If you’re anything like me, you spend an inordinate amount of time cycling through Reddit, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube – over and over again, until the skies darken and you realise you’ve just wasted half a day. It’s enough to make you nostalgic for the days of the BlackBerry, when your phone was mostly used for messaging.
Enter the Clicks Communicator. Announced earlier this year at CES 2026, it’s a BlackBerry-style Android dumbphone with a physical keyboard, aimed at keeping you connected, rather than addicted.
Clicks only showed off dummy units of the device at CES in January, but it seems like things are starting to move along now.
In an update from the company, Clicks said it would be revealing the software experience, including interface and design details this month, with working units available to see in June.
In the third quarter, the Communicator will move into certification and testing, with those who’ve reserved the device able to personalise their order and choose their colourway and keyboard layout. The company hopes to start shipping by the end of the year.
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Clicks Communicator: £146, Clicksphone.com
Announced earlier this year, the Clicks Communicator is a mid-range Android phone that resurrects the physical keyboard. It has a 4.3in AMOLED display and comes with 256GB of storage and a 50MP camera on the rear.
What’s interesting about the Clicks Communicator is that it uses a customised version of the minimalist list-based Niagara Launcher, which brings messages from different apps into a single message hub on the home screen, so you can read and reply without bouncing between various apps.
Similar to classic BlackBerries, the Clicks Communicator includes a signal LED light that lights up in different colours depending on who’s messaging you, so you can quickly gauge how important a notification is without unlocking your phone.
Designed to be used as a second phone, it will cost $199 (£146) and you can reserve it now.
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