Clicks shows off its BlackBerry-inspired Communicator phone in new hands-on video

TL;DR

Clicks released a video showing the pre-production hardware of its $499 Communicator, a BlackBerry-inspired phone shipping in Q4.

Clicks Technology released a video on Tuesday showing the pre-production hardware and internal software of its Communicator, a $499 smartphone with a physical keyboard that is the closest thing to a new BlackBerry anyone has built in years. The phone was first unveiled at CES in January and is scheduled to ship in the fourth quarter. The new footage gives the fullest look yet at a device designed for people who type more than they scroll.

The Communicator pairs a four-inch AMOLED touchscreen with a tactile, touch-sensitive keyboard below it. The keyboard doubles as a trackpad for scrolling through messages and web pages without touching the screen. Keys are 30 percent larger than those on Clicks’ existing snap-on keyboard cases for iPhones, which the company has been selling since 2024.

Its most distinctive feature is the Signal Light, a button on the right side that lights up in customizable colors and patterns to flag messages from specific people, groups, or apps. The idea is that you can leave the phone face-down and only pick it up when you see the right colour. Clicks is positioning it as a way to stay reachable without being tethered to a screen.

The phone runs Android with a custom Niagara Launcher that prioritizes messaging and productivity over social feeds. It also packs hardware features that have largely disappeared from modern smartphones, including a headphone jack, a physical SIM card tray alongside eSIM support, expandable microSD storage up to 2TB, and a toggle switch for airplane mode. Back covers can be swapped for different colours and a leather option is available.

At CES, TechCrunch handled a prototype that matched the size and weight of the shipping model, according to the outlet, and found it comfortable to hold with satisfying key feedback. The company was then still adjusting key pressure for faster typists. Future videos will cover individual features including a dedicated “Prompt Key” and what Clicks calls the Message Hub.

The Communicator joins a growing class of devices betting that some users want less from their phones, not more. Commodore’s Callback 8020, also priced at $499 and shipping in Q4, takes an even harder line by blocking social media and web browsers outright. Clicks takes a softer approach by running the full Android app ecosystem but designing the hardware so that the screen is optional for most tasks.

The phone is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 8300 chip built on a four-nanometre process, paired with a 4,450 mAh silicon-carbon battery. It is meant to be carried as a second device for people who do most of their work through text, though nothing stops it from being a primary phone. Early reservations with a $199 deposit lock in a $399 early-bird price, down from the $499 retail.

Whether nostalgia for physical keyboards can sustain a phone company is still an open question. The market that BlackBerry abandoned remains vanishingly small, and Clicks is asking buyers to bet on a startup that has never shipped a phone before. But the growing backlash against always-on touchscreen devices, and the Communicator’s clever notification filtering, suggest the timing may be better than it looks.