this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2026
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452
QWERTY Phones Are Really Trying to Make a Comeback This Year (gizmodo.com)
submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by IcedRaktajino@startrek.website to c/technology@lemmy.world
174 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.

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[–] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 months ago

Texting on my old stratosphere was so much better than the modern keyboards. I wouldn't mind an updated version.

[–] neidu3@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Dvorak phone when? Preferably with compose key in place of caps lock, but it's not vital.

And for fucks sake, give us an ISO option. I'm not claiming one is superior over the other, but most of the world have used ISO their entire lives and absolutely detest ANSI.

[–] AppleTea@lemmy.zip 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Gizmodo didn't always look like the penny arcade website, did they?

[–] bytesonbike@discuss.online 2 points 3 months ago

Great now I can't unsee it.

[–] Furbag@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

I miss my Blackberry Pearl...

I fear that that design of phone layout/UI will never make a comeback.

[–] pat277@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 months ago

Last time I checked, none of these have display out, the only thing I kinda need. Sucks to not have it...

[–] kepix@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

2 phones are not a trend, nice try tho

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