Clicks Technology, a startup preparing to launch its own for BlackBerry smartphones, is showcasing its product in a new video released today.
Known as the Clicks Communicator, the device was first introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January for people who do a lot of things with their phones, like texting and emailing. It’s specifically intended to appeal to people who miss BlackBerry’s physical keyboard, which it claims is better suited for this type of work.
Priced at $499, the Communicator looks a lot like a modern-day BlackBerry, with a screen for viewing and responding to messages and a tactile, touch-sensitive keyboard underneath.
But the phone is more than just a BlackBerry spoof, it also innovates in other areas. For example, the clever “traffic light” feature provides an illuminated button on the side of the phone that can be customized with different colors and lighting patterns to indicate when you receive a message from a specific person, group, or app.
It also features a customizable removable and replaceable back cover, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a physical SIM card tray (in addition to eSIM), expandable microSD storage (up to 2TB), and a tactile switch to turn airplane mode on or off.
Clicks Communicator may also appeal to the growing number of users looking to distance themselves from modern smartphones with addictive social apps and games. (The company has partnered with Niagara Launcher to provide access to an Android app that runs.) Traffic Light lets you safely ignore your phone unless you get an important notification.
In a new video, the company shows off pre-production hardware and internal software to give us a preview of what’s to come when the phones start shipping in the fourth quarter of this year.
At CES, TechCrunch was able to get a feel for the communicator by handling a prototype that’s the same size and weight as the device it’s preparing to launch later this year. It felt good to hold, not too light or too heavy, and was easy to hold. The keys also have quite a bit of clickiness, giving it a BlackBerry-like feel, but the team planned to tweak the pressure a bit to make the device work better for fast typing users.
Future videos will cover specific Clicks Communicator features in more detail, such as traffic lights, prompt keys, messaging hub, touch-sensitive keyboard, and more.
If you purchase through links in our articles, we may receive a small commission. This does not affect our editorial independence.
