Are QWERTY Phones Trying To Make a Comeback? (gizmodo.com) 53
After nearly two decades of touchscreen dominance, QWERTY smartphones are staging a niche comeback, with Clicks and Unihertz unveiling new physical-keyboard phones at CES 2026. Gizmodo reports: At CES 2026, Clicks, the company behind the Clicks keyboard case and the new Power Keyboard, announced plans to sell the Communicator, a "second phone" with a QWERTY keypad. Clicks pitches the $500 phone, launching later this year, as a device primarily intended for messaging -- sending texts, DMs, Slack messages, whatever. The company didn't have a functional unit -- only a mockup dummy to fondle at the show -- but it looked cool enough, even if it'll be a very niche product. It's a cool idea, but how many people will carry a companion phone to their main phone just to shoot off a few DMs? $500 is a lot to ask for that satisfaction.
But Clicks isn't the only one trying to bring back QWERTY phones. Unihertz, makers of the really tiny Jelly Android phones and also Tank phones with massive battery capacities, also teased a new phone with a physical keyboard. The Titan 2 Elite seems to be a less gimmicky version of the Titan 2, which itself was a BlackBerry Passport knockoff but with a bizarre square screen on the backside.
Look closely, and there are some weird similarities between the Clicks Communicator and the Titan 2 Elite. We don't have dimension specs yet, but the screens seem to have the same rounded corners, and even the hole-punch camera is in the same upper-left corner. The only difference seems to be the keyboards; the Communicator uses individual keys, whereas the Titan 2 Elite's keyboard is more BlackBerry-esque. After digging into the Clicks Communicator's specs, a few other features stood out that Slashdotters might appreciate. There's a dedicated 3.5mm headphone jack, a physical "kill switch" (essentially an alert slider), fingerprint scanner and even a customizable notification LED. The last time we saw a phone with a dedicated notification LED was around 2019!
But Clicks isn't the only one trying to bring back QWERTY phones. Unihertz, makers of the really tiny Jelly Android phones and also Tank phones with massive battery capacities, also teased a new phone with a physical keyboard. The Titan 2 Elite seems to be a less gimmicky version of the Titan 2, which itself was a BlackBerry Passport knockoff but with a bizarre square screen on the backside.
Look closely, and there are some weird similarities between the Clicks Communicator and the Titan 2 Elite. We don't have dimension specs yet, but the screens seem to have the same rounded corners, and even the hole-punch camera is in the same upper-left corner. The only difference seems to be the keyboards; the Communicator uses individual keys, whereas the Titan 2 Elite's keyboard is more BlackBerry-esque. After digging into the Clicks Communicator's specs, a few other features stood out that Slashdotters might appreciate. There's a dedicated 3.5mm headphone jack, a physical "kill switch" (essentially an alert slider), fingerprint scanner and even a customizable notification LED. The last time we saw a phone with a dedicated notification LED was around 2019!
What? (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
At this point I'll take a touch keyboard with swipe and good correction over tiny little keys.
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My finger size is incompatible with screen keyboards. My patience is incompatible with autocarrot.
Why, yes, I am typing this on an IBM Model M.
CSB: years ago, I was responsible for character generator and keyboard design for foreign keyboards. It's not all QWERTY, and you haven't lived until you've tried to type an (English) email to your boss on a French AZERTY keyboard!
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One of the jokes I was looking for... But a richer target than just that?
No. (Score:2)
Because not iphone (Score:2)
Iphone is the only phone.
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These are regular Android.
But looking at either of them they are chunky and would struggle to fit in a pair of jeans. Perhaps if they made a clamshell.
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Android phones don't exist. I guess next you're going to tell me that Alabama actually exists.
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Iphone is the only phone.
Clearly many people have a different opinion, however Clicks has a MagSafe physical keyboard that is intended to be used with an iPhone, and like many BT keyboards lets you switch between multiple paired devices (sadly “only” 3). I would say that is about as close as anyone who isn’t Apple will get to being able to make an iPhone with a physical keyboard.
Last month they had a pre-order price of I think $80, which I decided was may foolishly expensive, but also maybe a great deal and I b
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Fuck BES forever and always.
I got fewer complaints over ActiveSync than I ever got over touchscreen keyboards.
Sliders (Score:5, Interesting)
I had the Sprint version of the Galaxy S. It was a slider with a backlit keyboard. It was almost like using a palmtop. Not having the keyboard hogging the screen and being able to see everything in wide view was nice. Plus you could feel what you were typing.
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Yes. I had a Nokia N900 and I loved it. The sliding keyboard was the best.
Right now, I have a Hackberry Pi CM5 with a Blackberry keyboard. It's very efficient to type on the keyboard... much more so than an on-screen keyboard. But because it's not a slide-out keyboard, you lose a lot of screen area.
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HTC Desire Z.
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Motorola Droid 4, F(x)tec Pro.
Or, an existing cheap product... (Score:3)
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That's the case of the Clicks keyboard mentioned in the summary. It's a BT keyboard built in a phone case designed for specific phone models.
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Yes, that is Clicks other product, a keyboard case for $139
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Why not use a bluetooth keyboard? They come in a wide variety of sizes, and are priced from the very cheap to maybe even something in this same $500 range (which will be a much superior keyboard to whatever they demoed). If it dies, then you still have your functional phone.
Because I don't want it missing every 3rd letter I type and I don't want to have to charge yet another device (and I don't keep bluetooth active as it drains battery).
I'd love a modern version of the old HTC Dream, that had a brilliant keyboard.
Updated LG Lotus, Please (Score:2)
Yes, please (Score:2)
And also add display port over USB.
We have these computing monsters in our pockets but cannot be really used as such.
Re: Yes, please (Score:2)
Where would wired headphones go? Can you charge through display port?
Re: Yes, please (Score:2)
How do you output video if you use the USB port?
Wireless audio, aka Bluetooth, is one thing.
Wireless video is really demanding, not a standard and not widely supported.
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Why use a phone to watch video on a TV when a Firestick costs $30?
Re: Yes, please (Score:2)
Indeed. I AIM at using the phone as a computing device, not as a tv.
More like a laptop than a smart tv.
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qwerty never went away (Score:5, Interesting)
I can only hope so.
There have always been qwerty phones if you look.
I made the terrible mistake of not using a phone with a decent input method for a while there - someone gave me a samsung galaxy to replace my dying nokia, so I used that between about 2017-2024.
I always missed the physical keyboard. I always hated the touchscreen keyboard trash. At no point did it ever feel acceptable.
Over the years I kept my eye on qwerty phones but I never forked over the cash for one (except for an unfortunate incident where I bought a pinephone pro with their keyboard attachment. Let's never mention that fiasco again).
About a year ago I needed to get a new phone so I got a Unihertz Titan, it seemed like the best option that was available at the time.
Literally 1 minute after I powered it on, I knew I could never go back to a shit phone again. If I ever find myself in a situation where my choices are no phone or a fondleslab, I'll be giving very serious consideration to the no phone option.
I still have the samsung sitting in a drawer. Not that long ago I had to do something on it. I think I was emailling myself something. I cannot explain the feeling of dread when the on-screen keyboard popped up and I had to type out a ~30-character email address. And the actual experience of typing it out was even worse.
I can explain intellectually to you people who have never used a phone with a good input method what it's like to have tactile feedback and to be able to use muscle memory to type without staring at the screen the whole time, and/or relying on terrible software to make you only-somewhat-unintelligible.
And you might even agree with me, and intellectually understand, and say "oh, yes, I totally see how a physical keyboard is better"... ...But until you have actually used a physical keyboard on a phone to type out a message, I guarantee you do not really understand the difference it makes.
For example, imagine this scenario: a text message arrives. You want to reply. Your reply is going to be a bit wordy... ...so you just type out your reply. Fast and accurately. And at no point does autocorrect change your spelling into nonsense and make you sound like a fucking idiot. Because you've got autocorrect turned off. Because you don't need it. Because your phone has an actual usable input method.
It's an amazing, revelatory experience, and I strongly recommend it to all you youngsters.
I think I might prefer a slider over the blackberry form factor - more screen area is good in some cases, and some software is really not intended for the square screen. But I'm not 100% sure that I'd find a slider better to use. And I wasn't able to find one of those when I was looking.
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A 500 word slashdot post? ... I kid, I kid.
I'm not sure this isn't a clever advertisement for how comfortable it is to type on such a device, or a compelling reason people *shouldn't* have such a device....
Swiping is meh. (Score:2)
I use Googles swipe keyboard on Android. AFACT it still is slower than a good mobile KB from Blackberry or something similar. That's why these KB phones have a niche. I've been thinking about replacing my phlablet with one of those.
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It is slower, but only because it makes predictive guesses which are stupid. 9/10 times when I swipe "about" it puts in "Scott" despite my literally always then correcting it. I feel like it used to be better at this?
Hacker's keyboard (Score:3)
I dislike the the simplified keyboard of phones and was glad I discovered the Hacker's keyboard years ago which provided full functionality.
I don't use my phone a lot but being able to for instance use ctrl-C and ctrl-V makes some things easier. And I don't misstype more despite the smaller key size I set compared to the regular phone keyboard.
Haptic feedback might be nice to have as a feature.
Incomplete (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: Incomplete (Score:2)
You can have both. First Android did.
sig (Score:2)
Please see my sig. Thank you.
One can only hope (Score:2)
Just make a modern version of the original Android, the HTC T-mobile G1 .
5 row keyboard
MicroSD slot
Removable battery
Refresh the display, and add a fingerprint sensor. Then we will be back to 2008 levels of usability. It has all been downhill since, in the name of savings a few millimeters and tens of grams.
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Yes. Tactile feedback is very important. Also, with vision issues, I have to make the virtual keyboard quite large. It covers half the screen, often including the input fields. I have to type "blind" as a result, not knowing if I made a typo. Combined with the lack of tactile feedback, this is atrocious .
keyboard phone (Score:2)
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Missing arrow keys (Score:2)
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I have a Unihertz Titan 2. The keyboard has a context sensitive one or two line display that pops up at the bottom of the screen. When I'm in my ssh client, it has number keys and a configurable row that I have set to ctrl, etc, arrows, etc.
There's also a physical SYM key that pops up software symbol keys.
The only thing I really dislike about it is the sharp corners. The fact it's a friggin' brick is OK, the battery life is fantastic, but I really wish it didn't poke so much in a pocket.
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I hope so. (Score:2)
Humans need the tactile interaction (Score:2)
There's a deep visceral aspect to this, where humans need the tactile interaction -- it impacts our perception, how we interact, etc. Car manufacturers are starting to realize this, too, and bringing back buttons and switches.
After using my iPhone for a few years, I feel like bringing back the tactile experience is a good thing. The current keyboard feels so "dead" -- I turned off the audible "click" sound as I felt it was annoying and didn't really replace the satisfaction of feedback from a physical k
Would work if... (Score:2)
If there were a bar style phone without any dead space between the screen and keyboard. A benefit of physical keys is they take up less space than any on screen keyboard and so there is value for everyone because more is visible on screen while using the keyboard.
Where attempts I've seen so far go off the rails is in the failure to use up ALL of the remaining space for the screen. Having a physical keyboard has the downside that it gets in the way when keyboards are not needed. It seems people rather tha
Touchscreen virtual keyboards (Score:2)
are a truely miserable, poorly working kludge.
More than half the time, the touch screen on my tablet doesn't recognize my fingers. And I've tried entering my connection info on other's phones, and my fingertips are too big.
They're crap. When you can give me a virtual full-sized keyboard, with feel, fine. Until them...