The Clicks Communicator launch is getting its first proper preview, with Clicks Technology releasing a new hands-on video showing pre-production hardware and software ahead of a planned fourth-quarter shipping window. Price tag: $499. Ambition: replace the phone you hate with one you might actually enjoy using.
Unveiled at CES on 2 January 2026, the Communicator was framed from the start as something specific. Clicks Technology’s announcement described it as ‘a second phone built for communication, not consumption’, positioning it as a companion to your main device rather than a replacement. That framing does a lot of work: it sidesteps the spec-sheet arms race entirely and goes after a different kind of buyer.
BlackBerry DNA, Updated for the Clicks Communicator Launch
The device has genuine pedigree behind its keyboard-forward design. According to CrackBerry, the Communicator was designed in partnership with Joseph Hofer, the industrial designer responsible for the BlackBerry Bold 9000, Bold 9900, Q10, and Passport. If you ever wore a groove into any of those keyboards, that name carries weight.
The CrackBerry connection runs deeper. Kevin Michaluk, known to the BlackBerry community as CrackBerry Kevin, disclosed that he is co-founder and president of Clicks Technology, having spent three years building the company largely out of public view. That backstory matters for the product: this is not a hardware startup that stumbled onto physical keyboards as a niche opportunity. It is, in effect, a company staffed by people who were genuinely heartbroken when BlackBerry exited the hardware business.
The Communicator looks the part. A screen sits above a tactile, touch-sensitive keyboard, echoing the classic BlackBerry form factor. But it adds features the original never had. The ‘Signal Light’, a customisable LED button on the side of the phone, can be set to different colours and patterns to flag messages from specific contacts, groups, or apps. That single feature is probably the most thoughtful thing here: it lets you physically ignore your phone until something actually worth your attention lights it up.
Hardware That Goes Beyond Nostalgia
On paper, the spec list reads like a deliberate rebuke to the modern smartphone playbook. There is a 3.5mm headphone jack. A physical SIM card tray alongside eSIM support. Expandable microSD storage up to 2TB. Swappable back covers. A tactile switch for toggling aeroplane mode. Every one of those features has been quietly removed from flagship phones over the past decade in the name of thinness or waterproofing or, frankly, accessory revenue.
The Communicator will be available in three finishes: Smoke, Clover, and Onyx. Buyers can place a deposit now and settle the balance closer to shipping, or reserve in full. One free back cover comes with every reservation, and keyboard layout selection happens nearer the shipping date.
Software runs on Android, with Niagara Launcher providing the interface for apps. The partnership is a sensible one: Niagara is already known for a stripped-back, notification-focused approach to the Android home screen, which fits the Communicator’s anti-distraction pitch.
At CES, TechCrunch handled a prototype matching the final device’s size and weight. The verdict was broadly positive: good grip, well-balanced, and keys with a satisfying click. The team was still fine-tuning key travel pressure at that point to better suit fast typists, which is the kind of detail that suggests the people building this have actually typed on a lot of keyboards.
The new video is framed as the first in a series, with future instalments promised to go deeper on specific features including the Signal Light, Prompt Key, and Message Hub. Clicks also announced a second product at CES, the Clicks Power Keyboard, a compact external keyboard extending physical typing to smartphones, tablets, and smart TVs, effectively broadening the same accessibility-of-typing argument beyond the Communicator itself.
The market for ‘intentional’ phones, devices built around doing less, is real but small. The Clicks Communicator launch will tell us pretty quickly whether $499 and a physical keyboard is enough to pull buyers away from the devices they already resent.
