier manufacturers (if indeed they aren't the same guys as the first tier) are like, "I've got to use these taco bell ingredients to make as many conceptually varied remixes as I can, to cast as wide a net as possible in the marketplace."
Sorry, had a few drinks, I hope I'm making sense. I know it isn't really interesting, but I do think it's kind of interesting. In the pre-Amazon age we just didn't have much cause to think about generic elements of consumer products. But also, especially in the age of maker stuff, it's very obvious. I built a little smart typewriter thing, and I bought an eink screen which was prescribed in the design, but that thing was originally marketed for like...digital signage at supermarkets, or whatever, to update prices on the fly.
I dunno. It's kinda interesting. Kinda cool in a 'scrappy manufacturers versus the world' kind of way. At least, I'd rather think of it in those terms versus "cynical companies tricking us into buying the same shit over and over by putting new labels on it" :p
Android 16, $399, 170g, blackberry-like keyboard, "companion" to a bigger phone or can be used as a main phone, 4000 mah presumably non-removable. It does have a wired headphone port, props for that. Main purpose seems to be to declutter the comms apps such as messaging, plus make typing easier with the blackberry keyboard. Meh. I have a full sized but skinny Bluetooth keyboard that weighs a lot less and was like $10.
I think the main purpose is probably to provide a more-usable "dumbphone" experience. I know a lot of people (myself included) who would love to doomscroll less, but need a more full-fat version of Android for work or family. Using Digital Wellbeing and the like gets part of the way there, but not the whole way. With this, the weird aspect ratio means that pretty much all video is going to be letterboxed to a crazy extent, which could be enough to make bypassing those controls feel pointless. And then they used that extra space for a physical keyboard, which is genius. If this thing had a better camera, I'd be all in.
It sounds to me that the dumbphone experience could be supplied on a regular android phone, with an app or launcher that uses kiosk mode.
I don't really want that much control removed, though. I just want to have a little bit more friction between my serotonin-starved brain and the cortisol river on Facebook.
Dopamine, mostly - says my brain. It wants the dope.
Yeah, that one too.
What's so bad about the camera? I'm no expert, it advertises a high megapixel but I know enough that megapixel doesn't mean everything
I mean, it's probably fine. I've just had a Pixel for long enough that my standards are too high. I have kids, and we just moved across the world, so I take a lot of photos.
The biggest red flag is it’s a lot of the same folks who put out fxtec pro and that was a bit of a shit show, I’m excited but I’m sure as fuck not going to preorder
I didn't know about that. Just found this about fxtec. I guess it's smart to be cautious.
https://community.fxtec.com/topic/4070-now-that-fxtec-is-dead-lets-do-an-autopsy/
Apparently there's a tech YouTuber by the name of MrMobile who is also apart of this. I only recently heard of him through MKBHD so I would like to think that there's some accountability there but honestly you really never know.
Yeah I’m in now way trying to point and panic. But after going through the debacle with fxtec I personally will be exercising caution
That said this device looks like a dream especially if I can get lineage on it
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