The Clicks Communicater smartphone on display. Startup Clicks Technology makes a Blackberry phone.
Clicks
When Apple After launching the iPhone in 2007, physical keyboards quickly lost ground to touchscreens and disappeared from mainstream smartphones.
Now a new wave of startups, including British company Clicks Technology and Chinese company Unihertz, are bringing them back and carving out a niche for phones with touch buttons.
The abandonment of buttons once seemed permanent. Blackberry, long known for its touch-tone phones, stopped producing hardware in 2016 and shut down its software services in 2022.
But fans of its square phones with its signature keyboard remain loyal to the brand. THE r/Blackberry The subreddit has 25,000 members who share tips and nostalgia for the devices.
The renewed interest reflects a broader trend, said Jung Younbo, a communications professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
“We tend to use our smartphones as a kind of way to express ourselves,” Younbo said. As phones become more integrated into daily life, the trends surrounding them increasingly resemble cyclical fashion trends, he added.
For some users, the appeal lies less in nostalgia and more in control. Clicks Technology co-founder and chief marketing officer Jeff Gadway said about 45 percent of his customer base has never used a phone with a physical keypad.
“They don’t see this as a piece of nostalgia, but as a whole new, more intentional way to use their phone,” he told CNBC.
Reduce screen timeThat sense of intention is part of the draw for content creator Chonnie Alfonso, 23, who usually features retro gadgets on her person. YouTube channel.
She said switching to a keyboard introduced friction, prompting her to rethink how often she used her phone.
Having “an extra barrier of inconvenience that adds more steps to the thought process” as opposed to “an accessible slab of glass in the hand” has become a way for her to reduce the time she spends on her phone, Alfonso told CNBC.
Doomscrolling is less suitable for square-shaped smartphones like BlackBerry. Alfonso said switching to a keyboard helped her spend less time on social media and have more control over her schedule.
Clicks Technology’s Gadway said the company’s device emphasizes messaging and core functions, aiming to keep users focused on their original tasks instead of drifting to other apps.
The phone, with messaging apps on a home launcher, is designed to ensure users do what they originally set out to do, rather than ending up on a “side quest”, he said.
“It’s about making the time you spend on your phone more valuable.”
Choice vs consolidationBeyond behavior, the devices also revive features that have largely disappeared from mainstream smartphones.
Gadway said Clicks offers keyboards in different languages, interchangeable back covers, expandable memory card storage and a physical 3.5mm headphone jack, rather than wireless connectivity, features that modern smartphones mostly have. abandoned.
For Wei Lun Ng, a 23-year-old audio enthusiast, having a phone that supports wired headphones has become a practical preference.
“I think it doesn’t cut out as much because when your battery is low, like on a wireless headset or earbuds, it starts to cut out… [they’re] more practical,” he said.
BERLIN, GERMANY – JULY 15: Sonia Lyson wears beige short sleeve cropped shirt with collar and drawstring from Zara; a yellow gold Tank americaine wristwatch with a rectangular dial from Cartier; an Apple iPhone with a dark pink Rhode Lip Gloss phone case and matching lip gloss attached to it; white wired Apple EarPods; her long blonde hair is styled in soft waves on July 15, 2025 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Moritz Scholz/Getty Images)
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Wired headphones are also less likely to be misplaced than wireless headphones, he says.
And they are cheaper. The cheapest model of Apple AirPods, which connects via Bluetooth, currently costs $129, while their wired headphones cost $19.
Tactile communication Unexpectedly, keyboards have also attracted users with accessibility needs.
Gadway said some people with low vision or motor control issues find it easier to type on physical keys than on touch screens, regaining confidence in everyday use.
People who frequently make typos might find physical keyboards useful, said Younbo, of Nanyang Technological University.
Although most smartphones offer automatic spelling correction, “people don’t really use it.” [feature] largely because it changes the word to totally different words that you don’t intend to use,” he said.
Niche market competitionThe niche is becoming more and more popular. Companies such as Zinwa Technologies and iKKO are launching their own keyboard-equipped smartphones this year, joining Clicks and Unihertz.
For enthusiasts like Alfonso, increased competition could improve product quality.
Interest in phones with physical keypads remains strong. Unihertz’s Kickstarter campaign for the second iteration of its Titan phone has attracted more than 8,200 backers and raised more than $4.8 million as of May 8, ahead of the campaign’s May 13 end date.
Clicks also exceeded its six-month pre-order goal in 30 days, the company told CNBC.
However, the segment faces challenges. Growing demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure has strained memory supply, driving up component costs.
Unihertz recently increased the price of its Titan 2, citing higher memory costs. Clicks said it plans to keep its price stable and absorb pressure.
For now, keyboard smartphones remain a small part of the market. But their feedback suggests that even in a world of uniform glass screens, some users are still looking for something they can feel.