Two Phones, Less Distraction? That's the Pitch for This BlackBerry Lookalike
The Clicks Communicator is designed to help you focus, not to replace your smartphone. It'll be on display at CES 2026.
The Clicks Communicator is designed to help you focus, not to replace your smartphone. It'll be on display at CES 2026.
Julian Dossett Writer
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3 min read
Remember BlackBerry phones? Those iconic biscuit-shaped smartphones of the early 2010s with hard plastic buttons placed below simple, low-res touchscreens have inspired the look of a new product from Clicks Technology.
Rather than releasing a new smartphone to compete with the likes of the Apple iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy lineup, the Clicks Communicator is designed to be a device that works alongside the smartphone you already own. It'll be on display at CES 2026 next week.
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With the tagline, "doing, not doomscrolling," Clicks envisions the Communicator as a kind of back-to-basics smart device focused on communication and work. It says the device essentially pares down all of the distractions that come with today's large-screen, social media-centric smartphones. Many people have already started carrying a second phone for privacy or to set boundaries, the company said.
The retro-styled Communicator, priced at $499, links up to your main phone so you can get emails and texts on it. To be clear, you still need a separate smartphone for this device to work.
A Clicks Communicator hanging out with an iPhone 17 Pro.
Clicks Technology
Jeff Gadway, the company's chief marketing officer, describes the Communicator's relationship to your smartphone to what a Kindle is to an iPad. "It's a complementary product that stands on its own, optimized for a specific purpose," Gadway said in the Friday announcement.