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Clicks Communicator shipments begin in December

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Why This Matters

Clicks is betting that nostalgia for physical-keyboard phones like the BlackBerry can carve out a niche in a smartphone market dominated by all-screen flagships. The Communicator's delayed shipping and spec bumps show the challenges of bringing a niche hardware design to market, while its positioning as a 'second phone' reflects growing interest in devices that reduce screen time rather than maximize it.

Key Takeaways
Worth a Look

Clicks Communicator smartphone — For fans of physical keyboards and BlackBerry-style nostalgia, the Clicks Communicator brings a modern Android experience with a tactile QWERTY keypad, AMOLED display, and long-term software support. With upgraded RAM and battery life in the final shipping version, it's a compelling pick for anyone craving a break from all-touchscreen phones. Its unique swipe-enabled keyboard and fingerprint-sensor spacebar make it a standout gadget worth checking out.

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Gadget maker Clicks will soon learn how much pent-up demand there is for a modern-day BlackBerry. The company's first smartphone, the Clicks Communicator, will begin shipping in December, nearly a year after its CES 2026 rollout. The final version is getting a few spec upgrades, along with an October 1 price hike.

The Communicator will now ship with 12GB of RAM, up from the originally announced 8GB. Its battery capacity has grown from 4,000mAh to 4,350mAh and is rated to handle more than 800 charge cycles. It will run Android 17 out of the box with software support through Android 20, along with five years of security updates.

The device embraces a combination of quirky design and nostalgia. Inspired by BlackBerry phones of old, the Communicator has a physical keyboard below its 4.03-inch, 120Hz AMOLED display. It runs on a MediaTek Dimensity 8300 chip and has 256GB of internal storage with microSD expansion. In another old-school nod, it has a 3.5mm headphone jack.

That keyboard is more than rows of tiny buttons. Its surface is touch-sensitive, so you can swipe across it to scroll and navigate. Its spacebar doubles as a dedicated fingerprint sensor. In addition to the English QWERTY layout, Clicks offers versions for French (AZERTY), German (QWERTZ), Korean and Arabic.

Clicks is pitching the Communicator as a second phone, better suited for messages and calls than endless scrolling. The company isn't trying to go head-to-head with the latest flagships, instead branding it as "a new kind of mobile communicator." (A new spin on an old kind of mobile communicator may be more accurate.) Not every Android app will be ideal for this squareish aspect ratio, its processor is a notch or two below flagship-level and there's no multi-lens camera array on the backside, opting for a 50MP rear camera and a 24MP front-facing one.