{"id":236127,"date":"2026-01-13T19:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T19:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/236127\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T19:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T19:36:08","slug":"qwerty-phones-are-really-trying-to-make-a-comeback-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/236127\/","title":{"rendered":"QWERTY Phones Are Really Trying to Make a Comeback This Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

After dying a painful death at the hand of the iPhone\u2019s revolutionary capacitive touchscreen, the QWERTY smartphone is rising up from the graveyard this year.<\/p>\n

No, BlackBerry isn\u2019t returning despite enthusiast efforts to retrofit old BlackBerry Classics<\/a> with modern-day components like a faster CPU, more RAM and storage, a bigger battery, and a USB-C port. Whether it\u2019s nostalgia for a physical keyboard, frustration at iOS\u2019s ever-worsening software keyboard<\/a>, or just plain boredom with glass slabs, companies are rebooting QWERTY phones this year for some reason.<\/p>\n

At CES 2026<\/a>, Clicks, the company behind the Clicks keyboard case<\/a> and the new Power Keyboard<\/a>, announced plans to sell the Communicator, a \u201csecond phone\u201d with a QWERTY keypad. Clicks pitches the $500 phone, launching later this year, as a device primarily intended for messaging\u2014sending texts, DMs, Slack messages, whatever. The company didn\u2019t have a functional unit\u2014only a mockup dummy to fondle at the show\u2014but it looked cool enough, even if it\u2019ll be a very niche product. It\u2019s a cool idea, but how many people will carry a companion phone to their main phone just to shoot off a few DMs? $500 is a lot to ask for that satisfaction.<\/p>\n

\"Clicks\u00a9 Clicks <\/p>\n

But Clicks isn\u2019t the only one trying to bring back QWERTY phones. Unihertz, makers of the really tiny Jelly Android phones and also Tank phones with massive battery capacities<\/a>, also teased a new phone with a physical keyboard. The Titan 2 Elite seems to be a less gimmicky version of the Titan 2<\/a>, which itself was a BlackBerry Passport<\/a> knockoff but with a bizarre square screen on the backside.<\/p>\n

New \ud835\udde4\ud835\uddea\ud835\uddd8\ud835\udde5\ud835\udde7\ud835\uddec is coming\u2026Stay tuned \ud83d\udd25\u2728 Sign up here > https:\/\/t.co\/Lh1W8f7zcW<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/NDk42TeZ6J<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Unihertz (@Unihertz) January 12, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Look closely, and there are some weird similarities between the Clicks Communicator and the Titan 2 Elite. We don\u2019t have dimension specs yet, but the screens seem to have the same rounded corners, and even the hole-punch camera is in the same upper-left corner. The only difference seems to be the keyboards; the Communicator uses individual keys, whereas the Titan 2 Elite\u2019s keyboard is more BlackBerry-esque.<\/p>\n

Either way, two QWERTY phone announcements in this still very new year suggest there may be some kind of trend. Maybe after 19 years of the iPhone and touchscreens defining the mobile experience, it\u2019s time to go back to the physical keyboard and its more tactile typing. Or maybe there\u2019s just a keyboard supplier out there firing up its factories and trying to pump out slightly different\u2014but mostly identical\u2014phones to anybody willing to pay them. I guess we still have 352 days left to find out if more phone makers have the guts to revive the spirit of the BlackBerry.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n