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Clicks Communicator: the ultimate communication companion (clicksphone.com)
submitted 9 months ago by to c/android@lemmy.world
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[–] 17 points 9 months ago (9 children)

It's weird how it's being advertised as a second phone - it looks like it has the same capabilities of any other android phone? Just a smaller screen and a physical keyboard

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  • [–] 14 points 9 months ago (8 children)

    They're afraid to go full bore advertising it as a minimalist alternative. If they weren't, they would have offered more thoughtful features beyond the (admittedly great) notifications-only home screen. But that's secretly who this phone is for. I am sure they're just afraid to pigeonhole it. Calling it a second phone is silly and will sell it to about 50 people but it leaves any other potential buyer to interpret what it is and why they might want it for themselves. It's a...whatever strategy.

    I know why I want it, and the early bird price (slash threat of the higher price later) is certainly compelling, but:

    1. I just put a fresh Clicks case on my existing phone
    2. I just paid that phone off and I don't see any need to upgrade
    3. I ordered a Clicks Power Keyboard or whatever they're calling the other thing they announced at the same time (and doesn't that purchase contributing to diverting me from the Communicator suggest they're cannibalizing their own moment by announcing both at the same time?) so I'll have that as well as my fresh Clicks classic case to buy me further years (one hopes) with my current phone and
    4. I expect that when my phone DOES finally die, yes, I will absolutely look at the Communicator if it's still around / affordable used (which it should be since it's affordable new). At that time, it'll also have come out and been reviewed extensively, so there also won't be any guesswork in whether it's worth picking up.
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  • [+] 6 points 9 months ago (5 children)
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  • [–] 5 points 9 months ago (4 children)

    100%. His handle on social media is CaptainTwoPhones, haha. It's a positively, ridiculously insulated angle. But I don't think they're entirely naive, either. I think he even acknowledged in the announcement that it's a pretty uncommon, upper-crust, eNtHuSiAsT thing to do. I can only speak for myself, but I find the notion of being so engulfed in obsession with these horrible little gadgets that if you keep two of them on you for any reason except being a professional tech reviewer or needing a second one for your job...that is, if you carry two phones just for the love of phones...well, that's extremely off-putting to me to the degree that I have nothing polite to say about it, and I think I just should stop myself instead. I know life is short and it's unsavory to 'yuck someone else's yum'. But. Meh.

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  • [+] 5 points 9 months ago (3 children)
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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    Yes, you're absolutely right.

    Right now I'm super interested in the Minimal Phone, and the SLEKE Phone, and to a lesser extent the Communicator (lesser of course because but for its wonky screen size, it can essentially 'do' everything a smartphone does). I understand the Minimal Phone's often clunky compromises and that it can also technically install any Android app but as you said, the amount of friction introduced by the e-ink screen is severe enough one would hope it would help. If I had to pick one to buy today, it would almost be the SLEKE phone, because to me the idea of simply perma-banning all the apps I struggle to keep deleted myself seems just about perfect, and they also have a Communicator-esque 'notification-forward' home screen with no icons trying to incentivize you to open apps just to pass time. The one and only thing holding me back is that because they've de-Googled the phone, they appear to have broken Android Auto, and in the spirit of not throwing the baby out with the bathwater, I'm not too proud to say I don't find GPS mapping to be a terrible drain on my life (even though it's increasingly used as a data point about a kind of thinking that has atrophied in our modern-age brains) and I simply will not give up its inclusion in my car. I know Garmin still exists, but...that's just a little too boutique, even for me. Any in-car mapping solution I've ever used short of Android Auto and Apple CarPlay has taken way too long to input or adjust destinations, been to quirky (I'm specifically thinking of a BMW I once borrowed and its awful built-in nav), and of course, AA and AC give you that 'single pane of glass' to manage not only your maps but also your music / podcasts / audiobooks through. I just can't give that up for a minimalist phone.

    But if SLEKE can figure out how to add AA back in, I'd jump ship on my old iPhone the second my Clicks Power Keyboard arrives in the Spring.

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