While Clicks certainly won’t make the list of CES 2024 highlights, I bet he’ll show up in more than one of those that compile the highlightsbecause at first glance it seemed to me… yes, that, let’s say something very striking, yes, although also a response to the nostalgia that many users still experience today, who suddenly found themselves impoverished from day to day Until that moment it was considered stationary: the physical keyboard on phones.

Whether it was with the numeric keypad and three letters per key, or as a premium experience with the “full-featured” keyboard that Blackberry devices offered, from teenagers who paid a flat rate for text messages on the first day of billing, to executives capable of typing 50 e- emails in five minutes, the arrival of smartphones with touch screens and no keyboard It was a kind of digital mutilationwith which his colossal expertise in typing with a physical keyboard went into the useless skills drawer.

That’s right, yes touch screen typing experience is sufficient for most, but it is nothing less than the feeling of pressing a physical key, a real one, one of those that “click” when pressed, cannot be imitated on a smartphone, even if it has tactile feedback. And if you were reading this and thought yes, I wish I had an iPhone with a physical keyboard, then you are the target audience for Clicks creators.

With a name that clearly refers to the onomatopoeia of keystrokes, Clicks is an ingenious keyboard that attaches like a case to the iPhoneand that with his 36 physical keys It offers a similar typing experience to the aforementioned Blackberries. As you can see in the pictures, it has a complete alphabet (no ñ or ç in English, of course) and several function keys (enter, tab, uppercase, delete, etc.). And in case you’re wondering, the key travel is 0.22 millimeters, which may seem like nothing, but it’s a lot compared to the 0.00 millimeters of the key shown on the screen.

Clicks connects to the iPhone through its port, either Lightning (in the case of iPhone 14 Pro) or USB-C (in the version for iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max), and thanks to the port included in the keyboard, it is possible to charge the phone while using the keyboard. The main difference in this sense is that the iPhone 14 model supports standard charging, while the one equipped with USB-C allows fast charging.

That’s not all the benefits, mind you. First, while the Clicks adapts to the contours of the iPhone to hold the keyboard, it’s not a case per se in the sense that It does not protect it from impacts and falls and no, it cannot be used in combination with an actual case that provides said protection. On the other hand, it’s also not possible to use the keyboard and wired headphones (such as Apple EarPods) at the same time, although they seem to be working on it in the future.

So advantages on one side and disadvantages on the other, the balance will tip in different directions depending on the priorities of each. Of course, if you’re interested, you can pre-order the keyboard now, but you’ll have to wait, as the iPhone 14 Pro model will start shipping in February, the 15 Pro-focused model will do so in March, and the 15 Pro Max version will you will have to wait until early spring. Your prices? $139 for the Pro models and $159 for the keyboard for the Pro Max.

What do you think? Would you buy a keyboard case of this type for your cell phone? Do you miss the physical keyboards of mobile phones from the past?Or do you think they’re backwards and prefer keyboards with scrolling and predictive text (although, strictly speaking, predictive text already existed at the time)?

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