Clicks' spiritual successor to the BlackBerry gets a release date and surprise upgrades – including more RAM

Clicks' quest to bring a BlackBerry-style Android phone back to market is finally reaching its end. The company has announced that pre-orders of the Clicks Communicator will start to ship this December.

In addition, customers will be getting a couple of surprise upgrades, with more RAM and a bigger battery promised for the production model.

First revealed in January, the Communicator is the first phone from Clicks – a company that has previously made QWERTY keyboards for iPhone and Pixel devices. Its cases have been critically acclaimed by those looking for a BlackBerry-like experience on their existing handsets. The Communicator takes that to another level.

Running Android 17, it's a reasonably priced device with a full keyboard, 4.03-inch AMOLED display and everything you'd need from a modern smartphone. It even comes with Qi2 wireless charging, including MagSafe compatibility.

There are two cameras – 50-megapixel on the rear, 24-megapixel on the front. And you get 256GB of on-board storage, with a microSD card slot capable of expanding that by a further 2TB.

What upgrades are coming with the Clicks Communicator?

What's changed since it was first offered for pre-order is that the RAM has been expanded to 12GB (over an original 8GB). You also get a battery bump from 4,000mAh to 4,350mAh, which could help you eke out a bit more use during the day.

However, Clicks has kept the early bird pre-order price the same... for now. You can still secure your Clicks Communicator in Smoke, Onyx or Clover colourways for $499 / £371.21. That'll rise to $649 / £493 from 1 October though, so you'll have to be quick.

The company has also announced that it is partnering with Dbrand for official accessories. There's an MNML (minimalist) case in the same colours as the phone, plus a Prism Screen Protector that clips on the front when not in use.

The cases cost $39 each, which the screen protector is $34.95.