Clicks Technology, the startup determined to bring back physical keyboards to smartphones, began shipping its now-$99 MagSafe-compatible Power Keyboard this summer, after some delays. As of last week, 75% of the pre-orders from the first batch had shipped to customers.
Designed to work with a range of devices, this new, slide-out keyboard with tactile buttons can accommodate different phone sizes and can be used in either portrait or landscape mode, the company says, giving any phone a BlackBerry-like feel.
The device is something of a teaser for what’s to come when Clicks ships its first smartphone, the BlackBerry-like Clicks Communicator, also featuring a physical keyboard, later this year.
Like the upcoming smartphone, the idea behind the Power Keyboard is to provide an alternative to onscreen keyboards for those who miss the speed and reliability that came with typing on a small, physical keyboard.
However, in its current implementation, the Power Keyboard suffers from the same fate as the company’s earlier Clicks keyboard — a smartphone case that included a physical keyboard. It can make the phone feel top-heavy and difficult to hold in portrait mode, especially if you’re using a larger smartphone as I did in tests with the iPhone 17 Pro Max and Pixel 10 XL.
