A few several years in the past I tried out out the enormous Unihertz Titan smartphone with a incredibly substantial bodily QWERTY keyboard. I cherished the BlackBerry Passport, but the Titan was just as well substantial for me to carry daily and use it to get work carried out on a regular basis.

For the previous couple of months, I have been carrying an early prototype of the Unihertz Titan Pocket, a appreciably scaled-down version of the Titan that even now has a bodily QWERTY keyboard and rugged design and style. It is readily available on Kickstarter for yet another couple of months for $221 or $399 for two of them, with options to ship the cell phone in September 2021.

Also: Unihertz Jelly two. assessment: Little Android 10 smartphone packs a punch

The Titan Pocket is the sixth cell phone launched on Kickstarter by Unihertz and I have had the prospect to test out the past 5. The telephones are affordably priced, even outdoors of the Kickstarter special features, and focus on niche segments of the smartphone market place. Every single one has much exceeded the modest Kickstarter aims and with the Titan Pocket we see there is presently extra than three,000 backers with pledges just about achieving $seven hundred,000 (at the time of publishing this posting).

Specifications

  • Processor: MediaTek Helio P70
  • Exhibit: three.one-inches 716×720 pixels resolution TFT Lcd, Gorilla Glass
  • Functioning method: Android eleven
  • RAM: 6GB
  • Storage: 128GB interior storage with microSD guidance
  • Cameras: 16-megapixel rear digital camera and eight-megapixel entrance-going through digital camera
  • Wireless engineering: 802.eleven a/b/g/n/ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.two, NFC, GPS/BEIDOU/GLONASS, FM radio, infrared
  • Sensors: Fingerprint, accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity, ambient light, barometer, and compass
  • Battery: 4,000mAh non-detachable
  • Proportions: 132.5 x seventy three.two x 16.8mm and 216 grams

Components

The Unihertz Titan Pocket reminds me of a thick BlackBerry Daring with its tiny bodily QWERTY keyboard and square display screen. The QWERTY keyboard is plainly a concentrate of this new cell phone and it has a handful of good features, but also a handful of annoyances. There are four rows existing on the keyboard with the best row for change, image, and other Android handle keys.

The central fingerprint sensor is good, there is good tactile sense to the keyboard, you can swipe up and down on the keyboard to scroll as a result of long internet pages of textual content and knowledge, and you can create personalized shortcuts throughout all the keys for applications and other features. I am not a lover of the much higher left change essential or the tiny room bar, but all round the keyboard is pretty capable.

Setting up at the entrance, we have the three.one-inch Lcd monitor, which is pretty tiny in modern planet of huge telephones. My growing older eyes struggle to see some of the fonts on the display screen and it is really just as well tiny for this 52-yr old. The colors glance good on the display screen and it is really bright adequate for any lighting affliction. The square format delivers a constrained total of knowledge, these kinds of as three.5 e-mails in Gmail on one monitor.

The headset speaker and entrance-going through 8MP digital camera are above the display screen. A conventional three.5mm headset jack is located on the best future to an IR port. There is software program included on the cell phone so you can manipulate remote controls for several digital merchandise. The USB-C port is on the bottom of the cell phone.

The volume buttons are is positioned on the higher left facet with the microSD/SIM card tray beneath these two buttons. A electrical power button and customizable red essential are located on the higher proper facet. There is a utility to personalized a push and a push and maintain of this button.

The mono speaker fires out of the decrease back again, adjacent to the aluminum back again panel. The 16-megapixel digital camera is located centered at the best of the back again with a flash to the proper of the digital camera.

The cameras carried out fine with timelapse, video clip, photo, and manual modes readily available. There is no portrait method guidance and the pics never have superior imaginative things. The cell phone is not made for stunning pictures, but when you are out and about it will support you seize your environment.

Also: Unihertz Titan first impressions: Large, rugged, long-lasting, QWERTY Android cell phone

Application

The Unihertz Titan Pocket launches with Android eleven out of the box and the prototype I examined has an April 5, 2021, Android safety update set up. Buy the cell phone with the software program it launches with considering that I haven’t observed substantial updates delivered by Unihertz and it is really ideal not to rely on updates that are unlikely to arrive at a afterwards day.

The cell phone operates a relatively stock version of Android. The Google Uncover page is readily available when you swipe all the way from left to proper to the first panel, much like a Pixel cell phone.

In addition to the Google principles these kinds of as calculator, calendar, digital camera, Chrome, Gmail, Maps, Messages, and extra, you get a handful of applications from Unihertz. These include things like a file supervisor, FM radio, IR remote handle app, audio player, NoteBook, sound recorder, and Toolbox.

The Toolbox is full of handy utilities that boost the features of the cell phone. The instruments in the Toolbox include things like a sound meter, compass, flashlight, bubble degree, photo hanger software, heart level keep track of, peak measuring utility, magnifier, pedometer, speedometer, alarm, plumb bob, and protractor. It is interesting to see the digital camera used with some of these instruments to deliver an augmented truth knowledge that delivers you with a gadget for precise measurements.

The household monitor supports common app widgets as well so you can personalize your Android knowledge. The Swift Controls segment from the notification shade can also be personalized to your private tastes.

Also: Unihertz Atom XL arms-on: 4-inch display screen, 48MP digital camera, and DMR guidance for considerably less than $330

First utilization encounters

The Unihertz Titan Pocket might enchantment to really serious BlackBerry Curve or Daring lovers who want a similar kind issue with modern-day Android. It is a incredibly nicely created cell phone with some degree of drop defense, not specified, but no degree of dust or h2o resistance. Even however it feels like a tank, never choose it out in large rain or drop it in a puddle. The larger sized Titan did have an IP67 ranking and I just about took the Titan Pocket into the river fly fishing with me past week ahead of I checked on the specs.

All round, the keyboard is nicely carried out with good spacing and tactile performance. The capacity to swipe up and down the keyboard, like a mouse pad, and also create a extensive selection of shortcuts with the keys can be good for efficiency and efficiency.

The Titan Pocket is designed to get work carried out and is not a gaming or multimedia equipment. Movies perform nicely and audio appears good from the rear speaker, but work comes first on this cell phone. Speaking of work, the tiny display screen is the primary motive I simply cannot use this cell phone as my daily driver. Probably 20 several years in the past when my eyes were being much better, but not nowadays.

I require to devote extra time with it to test the battery, but 4000 mAh on a cell phone of this dimensions has so much shown to past at least a couple of days devoid of charging. The cameras on the cell phone are not that good so never rely on capturing any award successful shots with the Titan Pocket.

If you enjoy QWERTY keyboards and devote a lot of time messaging folks then you might enjoy the Titan Pocket. Even however it is a scaled-down cell phone, the thickness and fat even now make two-handed use the ideal approach to applying the cell phone.