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It is a new year and another attempt at building a new smartphone on BlackBerry nostalgia is here. Called Clicks Communicator , this modern Android smartphone features a hardware QWERTY keyboard in true BlackBerry style.
The team behind this product is the same team that produces Clicks keyboard that has been in the market for a while. And the company says they have sold over 100,000 Clicks keyboards in over 100 countries. So perhaps that factor means they have a good chance at hitting this right; right?
Product image of Clicks Communicator, a BlackBerry-style Android smartphone
I don’t think so. That era is dead. The number of people who want a QWERTY keyboard smartphone are so small that it is a pipe dream. And why is it so now, after all, once upon a time, QWERTY keyboard phones were desired by millions of mobile users worldwide.
A little bit of history is required here. Back in the days of alphanumeric T9 keypads on mobile phones, a QWERTY keyboard was the best form of text input available in the mobile world.
There existed touchscreen phones at the time, but they were of the resistive category. This meant that you could not use your fingers to interact with those screens. Instead, they worked only with a stylus. And a stylus was inconvenient in a number of ways. For one, you had to pull it out to use it. And you had to put it away when you were done.
Years down the road, Apple released the iPhone with a different type of touscreen – a capacitive one. And capacitive touscreen technology allowed anyone to interact with the phone using their fingers. Very natural. Very demure. Very convenient.
And that was the beginning of the end of the reign of physical QWERTY keyboards and the death of Blackberry too.
BlackBerry phones have been extinct for years now, but every other day, there is someone teasing the return to those days. But that’s wishful thinking. Touchscreen text input has superseded hardest QWERTY. It is much more versatile now and much more convenient to use.
Only a handful of people really want or need a phone with a physical QWERTY keyboard. Every such phone produced in the last 10 years has recorded poor sales. None has made a splash. The world has largely moved on.
100,000 clicks keyboards in sales is solid going. But that will not translate to 100,000 sales of the Clicks Communicator. I wager that it won’t sell even half of the keyboards numbers. And that is extremely niche for smartphone sales.
QWERTY may not be dead, but it is wanted by only such a small subset of mobile users globally that, to all intents and purposes, it is insignificant. And this is why Clicks Communicator will not make a splash either. It will sell among a small niche of lovers. That’s all.
There is a reason why no big phone brands bother anymore with hardware QWERTY keyboards. That reason is that only a small set of people pine for BlackBerry nostalgia. The rest of us have moved on.
That said, if you are one of the few longing for a return to BlackBerry days and would love to explore it, here are the Clicks Communicator’s specifications:
- Display : 4.03-inch, 1080 x 1200 pixels, OLED screen.
- Operating System : Android 16 (yes, it will run your Android apps).
- Processor : Unspecified chipset.
- RAM : Unspecified
- Storage : 256 GB internal storage, expandable via microSD up to 2TB.
- Rear Camera : 50 MP
- Front Camera : 24 MP
- Battery : 4,000 mAh silicon-carbon
- Wired Charging : USB-C
- Wireless Charging : Qi2
- Cellular Connectivity : 5G, 4G LTE, 3G/2G
- SIM Cards : NanoSIM + eSIM
- Local Connectivity : Bluetooth, NFC, Wi-Fi: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax
- Miscellaneous : 3.5mm
- Dimensions : 130.5 × 78.63 × 12mm
- Weight : 170g
I like how lightweight it is and as a veteran lover of hardware QWERTY phones myself, I might purchase one just for the love of the idea. I doubt that I will be putting it to serious use or that it will replace my daily driver. I do wonder why the chipset and RAM have not been published; those are critical information that can make or break a decision on my part.
The Clicks Communicator has a price tag of $499, but if you reserve one now, you get to pay only $399. You can hop over to the Clicks website to reserve yours.
Author:Mister Mobility
Digital Skills and Communication Coach | Mobile Phone Connoisseur since 2001 | Tech Blogging since 2004
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It’s only a matter of time before Motorola announces its first book-style foldable, the Motorola Razr Fold. A post by Evan Blass on X contains images that show that it will happen soon.
The tipster included the marketing material of the Motorola book-style foldable in his post, containing the name of the device and some other details, but not the specs. The image states that the phone is coming later this year, with brilliant displays, intelligent AI, and an advanced, boundary-breaking camera system. It also states that more details will be revealed in the coming months.
If you guys think I’m doing solid work here, I’d really appreciate if you’d throw a few bucks my way. It’s @EvanBlass at both PayPal and Venmo. Thank you! pic.twitter.com/7nkrm6v09v — Evan Blass (@evleaks) January 4, 2026
The Motorola Signature will launch soon
Motorola is hosting an event for the Motorola Signature launch in a few days, January 6 or 7. It’s possible that Motorola plans to confirm the Razr Fold there and probably reveal some details. While we aren’t sure of anything, the company might just want to keep those details to itself until another event later this year. Whatever the case, the company will launch a new phone soon.
So far, all the Motorola Razr foldable devices are clamshells. This will be the first book-style foldable from the company. Finally, a new competition to the other book-style foldables on the market.
Motorola’s foldables have been impressive so far, including the last flagship, the Motorola Razr Ultra 2025 . This upcoming Motorola Razr Fold is expected to be just as great.
Author:Obiajulum Ndubuisi
Obiajulum is a tech enthusiast passionate about writing. When she isn’t writing about gadgets, she will probably be playing badminton, watching a movie, or surfing the internet.
