My Clicks Communicator Hands-On: Boldly Going Where Phones Have Been Before
SOURCE:CNET|BY:Patrick Holland
The new Android handset is meant to be a secondary phone optimized for messaging, with a BlackBerry-like physical keyboard, headphone jack and other features lost to time.
The new Android handset is meant to be a secondary phone optimized for messaging, with a BlackBerry-like physical keyboard, headphone jack and other features lost to time.
Patrick Holland Managing Editor
Patrick Holland has been a phone reviewer for CNET since 2016. He is a former theater director who occasionally makes short films. Patrick has an eye for photography and a passion for everything mobile. He is a colorful raconteur who will guide you through the ever-changing, fast-paced world of phones, especially the iPhone and iOS. He used to co-host CNET's I'm So Obsessed podcast and interviewed guests like Jeff Goldblum, Alfre Woodard, Stephen Merchant, Sam Jay, Edgar Wright and Roy Wood Jr.
Expertise Apple | iPhone | iOS | Android | Samsung | Sony | Google | Motorola | Interviews | Coffee equipment | Cats Credentials
Patrick's play The Cowboy is included in the Best American Short Plays 2011-12 anthology. He co-wrote and starred in the short film Baden Krunk that won the Best Wisconsin Short Film award at the Milwaukee Short Film Festival.
4 min read
It's one thing to have a great idea and another to actually make it a reality. The newly announced Clicks Communicator phone, from the keyboard phone case company of the same name, is a breath of fresh air that is also oh-so-familiar. You might easily mistake it for a BlackBerry phone from circa 2007, and that's because it was designed by a former BlackBerry designer. However, it runs Android 16 and has a nifty, minimalist app launcher that looks sleek and contemporary. In the hour I spent learning about it and using a nonworking prototype, the Clicks Communicator quickly became my favorite CES gadget in years.
The Communicator is a surprisingly smart take that combines old and new phone features in a way that, aside from Motorola, very few phone-makers have successfully done before. It's a straightforward-to-use Android smartphone with seemingly every popular feature that companies have removed over the past decade.
In its compact design, there is a physical keyboard, a notification alert light, a headphone jack, a physical SIM card tray, support for a microSD card, and numerous buttons. Jony Ive's soul must be hurting right now.
Watch this: The Clicks Communicator Phone Is My Favorite Thing at CES
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At a time when phones have become overly complicated, AI-centric attention stealers, the Clicks Communicator aims to provide an experience optimized for typing and voice-to-text recording, all while minimizing distractions. It's designed to be a secondary device that complements your regular smartphone. The idea is similar to what Palm tried almost a decade ago, when it sold a small Android phone meant to complement larger ones. However, Palm's phone didn't offer amenities like a physical keyboard.
"Communicator is to a smartphone what a Kindle is to an iPad," said Jeff Gadway, chief marketing officer at Clicks, in a press release. "It's a complementary product that stands on its own, optimized for a specific purpose. In the case of Clicks Communicator, that means communicating with confidence in a noisy world."
We expect our smartphones to do anything we want, but that often means compromising on how features are implemented. On an iPhone 17 Pro, for example, I can definitely type and respond to texts, emails and jot down the occasional random thought in the Notes app. But for me, and I expect many others, I have a much more enjoyable experience typing on a physical keyboard. I prefer to use a laptop to respond to a long or complex email versus writing it on a phone.
But the Communicator's singular focus on input, along with the fact that it can be your only phone, unlocks a much wider appeal (at least on paper). I could see the Communicator being the ideal "work" phone for those jobs where you want a separate device from your personal smartphone. You could quickly respond to a Slack thread without being tempted to check out TikTok or Instagram.
The prototypes on display came in either white or forest green.
Owen Poole/CNET
It might be an attractive option to a growing number of people who crave a phone that doesn't need all their attention every damn minute. This could be someone burnt out from being obsessively online or someone who misses having a physical keyboard and features like a headphone jack. It could appeal to a person who wants a minimal-feeling smartphone like the Light Phone and Punkt, which each have their own take on what a less distracting phone might look like.
The Communicator costs $499 and launches later this year. However, you can preorder the phone for $399 or reserve one for $199 right now. It joins the Clicks Keyboard Pro and Keyboard Case.
"We're really trying to help have people see us as a company that's building purpose-built tech for people who want to do shit and not doom scroll," Gadway told me.
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Clicks Communicator's stand-out features
The back of the Communicator is angled to fit better in the palm of your hand.
Owen Poole/CNET
Name: The phone is named in part for the iconic handheld voice device from Star Trek. Clicks co-founder Michael Fisher also explained that calling the device a "communicator" really captures what the phone was designed for: to provide the best typing and voice-to-text experience (in terms of both hardware and software) that you'll find on a phone.
Design: The phone is compact. Its aluminum frame and polycarbonate body felt solid in my hand. Small phone lovers, this one seems aimed at you. It weighs only 170 grams. Compare that to the iPhone 17 Pro, which is 206 grams. It's roughly the size of a small SSD or magnetic battery pack. It has a 4-inch screen and a keyboard similar to the one found on the Clicks keyboard case -- with keys that are 43% larger on the Communicator.
Here's the Niagara Launcher on a Motorola Razr Ultra. It organizes apps in a clean list that, as you scroll, has a waterfall-like animation.
Owen Poole/CNET
Android 16 and Niagara launcher: The Communicator runs on Android 16 and has a custom version of the Niagara app launcher. Messages from apps like WhatsApp, Telegram and Slack are curated directly on the home screen, allowing people to review and respond quickly without having to open and jump between apps.
Prompt Key and Signal light: On the right side of the phone is a button called the Prompt Key. You press and hold it to record voice-to-text. Surrounding the button is the Signal light (think Android notification light from years ago) that makes it easy to distinguish messages and notifications at a glance. It can be customized with different colors and light patterns to glow when getting messages from specific people, groups, or apps.
The backplate on the Clicks Communicator can be swapped out for different colored versions.
Owen Poole/CNET
Removable backplate: The back has a sloped, ergonomic, and interchangeable plate -- think the Moto X. During my briefing, there were half a dozen different plates made of polycarbonate and leather. The backplate also supports Qi2.2 wireless charging.
Other features:
50-megapixel rear camera with optical image stabilization
