I tried this BlackBerry Passport clone and it made me rediscover my love of keyboard phones

I loved QWERTY keyboard phones. Some of the first smartphones I ever owned featured them, like the HTC Apache and Motorola Q.

With the original iPhone’s announcement in 2007, however, Steve Jobs used the opportunity to poke fun at all the keyboard phones out there during that time — and it essentially started their downfall and paved the way for all-touch screens.

It’s funny how something old becomes new again.

I’ve been using the Unihertz Titan 2 for a bit and I can’t deny how it reignites my love of QWERTY keyboard phones. This isn’t the first time that Unihertz has explored keyboard phones because it’s a follow-up to the original Titan the company released in 2019, but it actually looks and reminds me more of the BlackBerry Passport with its quirky design and runs Android.

Are keyboard phones making a comeback? That’s unlikely. But given the popularity of the Clicks keyboards, I wouldn’t be surprised if some people might go back to using a physical keyboard.

The Titan 2 is definitely a gem amongst all the best phones around, but the bigger question is if this reimagine BlackBerry Passport clone can really convince me to give up my all-touch phones.

Unihertz Titan 2 specifications

Tactile keys, even better controls

What I really enjoy about the keyboard on the Titan 2 is that it’s spacious and tactile with its response. Due to how wide the phone’s designed, it never feels like it’s cramped when I’m typing away.

Even though I’m nowhere as fast as typing on a touchscreen, I’m at least able to type at a solid rate with few mistakes.

Thankfully, there are dedicated buttons on the top row that make the typing experience easier to use — especially when it comes to symbols with the dedicated function.

While the symbol and function buttons on the top row can be customized for different functions, the back and square keys cannot. It makes sense that the back button performs a back function, but the square button actually puts you into the muti-tasking window to switch between apps.

Taking a page out of the BlackBerry Passport, the Titan 2’s physical keyboard is touch sensitive that lets me use it to scroll vertically, as well as a double tap function to make it a cinch to place the cursor in a specific spot when I’m typing.

If that’s not enough, it appears as though you can also create shortcuts similar to the Clicks keyboard, but I couldn’t figure out the exact button combinations to use them.

A second screen on the back

Aside from its unconventional design, the other thing that stands out to me about the Titan 2 is the tiny 2-inch display on the back of the phone. Unihertz refers to it as the ‘SubScreen’ and it actually reminds me of the outer screens in flip-style phones because of how it can act as shortcuts to many different things.

I can activate the SubScreen by double tapping on it, which I can then swipe around all the different menus. It also acts as a notification window too, along with being able to take selfies with the rear camera.

Ironically, this display looks sharper, more detailed and more colorful than the main one, but its small size limits what I can really do with it beyond shortcuts.

For example, I can choose to run full apps on the SubScreen, which suffices for some things. However, it’s not practical for other things like surfing the web or reading emails due to its miniscule size.

Productivity meets entertainment

Powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 7300 chipset and paired with 12GB of RAM, the Unihertz Titan 2 handles most tasks with ease.

really enjoy the keyboard’s touch gestures for scrolling, which I find really helpful with one-handed usage. I also enabled a 3-finger swipe up gesture from the bottom edge of the screen to initiate a split-view mode that lets me run two apps simultaneously.

Even though it handles these tasks just fine, I just find the Dimensity 7300’s performance underwhelming when it comes to gaming. In fact, I’ve found it to stutter whenever I launch city attacks in Age of Origins. The frame rates just drop to the point that it becomes problematic, so I'd probably steer clear if gaming is a priority.

Interestingly, the Titan 2 has a feature that rarely ever makes it to phones nowadays — an infrared blaster. It’s positioned on the top edge of the phone and essentially transforms it to a universal remote that lets me control my TVs, receivers, sound systems, and cable boxes.

I have close to a dozen different remotes around my home and I really love how I can use the Titan 2 to control them all.

Titan 2: Bottom Line

You have to give the Titan 2 credit for doing something bold. There are few QWERTY phones on the market for good reason, and this is one of the few that satisfies the craving for a tactile typing experience.

The phone itself isn’t too bad, but there’s clearly a few things to consider.

For example, it’s unknown what the software support is going to be like — but I’m generally not optimistic it would be more than a couple of years. And despite having a dual camera system in place, complete with an 8MP telephoto shooter with 3.4x optical zoom, the image quality is subpar. You’ll need to convince yourself these are compromises you’re willing to make.

I personally value camera performance over most things, so unless the final software build improves upon the performance, it’s unlikely to replace the Motorola Razr Ultra 2025 I’ve been using. However, its $399 cost is very tempting. If you're willing to put down a pledge, an early bird Kickstarter special could get you one for as low as $269.

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