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.
This a phone made by a youtuber. Do with that information what you want
It does look good but solves nothing when it comes to Google/Android turning hostile to stuff like LineageOS, F-Droid, etc.
“Smart enough” would have been nice marketing, no?
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 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?
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.
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It is way too expensive for me, and the keyboard only supports the english layout which is a no-go, but damn do I want one.
Same situation with all the fancy split keyboards - they have 10 buttons per row, my layout needs 12 buttons per row.
Non-sens if it’s not as secure as pixel+GrapheneOS 🤷♀️😬
I’m a current clicks user on my Motorola Razr and I preordered this to use as my singular phone. I use my phone as a communication device, not for media consumption, I watch a video on my phone once a week and use Lemmy. So far the square screen of the RAZR works great for this except for the few times the OS requires the inside screen and the placement of the external cameras.
$400usd to pre order a phone thats almost the same as the phone i had in 2011, but golly would I like to have one
An iPod Nano sized Android or Apple phone is something I wish existed as my second phone for apps that don’t play nice with custom roms.
Those keyboards are 100% nostalgia. There’s a reason we stopped using them. When touchscreens and onscreen keyboards were crap, they were a godsend. But at this point, they’re just pain. Swipe, drag the spacebar for forward/backward. I’d rather keep a slightly larger screen and the on-screen keyboard.
This keyboard is touch sensitive actually, meaning you can swipe to move the cursor. Actually I’m wondering if it couldn’t support swipe texting.
Anyway I have no nostalgia for the keyboard, never used a phone with one.
I had a palm treo, an HTC VX6800, an OG droid with a slide out keyboard, and a blackberry.
The screens were very small < 3.4", the keyboards survived because didn’t eat screen space. The moment affordable 5" phones hit, the old physical keyboards were ditched.
They’re perfectly serviceable for sending a quick text, maybe a paragraph in an email if it keeps you from needing a laptop. But the people who think they’re going to code on it for something more than a stunt are going to be in for a surprise :)
Swipe texting didn’t come out of the box back in the day either.
Given that this isn’t either of the big names with its own OS. I imagine third party support will be… Limited
Communicator will launch on Android 16, with support for up to at least Android 20. We’re committing to a minimum of 4 years of Android version updates and 5 years of security updates.
Idk, Pixels ate supported for like 7 years. So after about 5 years, this phone is toast?
Just out of interest how long do you keep a phone because I feel like 5 years is pretty much around the time everyone’s looking to get a new phone.
You can use a phone beyond the manufacturer security updates. They aren’t the only layer of security in Android, that was the whole point of Project Mainline.
Pixel batteries will degrade to the point of being annoying in under 7 years. 5 years is a pretty good lifespan for a phone.
[citation needed], my family all runs pixels and my father is still on the pixel 6, so nearing 4.5y of daily use. Other family members get my previous models (7 Pro, 8 Pro) when I upgrade, so they are getting phones that have been used heavily every day for at least a year before I upgrade. I haven’t heard any complaints from any of them regarding battery charge/duration. I upgrade whenever I am interested in the new model, or when their device goes EoL for security updates, then pass it on.
Last issue we had regarding hardware was the nexus 5X dying, and that was because LG fucked up during manufacturing… again…
I bet I could write code on that thing… I’m so tempted to try it. Coding on the go lol
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.
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.
Oh wow, my incredibly snappy phone currently has 8GB of ram.
My second phone is a Nokia t800 with KaiOS. 99 bucks and I can bring it hiking for 3 days without recharging.
I run two phones! One for business and one for personal. I’d buy a clicks phone.
