This Adorable BlackBerry-Inspired Phone Keeps Me Focused in Ways I Didn't Expect

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Back in the 2000's -- pre-iPhone -- the BlackBerry was a productivity powerhouse that constantly demanded your attention, whether to punch through your email inbox or message contacts over BlackBerry's BBM texting service. Now in 2026, Unihertz's $490 Titan 2 Elite feels much like a modern-day BlackBerry, and its smaller screen actually keeps me from doomscrolling.

I've spent weeks testing a prerelease edition of the Titan 2 Elite with early software. I like its adorable design, which gives a "small phone" feel. Its 4-inch square-ish screen feels like holding a 4:3-aspect-ratio TV. The relatively compact display is great for doing all the things I used to do with a BlackBerry, like reading websites, checking email and using the physical keyboard to type my way through all of it.

But watching video -- especially vertical video -- is frustrating. Since most applications and websites are now built with rectangular phone displays in mind, it does become a bit challenging when the phone's square display doesn't work as well for showing off content.

While there are quirks that Unihertz is attempting to solve through software updates, the Titan 2 Elite evokes a nostalgic keyboard feel while still running modern Android apps. But there are a few things worth calling out for anyone comparing the Titan 2 Elite to other keyboard phones we're waiting for, like the upcoming $500 Clicks Communicator.

How the keyboard feels

The Titan 2 Elite's keyboard -- the real star of a phone like this -- is quite good, but not entirely perfect. The keys are all a nice size, making it easy to tap out messages without worrying about mashing multiple keys at once. In fairness, nailing the exact keyboard pattern that BlackBerry perfected back in the 2000s is no small feat. The Titan 2 Elite's keys have a ridge that helps you feel the letters, and tapping the alt key lets you access the numbers and symbols.

Something I did have to remember from the BlackBerry days was the adjustment period to the physical keyboard's specific layout and symbol placement. For instance, I wish the punctuation symbols were larger on the keyboard. While muscle memory eventually kicks in for the letters, I typically need to hunt for symbols like the @ in email addresses (it's on the far right, on the P key).

If you use the asterisk frequently, its location right above the alt key creates a minor traffic jam. This made me type more slowly on the physical keyboard than I do on a touchscreen. But it's a more precise feeling and doesn't constantly try to autocorrect as my iPhone does.

Like some of the later BlackBerry phones, the keyboard supports touch gestures, such as transforming into a scrolling trackpad when browsing a website, and you can set up shortcuts too. While typing, you can also double-tap the keyboard and then swipe to move the cursor around -- which is handy for when I'm working through my notes app.

Unihertz continues to tweak the phone's keyboard as it nears its release later this year. During my time with the phone, a software update resolved a quirk where I had to double-tap a key to start typing in a text field. Hopefully, this and other issues can be optimized over time.

The Titan 2 Elite runs Android 16, with a simple overlay that acts close to stock Android -- I do enjoy pulling up the app drawer and then using the keyboard to quickly search for the app I need. Unihertz plans to provide five years of software and security updates for the Titan 2 Elite. That's impressive compared to some phone-makers, like Motorola, who typically only offer two years of software updates and three years of security updates for their under-$500 phones.

The display is like a little TV

The Titan 2 Elite has a 1080p resolution screen with a 120Hz refresh rate, but its square aspect ratio leads to a few oddities. For instance, it's great for reading websites, especially while scrolling with the keyboard's swipe gesture, but watching videos is a challenge. The software awkwardly crops the image to make vertical video fit. Perhaps this is a perk, making the phone a little less prone to mindless TikTok watching.

Most apps default to a vertical style orientation when you hold the phone with the keyboard below the display. This makes sense since most phones are usually taller vertically. When I use an app like YouTube, I'd prefer having a video go full screen. Instead, by default, making a video full screen puts it into "horizontal" mode, forcing me to hold the device sideways -- leading to holding the now-vertical keyboard like strings on a guitar.

Watching horizontal video on Titan 2 Elite.

Apps like Instagram are always vertical, playing video with the top and bottom of the frame cropped out, which is a similar issue I experience when using Instagram on the cover screen of flip-style phones like the Motorola Razr.

The screen's square-like shape looks the same in either orientation, making all of this feel unnecessary. There are accessibility settings that control this rotation, but I'd like to see these issues smoothed out further. Perhaps with a proactive button in an overlay or using the Quick Settings menu.

The camera bar on the Unihertz Titan 2 Elite.

A nice camera, but you'll want to know its settings

For an under-$500 phone, the Titan 2 Elite's cameras are decent, but they should not be the main reason you pick up this phone. They aren't at the level of Google's $499 Pixel 10A, but I like the detail and color captured by the 50-megapixel wide-angle and 50-megapixel telephoto cameras. Photos are captured in a 4:3 ratio by default, but you can adjust this to be a more traditional 2:3 orientation.

I took the photo below on a sunny morning in Queens with the phone's wide-angle camera. For such a tiny camera, the image has a lot of detail -- notice the street and people eating at the cafe. The dynamic range is limited, and shadows skew to black.

Here's the same spot taken with the 2x optical zoom on the telephoto lens. The tele image has a better exposure, but details are softer -- notice the 33 St sign and the texture of the trees' leaves.

Typically, I don't see standalone telephoto cameras included on phones under $650. So getting one on the Titan 2 Elite is a treat.

Photos look muddier inside. When attending the Sweet Suite toy event in New York, I took the photo below of a Megazord Power Rangers toy display. In this photo, the text on the packaging looks soft despite being a static subject, likely due to the dimmer indoor lighting and the small camera sensor inside the phone.

I noticed the issue extended to selfies. This photo was taken outside on a rooftop deck. The image has a lot of detail in my face, likely due to how bright the sun was at sunset.

But the selfie I took inside the CNET office, with artificial lighting overhead, is noticeably foggier by comparison.

This performance is typical among lower-cost phones, though, especially among those I've tested that cost between $300 and $400. Since the keyboard is the real reason you'd likely be buying this device, and it's not priced like a higher-end camera phone, I'm more inclined to give the camera shortcomings a pass.

A Clicks Communicator next to a Motorola Razr

The Titan 2 Elite will soon face more competition

It's a good year for anyone longing for a nostalgic BlackBerry-style device. The model I tested has 256GB of storage and a MediaTek Dimensity 7400 processor. There is a Pro model for $580 that has 512GB of storage and a more powerful Dimensity 8400 processor. Both are currently available for preorder on Unihertz's website.

The Unihertz Titan 2 Elite, which starts shipping in September, might arrive sooner than the upcoming $500 Clicks Communicator, but both devices offer an Android phone alternative that brings back the clicky keyboard. The Unihertz embraces a more 2000s BlackBerry look, whereas the Communicator is a modern take on a RIM device, designed by a former BlackBerry designer.

The Communicator is from the company that makes keyboard cases for iPhones and Android phones. It isn't a replica of an old BlackBerry device, but it takes its inspiration from the Clicks keyboard case for a Motorola Razr when closed, and is designed by a former BlackBerry designer. It runs Android 16 with the Niagara launcher (pictured on the Razr). The Communicator has a MediaTek Dimensity 8300 (MT8883) processor and 256GB of storage, expandable with a microSD card up to 2TB. The Clicks phone also has other modern touches like a notification LED around a dedicated Prompt key, headphone jack, swappable backplates and support for Qi2 wireless charging.

While we'll have to wait until later this year to compare the two phones, I'm glad to see that both Unihertz and Clicks plan to provide longer software support for these phones than you usually get at this price. It shows a commitment to putting in the work to make keyboard phones work well, especially since so many apps and services are now optimized for the rectangular slab phones that have dominated the market since BlackBerry left the phone industry. Should the phones find their audience, it will hopefully mean there will be time to work out any other kinks so BlackBerry fans can type away.

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