this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2026
308 points (97.5% liked)

Technology

78627 readers
5014 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
L3s@lemmy.world
enu@lemmy.world
technopagan@lemmy.world
L4s@lemmy.world
L3s@hackingne.ws
308
QWERTY Phones Are Really Trying to Make a Comeback This Year (gizmodo.com)
submitted 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) by IcedRaktajino@startrek.website to c/technology@lemmy.world
108 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

After dying a painful death at the hand of the iPhone’s revolutionary capacitive touchscreen, the QWERTY smartphone is rising up from the graveyard this year.

Whether it’s nostalgia for a physical keyboard, frustration at iOS’s ever-worsening software keyboard, or just plain boredom with glass slabs, companies are rebooting QWERTY phones this year for some reason.

At CES 2026:

  • Clicks, the company behind the Clicks keyboard case and the new Power Keyboard, announced plans to sell the Communicator, a “second phone” with a QWERTY keypad
  • Unihertz also teased a new phone with a physical keyboard. The Titan 2 Elite seems to be a less gimmicky version of the Titan 2, which itself was a BlackBerry Passport knockoff but with a bizarre square screen on the backside.

[T]wo 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’s time to go back to the physical keyboard and its more tactile typing.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] IcedRaktajino@startrek.website 45 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (4 children)

I've been rocking a Minimal Phone for about 6 or 7 months now, and man am I excited to have options for QWERTY phones again.

just plain boredom with glass slabs

This. So much this. They're all boring, too tall, and too skinny with about as much personality as a used up dryer sheet. It's like they're designed solely for scrolling an endless feed of mind-numbing slop. I remember being able to actually do things on my older smartphones (RDP, SSH, editing documents/spreadsheets, etc). You can still do those things now, but you basically have to break out a bluetooth keyboard to do anything more than the most basic things and it feels like trying to look at a panorama through a keyhole.

[–] Areldyb@lemmy.world 6 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

I’ve been rocking a Minimal Phone

You managed to get one? The website says they ship in 3-5 business days. I ordered in November, and this week I canceled the order because all they've done so far is lie to me about ship dates. Terrible, terrible experience.

[–] IcedRaktajino@startrek.website 1 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

I pre-ordered last June and got it toward the end of July. It seems to ship directly from the factory in Hong Kong, so you have to use the tracking link they send you until it clears customs in your country.

I did a first impressions post about it when I got it.

[–] HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org 10 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (2 children)

I've been rocking a Minimal Phone for about 6 or 7 months now, and man am I excited to have options for QWERTY phones again.

It's like they're designed solely for scrolling an endless feed of mind-numbing slop.

It is because they are exactly that.

There exist palmtops and handheld computers. I have a Gemini PDA running Sailfish OS Linux and it feels very different - like a small, cat-sized laptop. No problem running ssh or vim or ledger on it, or self-written guile apps, or cross-compiled Rust CLI tools. It is a computer, not a consumption device.

[–] Twig@sopuli.xyz 2 points 11 hours ago

Kinda wanted to do something similar with the Pine Phone + Keyboard, but I can't seem to find the right OS/distro for the task.

[–] IcedRaktajino@startrek.website 2 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Gemini PDA

Is that the one from PlanetCom? I've been looking at both their Gemini and Cosmo Communicator. Both were out of stock when I ended up going with the Minimal.

[–] HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org 2 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

Yes. One good option now might be PocketPC or so. Look for "Palmtops"/"Handheld PCs". New devices are popping up, the technology is there.

[–] Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 19 hours ago

I would highly suggest you and anyone else wanting a keyboard that's actually useful to check out Unexpected Keyboard. You can write code with this thing without it being a nightmare.

https://f-droid.org/packages/juloo.keyboard2