- cross-posted to:
- clickscommunicator@thelemmy.club
- cross-posted to:
- clickscommunicator@thelemmy.club
cross-posted from: https://thelemmy.club/post/43094801
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Can it do Linux touch and ditch android?
Seriously. This would be a sweet Linux phone.
Ditto
AI slop trash article.
I too would call anything slop that I don’t like!
The Spacebar has a built-in fingerprint sensor, which could be handy for unlocking the phone quickly. The keypad is touch-sensitive, which means that you can slide your fingers over it to scroll through messages. And before you ask, yes, it also has a 4.03-inch OLED touchscreen display for those of us who like scrolling on a smoother surface.
Some of you may also be pleased to know that the Clicks Communicator has a 3.5mm headphone jack and that it supports microSD cards for storage expansion. It ships with 256GB storage and you can add a microSD card with up to 2TB of capacity.
The device runs Android 16, supports Qi2 wireless charging, has a USB-C port, and has a 50-MP rear camera with optical image stabilization, alongside a 24-MP front camera. It’s powered by a 4nm MediaTek chip that has 5G support. It’s a dual-SIM phone with one physical SIM slot and an eSIM
It also has NFC for mobile payment support. I’m not seeing many compromises here except perhaps the camera and processor. I’m gonna use this as my next phone.
The Clicks marketing team has been marketing this as a “second device”. I think that’s a miss-step. Very few people want to have two phones. They exist, but it seems like this device should be a completely capable phone on it’s own. It’ll be a niche device either way but I think the “people who want a small phone with physical buttons” niche is larger than the “people who want two phones of of which is small with physical buttons” crowd. And it causes confusion. Some people saw the announcement and didn’t realize it’s a full fledged independent phone…
Maybe they should reach out to the GrapheneOS team and see if there could be a partnership of some type there.
Even LineageOS would be amazing.
Unfortunately the GrapheneOS team said it doesn’t meet their requirements. Their requirements are suuuuuuper specific which is why it’s only on Pixel devices.
They have said that the bootloader can be unlocked, so some sort of ROM support is possible.
GrapheneOS complete requirements:
- Support for using alternate operating systems including full hardware security functionality
- Complete monthly Android Security Bulletin patches without any regular delays longer than a week for device support code (firmware, drivers and HALs)
- At least 5 years of updates from launch for device support code with phones (Pixels now have 7) and 7 years with tablets
- Device support code updated to new monthly, quarterly and yearly releases of AOSP within several months to provide new security improvements (Pixels receive these in the month they’re released)
- Linux 6.1, 6.6 or 6.12 Generic Kernel Image (GKI) support
- Hardware accelerated virtualization usable by GrapheneOS (ideally pKVM to match Pixels but another usable implementation may be acceptable)
- Hardware memory tagging (ARM MTE or equivalent)
- Hardware-based coarse grained Control Flow Integrity (CFI) for baseline coverage where type-based CFI isn’t used or can’t be deployed (BTI/PAC, CET IBT or equivalent)
- PXN, SMEP or equivalent
- PAN, SMAP or equivalent
- Isolated radios (cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, etc.), GPU, SSD, media encode / decode, image processor and other components
- Support for A/B updates of both the firmware and OS images with automatic rollback if the initial boot fails one or more times
- Verified boot with rollback protection for firmware
- Verified boot with rollback protection for the OS (Android Verified Boot)
- Verified boot key fingerprint for yellow boot state displayed with a secure hash (non-truncated SHA-256 or better)
- StrongBox keystore provided by secure element
- Hardware key attestation support for the StrongBox keystore
- Attest key support for hardware key attestation to provide pinning support
- Weaver disk encryption key derivation throttling provided by secure element
- Insider attack resistance for updates to the secure element (Owner user authentication required before updates are accepted)
- Inline disk encryption acceleration with wrapped key support
- 64-bit-only device support code
- Wi-Fi anonymity support including MAC address randomization, probe sequence number randomization and no other leaked identifiers
- Support for disabling USB data and also USB as a whole at a hardware level in the USB controller
- Reset attack mitigation for firmware-based boot modes such as fastboot mode zeroing memory left over from the OS and delaying opening up attack surface such as USB functionality until that’s completed
- Debugging features such as JTAG or serial debugging must be inaccessible while the device is locked
I really hope GOS does find an OEM willing to throw the kitchen sink at this.
They already have. They won’t say who it is but it’s in the works.
Yeah, I’ve been following that up closely. Really looking forward to this.
The hardware security measures graphene wants are very expensive. Plus, GOS wants quick android security patche
I’m not seeing many compromises here
That’s because it’s really small. And has a weird square shape. It’s the display. And the fact that they’ve only committed to 2 years of updates.
It looks very cool, and it’s cool to see actually interesting phones. But it’s not for me. It’s very strange to me that people would rather a physical keyboard and a tiny display. Guaranteed I can type faster on a virtual keyboard…
They’ve announced 5 years of support.
And it’s small but not really small. Here is a 3d printed mockup next to a Galaxy S25 Ultra
It’s every bit as wide, just shorter.
But I meant compromises that would make it not usable as a phone.
Wow, very interesting. But being able to root it is pretty much a must, for me. I wonder if this will give users that freedom.
Haha haha h haha h haha haha…but also: no. Of course not.
I’d eat one if they offer root options. Or a firmware. Or a major update. Or anything else beside a pricetag and the wish to never hear from you again.
They have confirmed that you can unlock the bootloader, and are claiming 5 years of updates.
They have shipped hardware before and seem like a somewhat reputable company. They haven’t made a phone before though so we shall see.
Aren’t the 5 yrs now mandatory in the EU? And unlocking the BL I can do on most phones. Doesn’t help a lot though unless you do it all yourself. So I’d still wonder if root will be possible. I like to own the devices I buy 😊
Unless you do it all yourself? What more do you need? An unlocked bootloader means custom roms and rooting are possible, right?
possible, yes. But usually noone does those things for these smaller fringe devices that are not mainstream. So, it’s either do it yourself or be happy you unlocked a bootloader to…have an unlocked bootloader :) And with each iteration of android it became harder and more frustrating. Hence I’m done with android.
I suppose we could all band together and send them email after email asking for it… I suppose…
They have confirmed that you can unlock the bootloader to you’ll be able to root it yes.
Very nice!
I had a Blackberry Curve in like 2012 when everyone was using iphone and android and I loved that damn thing. Other than the Nokia Lumia it was the best phone I ever had.
I would use this.
The BlackBerry Curve was great. I kept using mine until support ended for most of the apps I needed on BlackBerry OS :(
I still keep it as a spare phone and for travel.
I might actually use this as my primary phone (I agree with others who say marketing this as a 2nd phone was a mistake) if it gets e/os/ or grapheneos support
We need two phones now?!
Some people do that, most commonly with one being a “work” phone. But I think the idea is insane for the majority of people.
Agreed
I do have two. One just for at home for all the banking and depot-apps that I would surely not carry around with me outside. And also because exactly those won’t run in an emulator.
Can I close the keyboard with the ‘back’ button?
I wonder what the profit margins on this will be 🤔
“There are dozens of us!”
Can it run Linux? Because if it runs any fascism-tech from Google it’s a non-starter
If you want to use it as your primary device, you may be locked out of using specific security focused apps such as banking apps.
Mobile banking is probably the only reason I’m still on Android
you may be locked out of using specific security focused apps such as banking apps.
they locked me out already, so it does not matter. they can’t play the same card twice.
I’ve yet to try a Linux Touch distro on a phone, but couldn’t you just save a shortcut to the website?
A lot of banks restrict functionality based on how you access them.
What are you using right now because every Linux phone I’ve ever seen has been an unfinished working program that isn’t commercially ready.
Isn’t Android Linux? That was the trench defended when I last checked a few years ago.
when people say linux phones, the point is not the kernel but believing it could have the same open ecosystem as the linux PC. no forced lockdown, no spyware, open source and in turn extensible system software, where its not the oligarchs who dictate. other then the first point these can be told about mostly none of the current phones, and even the first point is going away recently, despite that being the only way to get rid of the preinstalled, google mandated (and sometimes additional) malware.
Android uses a modified version of the Linux kernel.
I miss Blackberry a lot but this ain’t it.
What’s wrong with it?
Probably a purist complaining it’s not the fabled mythical Linux phone.
It literally has every feature of a modern smartphone. And it’s not even that expensive.
If I had a need for a new phone right now I’d be buying this.
It even has some of the design team from Blackberry
This could be my next phone.
But, but, though. Will the OS be non-proprietary? Will I be able to actually use all the apps I would ideally want? Because, much as I love my Samsung Galaxy, I really do wish I could remove a lot of its bloatware off the phone that I know I won’t ever use.
You can, without root even! Take a look at uad-ng (universal android debloater). Comes with a community-curated list which sorts APKs into 5 tiers from “recommended to uninstall” to “yeah don’t, your phone needs this to boot”. Apps disabled through this do not come back after updates.
Removed 140+ apps from my Xiaomi, 120+ from my GFs Samsung S24, and 90+ from my brothers Motorola Edge something.
There’s always LineageOS for now
this device is designed to be your secondary smartphone
In this economy?
Work often issues work phones. They’re likely to be quite swayed by something focused on communication.
lol imagine having two phones, takes years to save up just to buy one!
In 2017 I bought a refurbished lenovo p2 for 300 that lasted me until 2024. Out of boredom, non because i needed it to change, i bought a refurbished s20 ultra for 350, still my daily driver.
No one is forcing anyone to buy a top gamma phone every year for 1400€
Have you tried being rich? I highly recommend it.
Could also try being frugal, there are plenty of smart phones for 200-300$ that will do everything your $1200 iPhone will do with a longer battery life. Most people I know spend more on a phone annually than I spend on my last car! And no u don’t need a new phone every year or two. Currently typing from my Moto G I got for 200$ new.
I don’t buy a new phone more often than probably one every five or six, so I don’t really mind buying an expensive flagship.
The problem tends to be though that people buy an expensive phone and then later have financial difficulties. And people criticise them for having an expensive phone as if they could have known that that would be an issue a year or so down the line.
The other part of the equation here is not every body has 200$ to buy a cash phone, but these days you have to have a phone. So if ur poor what do you do? Spend 200$ you don’t have on a cheap phone or walk out of verizon for 0$ with a brand new iPhone that retails for 1400$ but only cost u an extra 20$ a month for the rest of your life? It’s the same reason a lot of poor people buy new Nissans (read about how they made money on subprime loans if ur interested) and it brings into perspective how expensive it is to be poor!
Legit sound advice, I use the cheaper android phones so I never spend more than £120 on one. Only issue I ever have is the lacking RAM, otherwise they’re great.
I paid 70€ on my current phone, and it has 8GB of RAM, and even a headphone jack. Buying used is great
That’s their marketing pitch but it has every feature you’d need to make it your only phone, which is my plan.
It’s such a weird marketing pitch though…
Can Communicator be used as my primary phone? Yes! Absolutely. Communicator is a fully standalone smartphone that runs Android 16, with all the apps, 5G connectivity and Wi-fi. We think many people will use this as their primary phone while others will use it as a complement to a flagship iPhone, Galaxy, Pixel, etc.
Maybe a way for them to be able to say one day: “yes, it’s not selling in big numbers, but we aren’t competing against the others anyway, ours is a second phone, so it’s not a failure!” I mean, I don’t even know if that makes sense, but it’s the only spin I can give to it.
Does it track and sell personal data?
Itself? I wouldn’t think so. But like almost all Android phones it comes with Google services so there’s that. They said the Bootloader will be unlockable to that should be able to be mitigated…
I’d say less than a mainstream flagship.
I’ve been wishing to use an old feature phone for that one’s advertised purpose. This one is more interesting than refurbishing a hopelessly outdated phone because it’s going to actually work.
In any work setting where it is common to have a work phone and a personal phone, this would make an ideal work phone
