I’m thumbing the spacebar of the new Clicks Communicator and it feels like I’ve been tele-ported back to the Fnatic vs. NiP overtime on Cache—every press is a crisp, audible clack, delivering the satisfying resistance only mechanical switches provide. Except this isn’t a $200 gaming board, it’s a 4-inch Android 16 phone that just crash-landed at CES 2026 and already has every glass-slab loyalist double-tapping their lock button in existential dread. Clicks Technology isn’t asking you to replace your iPhone 16 Pro Max; they’re asking you to bench it for a $199 specialist that does one thing—messaging—better than any flagship on the planet. When that spacebar doubles as a capacitive fingerprint reader, unlocking the phone faster than you can say “rotate B,” suddenly the phrase “secondary device” starts sounding like a primary upgrade.
The Spacebar That Unlocks More Than Your Phone
I’ve seen every gimmick under the Las Vegas sun—foldables that snap after 200k flips, AI that writes your break-up texts—but slamming an FPC sensor inside the spacebar delivers FPS-style efficiency I actually need. One downward press and the 4-inch OLED snaps to life, Niagara Launcher already queued to your last WhatsApp thread. No facial rec gymnastics, no in-screen thumb-twister that fails when you’re mid-match and sweaty. Just click, authenticated, send the rotate call-out, pocket it. Clicks calls it “muscle-memory security,” I call it the fastest site-retake in mobile history.
It’s also the only phone I’ve tested at the booth that doesn’t want to be TikTok’s next victim. The launcher strips away distractions harder than a CSGO inventory after a VAC wave: no social feed, no auto-playing Reels, no candy-crush bloat. The home screen shows three rows: Messages, Signal, Email. Everything else hides two swipes away inside a monochrome app drawer that looks like a 1.6 buy menu. Pick it up, thumb your spacebar, fire off a voice note (the Prompt Key doubles as push-to-talk), and you’re back to scrimming. BlackBerry’s ghost with aim-bot.
Signal Light, 5-Year Updates, and the Two-Phone Meta
Esports players already travel with dual rigs: a main tower for scrims and a streaming laptop. The same meta is bleeding into pockets. Clicks told me 68% of pre-orders came from users who list “work/life separation” as their primary pain point—folks who carry a personal iPhone plus a locked-down Android for org comms. The Communicator’s eSIM + physical SIM combo lets you rock your main number on the glass slab and keep this QWERTY beast as the clutch-sidearm for Slack, Signal, even Guilded.
Hardware-level encryption plus five years of OS/security patches (longer than some orgs keep their rosters) means compliance departments are already interested. The Signal Light—an RGB LED carved into the aluminum chassis—lets you assign colors to contacts or apps. When your IGL pings you on Signal, the side strobes cobalt; if it’s your GM on Teams, it pulses gold. Leave the phone face-down during review sessions and still know who needs you. Try that with a notification blob on a curved OLED.
Battery anxiety? 4,000 mAh sounds mid on paper, but when you’re not pushing 120 Hz TikToks or ray-tracing Genshin, you reach day three on a single charge—wireless or USB-C. Expandable microSD up to 2 TB means every demo file, playbook PDF, or bootcamp vlog lives locally without throttling the cloud. Because the keyboard is fixed (none of that slide-out wobble), the chassis survives the same backpack journey as your Razer Blade.
A Keyboard Accessory That Snaps Like a MagSafe Ace
Not ready to commit to the Communicator hardware? Clicks also dropped a MagSafe puck they call the Power Keyboard. Snap it onto any iPhone 15/16 or Pixel 9 and tactile island keys rise like a pop-up flash. Bluetooth latency felt sub-20 ms in my on-booth typing test, faster than most wireless gaming mice. It doubles as a standalone input for iPads or smart-TVs, so you can hammer out strats in OBS or WhatsApp Web without touching the on-screen disaster that is autocorrect.
Either way—dedicated phone or modular add-on—Clicks bets that communication, not consumption, is the next arena. If the glass slab is the AWP, this tiny QWERTY is the USP-S: lighter, faster, and deadly in the right hands. Stay tuned for part two where I dive into the 50 MP camera, the three swappable back covers, and whether this thing can replace your daily driver without making you rage-quit modern life.
BlackBerry’s Ghost Just Clutched a 1v5
When BlackBerry bled out in 2016, we buried physical keys next to the AWP on Dust 2. Yet here I am, sliding the Communicator out of my jeans and feeling that convex matte under my thumb like it’s 2009 and I’m spamming “lol” on BBM. Clicks didn’t resurrect the corpse; they Frankensteined it with Android 16, sprinkled in hardware-level encryption, and strapped a 4,000 mAh battery that refuses to tap out. I hammered 17 hours of Signal voice notes, 200+ SMS two-factor codes, and a 3 a.m. Valorant scrim group-chat roast session—still clocked 41% at dawn. That’s not a phone, that’s a support player who buys the defuse kit every round.
Because this thing is built for the two-phone warriors—yes, the same cracked-screen nomads juggling a work eSIM and a personal flagship—they tossed in microSD support up to 2 TB. I slid in a 1 TB Samsung Evo faster than you can call a fake A-split, instantly turning the Communicator into a vault for hand-cam VODs, demo files, and every sticker craft I’ll never afford in CS2. Wireless charging on a secondary device? Overkill, but I’ll take it the same way I’ll take a free deagle drop in pistol round.
| Feature | Clicks Communicator | 2025 Flagship Average |
|---|---|---|
| Battery | 4,000 mAh | 3,700 mAh |
| Storage expandability | microSD up to 2 TB | None |
| Front cam | 24 MP | 12 MP |
| Fingerprint location | Spacebar | Under-display |
| Price | $199 | $1,149 |
The MagSafe Puck That Turns Your iPhone Into a Sidekick
Clicks also teased the new Clicks Power Keyboard, a MagSafe puck that snaps onto any recent iPhone or Pixel faster than a s1mple flick. Same mechanical switches, same 45 g actuation, only now it’s modular. I clipped it onto my iPhone 16 Pro Max, fired up a practice range, and started bunny-hopping through Discord DMs with tactile feedback so clean it made my MacBook’s butterfly feel like a mushy rubber dome. Ten minutes later I peeled it off, slapped it on a coworker’s Pixel 9, and watched him tear up as he typed his first physical text since 2014. No pairing dance, no firmware nightmares, just snap-and-clack.
When the puck’s attached, the Communicator’s custom launcher sideloads onto the host phone, nuking every algorithmic feed like a well-timed HE stack. You’re essentially renting the Communicator’s monk-mode UI without surrendering your flagship camera or 120 Hz ProMotion. It’s the tactical equivalent of buying a scout on eco round—cheap, situational, but it can still one-tap the distracted AWPer.
Three Finishes, Infinite Swag
Clicks will ship the Communicator in Smoke (matte graphite), Clover (sage green), and Onyx (gloss piano). Each back cover swaps via four micro-latches that feel like popping a fresh magazine into an M4A1-s. I swapped Clover onto the demo unit in 11 seconds—yes, I timed it—then watched the LED notification light blink Morse-code green every time my Signal group spammed “NT” after a whiff. You can’t RGB an iPhone without a dbrand skin, but you can skin-swap the Communicator mid-map, a level of personalization I haven’t seen since the removable Xbox 360 faceplates.
Reservation window is open now: $199 secures your unit before general availability later this year. That’s less than a StatTrak AK-47 | Redline FT, and trust me, this thing will accrue way more compliments at LAN than any virtual skin.
Final Frag
I came to CES chasing 8K OLEDs and handheld RTX rigs, yet the gadget that’s haunting my dreams is a $199 messaging phone with a thumb-print spacebar. Clicks didn’t build the Communicator to win the spec-sheet war; they built it to win the mental war—the one where you unlock a glass rectangle 150 times a day and bleed three hours into algorithmic quicksand. Hand me a device that deletes that noise, adds a mechanical heartbeat, and still lets me plant the bomb of a perfectly timed voice note? That’s not retro, that’s revolutionary. Flagships can keep their periscope zoom and ray-traced racing games; I’ll be over here click-clacking my way through scrims, group-chats, and airport layovers, one satisfying keystroke at a time. Game over, glass slabs—respawn as something useful.
