alt Hacker NewsI would recommend not touching pre-orders with a 10-foot pole.
The leadership behind this project is f(x)tec. While they're not outright scammers they have a TERRIBLE track record in delivering products like this. Just look up the old fxtec community forums or the indiegogo pages for the pro1 / pro1x.
It's just data points but so far the modus operandi was to take pre-order money and then take years to deliver a bad product with no aftermarket support. There were always new excuses about what happened (shipping company stole our stuff! chip reseller scammed us! etc) but no transparency. The reality seems to be they ran out of money and instead of being upfront about it kept making up new stories why nothing was happening. The few devices they have shipped are basically unusable unless you're going to mod the hard- and software yourself (no security updates, issues in antenna design, outdated hardware by the time it ships, keyboard quality issues, you name it).
If you're interested in the device I implore you to wait until you can buy it upfront (ideally in a physical store) and return it at your convenience.
I thought I needed a keyboard too, but when everything is designed for a slab screen and your "productivity" phone randomly shuts down or has no reception in a major area, you gotta think about what productivity really means.
Replies
I had forgotten about FXTec. I think Clicks could be different though. For one thing they have already shipped keyboard accessories for the iPhone and the Moto Razr. The core technology is there. Additionally, a small company like Unihertz has shipped several variants of PKB phones reliably over the last few years.
The Fxtec Pro 1 tried to implement a sliding keyboard mechanism, which is mechanically complicated: the Palm Pre ran into problems with that design and the Blackberry Priv in 2015 discontinued that design after only one generation, switching back to integrated PKBs for the KeyOne and Key2.
Huh interesting, didn't realize this was effectively a rebranding of fxtec.
Enough for me to avoid them as they seem to have spent some effort hiding that association.
I bought the first gen on preorder, literally returned it the day after I got it. They were cheap feeling, super lightweight and chincy, cheap and hard to press buttons, weird keyboard layout, and the whole thing was too top heavy to use.
I tried to find a contacts page, with physical address and phone #.
Not finding that is enough to avoid.
I have a founders edition Clicks keyboard for the iPhone 15 Pro. Its really a fantastic piece of hardware; worked great since I got it, idk, maybe 14 months ago. Obviously this is a full device and much more complicated, but I wouldn't personally have any qualms taking a risk on it given that their track record for the other clicks devices is pretty solid IME.