All the other discussions I found on Lemmy dismiss it because they find the idea of a second phone ridiculous. Or because they don’t buy into the “dumb phone” concept. But I think it makes a compelling phone on it’s own, and you wouldn’t need a second.
But really look into it. By every indication it appears designed to be a fully featured main phone. It has some compromises made to fit the keyboard first philosophy, but it has everything you’d need and more. Dual SIM (eSIM+physical), a headphone jack, micro SD Card support, a 50mp camera with OIS (I know megapixels don’t mean much but I think it shows it’s not gonna be the cheapest crap camera), NFC/Google Pay support, Android Auto, Qi2… That doesn’t read “second phone” to me. It’s just… phone.
They have now said that it will have an unlockable bootloader too. I’m not finding much to dislike here. 8GB of RAM is somewhat low but should be fine. The processor is still a question mark but honesty as long as it’s not bottom of the barrel it should be perfectly fine. I have always gone for flagship phones but honestly I’ve started analyzing what I actually do on my phone and I pretty much never push the hardware. I like knowing I have the top of the line but I basically just web browse, message, read email, scroll Lemmy, and listen to music/podcasts. Very occasionally watch some YouTube but that’s usually on my TV or PC. No gaming or anything. I should be able to do all of that on this device, some of it won’t be as good on that screen obviously but it should still be doable. I need the camera to at least be decent. Not great just not garbage. Like it’s fine if the low light performance is meh and the video isn’t the best. But I don’t want to look at my photos and regret taking it with that device, so we’ll see.
I don’t want a dumb phone, and I don’t think this is one. You should be able to do everything any other phone can. I don’t think it’s a second phone either. I think they’re just leaning into that for marketing reasons, so that when anyone points out the tradeoffs of this form factor they can just wave it away as a secondary device.
It appeals to me because it’s a small phone. Seriously nobody makes one worth using. Unihertz sure, if you want a bad software experience with no updates ever. But otherwise you just have the non-plus sized iPhone/Galaxy S. Those are considered small. Or maybe the flip-foldables. It also appeals to me because it has major character and (imo) style. I’m bored of glass and metal sandwiches. Give me this! A plastic device with a swappable back that has a (vegan?) leather option? Hell yeah.
I have no nostalgia for blackberry as I never had one. My first mobile phone was a touchscreen. It just appeals to me as it has a lot of style and personality, at a decent price. It’s also plastic in a world of glass covered phones, with a headphone jack and expandable storage. And I don’t watch a lot of videos (on my phone) and think this screen would work just fine for 99% of what I do. But it still CAN watch video or anything any smartphone can do.
The marketing stuff is whatever.
Yeah it’s a cool device, whoever is pitching it though needs to realize why people might actually want one. Cause it’s the reasons you said, it’s a cute little device that’s different, inexpensive, tough, and with features that other phones have taken away. “Teeny low-cost android phone with a keyboard and audio jack” would be way better positioning for them than this “second phone” and “productivity device” silliness. But for real at that launch price I might have to roll the dice on one and see if they actually managed to make something that doesn’t feel like baby’s first kickstarter blackberry clone lol.
“Productivity” is a sort of euphemism for addiction within the phone space. A lot of the hardware and software tools designed to combat addiction are marketed in this way because, for whatever reason, people still feel embarrassed about admitting they have a phone addiction problem.
I don’t even see how this is supposed to help with phone addiction. Sure, if short form video is your poison of choice, it could help. But if your addiction is more of the reddit, lemmy, discord, or group chat variety, or anything else text-based, wouldn’t making typing easier make these addictions even worse?
Speaking from personal experience, I find smaller screens to be significantly less addictive because they’re less engaging and more frustrating to use. It forces me to choose between having text large enough to avoid eye strain and having enough content on the screen to not be constantly needing to interact with it. Either way, I end up with an annoying trade-off that makes me not want to use my phone for anything more than the essentials. The smaller the display is, the less I get sucked in. It’s no coincidence that the smartphone I had the healthiest relationship with was the Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact; my smallest by far.
Additionally, the Communicator’s physical keyboard would make typing slower for me (it might be more comfortable for some, but I’m not sure I agree it’s easier). Personally, there is absolutely no way I would be using a physical keyboard for anything other than messaging with my friends, short emails, basic web searches, etc. They might be comfortable but they’re just too slow compared to modern touchscreen keyboards. And technically I might be able to use a touchscreen keyboard and bypass the physical keyboard entirely, but that’s also very annoying on a small screen for anything other than the essentials. Not that I am going to buy the Communcator (I backed the iKKO Mind One instead), but I can understand why some people might find the design appealing from a minimalist/intentional tech perspective.