Gadget maker Clicks will soon learn how much pent-up demand there is for a modern-day BlackBerry. The company’s first smartphone, the Clicks Communicator, will begin shipping in December, nearly a year after its CES 2026 rollout. The final version is getting a few spec upgrades, along with an October 1 price hike.

The Communicator will now ship with 12GB of RAM, up from the originally announced 8GB. Its battery capacity has grown from 4,000mAh to 4,350mAh and is rated to handle more than 800 charge cycles. It will run Android 17 out of the box with software support through Android 20, along with five years of security updates.

The device embraces a combination of quirky design and nostalgia. Inspired by BlackBerry phones of old, the Communicator has a physical keyboard below its 4.03-inch, 120Hz AMOLED display. It runs on a MediaTek Dimensity 8300 chip and has 256GB of internal storage with microSD expansion. In another old-school nod, it has a 3.5mm headphone jack.

That keyboard is more than rows of tiny buttons. Its surface is touch-sensitive, so you can swipe across it to scroll and navigate. Its spacebar doubles as a dedicated fingerprint sensor. In addition to the English QWERTY layout, Clicks offers versions for French (AZERTY), German (QWERTZ), Korean and Arabic.

Clicks is pitching the Communicator as a second phone, better suited for messages and calls than endless scrolling. The company isn’t trying to go head-to-head with the latest flagships, instead branding it as “a new kind of mobile communicator.” (A new spin on an old kind of mobile communicator may be more accurate.) Not every Android app will be ideal for this squareish aspect ratio, its processor is a notch or two below flagship-level and there’s no multi-lens camera array on the backside, opting for a 50MP rear camera and a 24MP front-facing one.

Now for the bad news: although you can still reserve a Communicator now for its original $499, its price will go up to $649 on October 1. That’s arguably pushing past a reasonable limit for something marketed as a novelty-infused second phone.

Clicks Communicator is available to pre-order on the company website. Reservation holders can configure their phones now, choosing colors, keyboard layouts and charging covers. While you mull over the decision, you can read our founder interview from CES and check out the new demo video below.