Exclusive: Clicks Communicator keyboard designer reveals why it isn't just another BlackBerry clone

An input product, not an output product

Most phones today, Hofer argues, are output machines. You pick one up to fire off a quick message and resurface fifteen minutes later at the bottom of a feed, unsure how you got there.

He describes these "everything" phones as devices that hand you convenience and then leave you not sure what to do with yourself, because you are getting bombarded.

The Communicator, however, flips that. You reach for it to say something, to a person, a team, an AI, rather than to be fed something. The whole design is built around that one idea.

Why the keys look nothing like a BlackBerry

You might expect the man who shaped the Bold to simply reissue it. However, he refused to go that route.

The Communicator's keys are not BlackBerry ovals or the old square frets that you might remember. They are vertical pills, a shape Hofer reached by taking the circular key from earlier Clicks keyboards, slicing it across, and stretching it out.

The result is roughly 30 percent more key surface than past Clicks products, with a subtly raised inner corner he jokingly calls the "Pringle." That is the part your thumb hunts for so you can type without looking down.

His reasoning stuck with me. He says he is designing backward from a decade in the future, building a Clicks look that, in 2036, traces right back to these first devices.

Why it matters, and the appetite behind it

This is where the bet stops being philosophy and turns into a market question, and the numbers are more interesting than I expected.

Physical keyboards never came back at scale, but the appetite for intentional phones clearly has. Feature and minimalist phones, the broad "use your phone less" category, generated about $2.35 billion globally in 2024, with North America as the single largest market.

"Dumbphone" sales reportedly climbed around 25 percent in 2025, so the keyboard niche on its own is small but real. Clicks says it sold more than 100,000 keyboard cases in its first year, enough to help kick off a wave of new QWERTY projects, including the Unihertz Titan line.

The interest is loud in the smaller corners, too. On the r/ClicksPhone subreddit, one popular post mocked up the Communicator in transparent colorways and asked whether anyone else wanted a clear or smoke finish.

It pulled 371 upvotes and 88 comments of people riffing on the idea. That is anecdotal, but it tracks with a crowd that is excited and waiting for this thing to ship.

So that is the company Hofer is keeping. Not a nostalgia play, but the same instinct driving the dumbphone surge, with a keyboard added for people who would rather type than scroll.

The hardware behind the bet has firmed up since the Communicator first broke cover, and a couple of figures moved.

The updated specs

We covered the expanded keyboard layouts and availability earlier this year, and a few of the core figures have shifted again since then. Here is the latest configuration from Clicks, with the notable changes from the original reveal called out:

• Display: 4.03-inch AMOLED, 1080 x 1200 resolution
• Operating system: launches on Android 17, a late bump from the originally announced Android 16, with updates committed through Android 20
• Chip: MediaTek Dimensity 8300, a 4nm part (updated from the reveal, which listed only an unnamed MediaTek chipset)
• Battery: 4,450 mAh silicon-carbon, up from the 4,000 mAh quoted at reveal
• Storage: 256GB, expandable via microSD up to 2TB
• Cameras: 50 MP with optical image stabilization on the rear, 24 MP front
• Charging: Qi2 wireless, MagSafe-compatible, plus USB-C
• Extras: 3.5 mm headphone jack, nanoSIM and eSIM, sold unlocked
• Price: $499, shipping in Q4 2026

How it stacks up against the Light Phone 3 and Titan 2 Elite

If you are eyeing the intentional-tech space, two rivals are worth a look, and the Communicator does not really threaten either one head-on.

The Light Phone 3 is the purist play, an E-Ink minimalist device that strips features out on purpose. Clicks is doing something different, keeping a full Android phone but using friction to nudge your habits. If you want a device that decides for you, Light Phone is still your pick.

The Unihertz Titan 2 Elite is the closer comparison, another keyboard-forward Android phone, and one I have used in my rotation. What it taught me is that there is a real re-learning curve any time you switch to a new keyboard layout, even more so coming from typing on glass.

For a while you fumble. Then the muscle memory kicks in, and you get that thocky, mechanical-keyboard satisfaction in miniature form, the kind that makes you not want to go back to typing any other way. So, if you already type on any other PKB device, the Communicator's existence is not a reason to panic. Its design pedigree just makes it the one to watch.

What keeps sticking with me

I personally have a Communicator reservation in and a Power Keyboard pre-order pending, so I really want this to be good. I cannot tell you what the typing feels like yet, because units have not shipped.

But one line Hofer dropped almost casually has stayed with me:

I left that interview more convinced than ever that the door looks wide open for the Clicks Communicator. However, it won't be until later this year, when customers finally start to get their hands on it, that we will find out how many of us are willing to walk through it.

Want more hot takes and behind-the-scenes looks at the gadgets I get my hands on? Come find me on X and Threads.