With physical keyboards, there's no need for speed

The Unihertz Titan 2 won't make you a faster typist, but it might make you a happier one

It seems the market has spoken when it comes to phones with physical keyboards. BlackBerry exited the mobile hardware business almost a decade ago, and its licensing partners like TCL appear to have given up on the idea as well. For better or worse, the world now largely runs on people typing and swiping words onto glass surfaces. 

That doesn’t mean the loss doesn’t sting for the die-hards. For some, there’s just no substitute for a physical keyboard — and that’s who Unihertz is hoping to serve with its new Titan 2.

Unihertz is a small company based in China that designs extremely niche smartphones. Sometimes they’ll have tiny screens, like the Jelly line; sometimes they’ll have a rugged build, like the original Titan; sometimes they’ll have both, like the Atom. This Titan 2, which just got funded on Kickstarter and will be available to order directly soon, is the company’s fourth attempt at a phone with a physical keyboard.

The Titan 2 takes a different approach to Unihertz’s previous keyboard-equipped phones, however. The design is much sleeker and feels like a better fit for the kind of professional who’s likely to have lingering BlackBerry nostalgia — the original Titan looked more like something you’d take onto an oil rig. This is still a fairly hefty phone, at 10.8mm thick and 235g with a boxy metal build. But it feels reassuringly solid rather than excessively rugged. The synthetic leather on the back panel is a nice touch, too.