If you’re one of those folks still grumbling about the lack of a physical keyboard on iPhones 17 years after Apple released its first smartphone, Clicks might have a solution so long as you have deep pockets. The company’s new $US139 creator keyboard straps onto your iPhone and turns it into an extra-long BlackBerry-like device. Hell, it even comes with keyboard shortcuts.
The Clicks keyboard adds an extra few inches onto the end of your iPhone and connects through the device’s port, whether it’s the old Lightning or the newer USB-C on the latest iPhone 15s. You can still charge your phone through an extra port in the bottom, so don’t worry about taking off your case to charge it. The case is all one piece and should go on and come off like your usual rubberized frame. It only comes in two colors, the yellow “BumbleBee” (pictured above) and a deep gray “London Sky.”
So yeah, it makes your iPhone even longer than it usually is, but what you get in exchange is even more screen real estate when you’re typing out a long email or crafting a full document directly from your phone. It even comes with keyboard shortcuts, such as CMD + H to return to the home screen or CMD + Space for Search. The company is also set to release a Clicks App on the App Store soon, which should handle all these extra functions.
The keyboard company is headed by YouTuber Michael Fisher and tech blog founder “CrackBerry Kevin,” AKA Kevin Michaluk. In a release, Michaluk said the case should “appeal as much to longtime iPhone users as it will to past keyboard phone users.”
So, the phone is wearing its BlackBerry influence pretty heavily on its sleeve. The founders claimed they took extra time to make the keyboard feel right. Everything from the bevel of the buttons to the click-feel will matter, and we’re hoping to get our hands on it next week when Clicks debuts the case at CES. Still, if you don’t want to wait for hands-on, you can preorder the $US139 case from the company’s website. The company said shipments will begin by Feb. 1.
There have been some past attempts to create iPhone keyboard cases, such as the Typo BlackBerry QWERTY case that looked a hell of a lot like the old “crackberry” board, so much so BlackBerry sued them for copyright infringement. As a company, BlackBerry is pretty much on the outs at this point, so there’s no real hope of seeing an official return of the classic keyboard phone. Click’s version might have an edge thanks to its built-in backlight for when you’re trying to type out your late-night drunk texts.