Accessory company Clix makes cases with integrated physical keyboards for select phones, but they’re almost ridiculously long and difficult to fit in a pocket. The new Clix Power Keyboard solves this problem and offers wider compatibility. It’s a magnetic physical keyboard that you can snap onto MagSafe iPhones or any Qi2 Android device, and turn them into old-school BlackBerrys. Remove the keyboard when you don’t need it. It connects via Bluetooth, and that means you can also use it with other smart devices like a TV when you have to enter a password. You can pair it with up to three devices.
The keyboard can be extended to different lengths to accommodate smaller or larger phones, and you can rotate the power keyboard sideways and shorten the length to use the keyboard with your phone in landscape mode. Since it’s not integrated into the phone case, the Power Keyboard has larger keys and a dedicated number row, making it a little easier to type on. It can also serve as a power bank in a pinch, but the capacity is small, and it charges the phone very slowly at 5 watts, so it’s best to save that juice for the keyboard only. It’s priced at $109 and goes on sale in the spring, but you can preorder it now.
This wasn’t the only exciting thing the Clix did at CES. Clix is now also a phone company. The Clix Communicator is a proper Android phone, designed to Second Phones that focus exclusively on communications. (I was only able to play with a dummy prototype model.) Load it up with your favorite messaging apps and type — you can even use the rear camera for selfies or video calls. The company partnered with Niagara Launcher to make the home screen more unique than the typical spread of app icons.
The Communicator supports a physical SIM or eSIM, has a headphone jack, 256GB of storage and a microSD card slot, Qi2 wireless charging, and NFC for contactless payments. It even uses silicon-carbon battery technology for its 4,000-mAh cell. Since it has the Google Play Store, you can install anything you want on it – even TikTok, assuming it doesn’t look weird on the square OLED screen. On one side is a customizable killswitch that turns on airplane mode by default, and on the other is a “prompt key” for voice dictation – a press and hold will enable voice memos.
Unlike similarly sized pocket devices like the Lite Phone III or Minimal Phone, the Clix doesn’t want to force you to limit your screen time with this secondary device. Instead, you’re in control and can customize it for whatever you want to use it for; Nothing can stop you from making it your primary phone. It will get two Android OS upgrades and 5 years of security updates, although the company is exploring other chip options to broaden the OS update window. It’s priced at $499, and you can reserve it now with a potential launch date later this year.
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