Let’s forget megapixel races and invisible bezels for a second.
While Samsung’s Galaxy S26 Ultra will almost certainly dominate headlines – and likely my pocket – it’s more experimental phones that really have my attention this year.
From BlackBerry-style QWERTY throwbacks to shape-shifting foldables and a handset with a literal robotic camera eye, 2026 is shaping up to be a fantastic year for niche devices. They won’t all sell in Galaxy numbers, but they might just be more interesting – and, in a few key ways, far more exciting – than Samsung’s next big flagship.
Clicks Communicator
As an old-school BlackBerry fan, it should come as no surprise that I’m very excited for the Clicks Communicator. Revealed at CES 2026, it’s a more compact smartphone with a square-shaped screen and a full QWERTY keyboard underneath, designed primarily for productivity.
So why is it so niche? Well, it’s kind of a secondary phone – at least that’s how it’s being pitched. The size of the screen means it’s not well-suited to gaming or watching portrait-style videos on TikTok, but when paired with that keyboard, it’s ideal for writing long texts, emails and documents.
It’s also refreshingly old-school in other areas, sporting features like a 3.5mm headphone jack and microSD support to expand storage by a whopping 2TB – you won’t find that in many other phones in 2026.
I like to think of it as a productivity-only device, with access to apps like Slack, WhatsApp, Google Docs and Notion without the temptation of switching to Instagram or TikTok, and it should make it much easier for me to write on the go at busy launch events too.
And with a $399 price tag, it’s not too expensive as a secondary device either. There’s no release date just yet, and the company only showcased dummy models at CES 2026, so we might not see this one until late 2026 – but you can pre-order it right now if you’re keen.
Unihertz Titan 2 Elite
Clicks isn’t the only company doing a BlackBerry-style smartphone in 2026. Unihertz, a company best known for fairly cheap phones, is teasing the Titan 2 Elite – and it has more than a passing resemblance to the Communicator, complete with square-style screen and physical keyboard.
All we know so far about the phone comes courtesy of a quick hands-on posted by the company on YouTube, but it looks like a more powerful version of the regular Titan 2, another BlackBerry-style phone with a distinctly budget-focused spec sheet – though exact specs are yet to be confirmed.
What’s exciting is that this is clearly a working model, as showcased in the video, rather than the non-working units that Clicks debuted at CES 2026. And with Unihertz teasing an MWC 2026 reveal, it could actually hit the market ahead of the Communicator. It’ll all depend on all-important pricing and availability.
Ikko MindOne Pro
The Ikko MindOne Pro was a bit of a CES 2026 surprise, offering a square-shaped form factor with a matching 4-inch AMOLED screen rarely seen in modern smartphones.
It’s not just the unique form factor that has piqued my interest though; there’s also interesting elements like the rear-facing 50MP camera that can flip around and act like a high-res selfie camera – no doubt an homage to the Asus ZenFone 8 Flip, one of my favourite older phones – while also doubling up as a kickstand.
It also sports Android 15 with Ikkko’s AI-focused OS on top, which the company claims aims to ‘reduce distractions rather than create them’ – though details about how it’ll do this are still light on the ground.
What’s most interesting is the prospect of worldwide roaming thanks to a built-in vSIM system. Ikko claims it’ll connect to mobile networks in over 140 countries without the need for a physical SIM, and what’s more, the company’s NovaLink tech provides free internet access in over 50 regions, specifically for the phone’s AI tools.
There’s also an optional snap-on QWERTY keyboard case with a built-in DAC, headphone jack and extra battery that further boosts what the phone can do. Colour me intrigued.
Not much is known about pricing or availability just yet, but expect it to land sometime this year.
Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold
Of course, I couldn’t write an article about niche phones I’m looking forward to without mentioning the Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold, the company’s first foldable that unfolds not once but twice.
The idea is simple; the 6.5-inch cover screen delivers the regular smartphone experience, while the internal foldable screen offers something much closer to a regular tablet experience with an expansive 10-inch screen.
While book-style foldable screens offer a larger canvas, the square aspect ratio leaves much to be desired, especially since some apps still prefer the more traditional 16:9. But, the 10-inch 4:3 panel of the TriFold fixes this issue, allowing you to, say, watch movies without massive black bars atop and below, or run three or four apps on-screen at the same time – all without the need to carry a dedicated tablet.
My colleague Max Parker went hands-on with the TriFold at CES 2026 and was largely impressed with the experience on offer, saying that it essentially ruined regular book-style foldables for him. Those are now the stopgap to this endgame experience.
It’s paired with some pretty impressive hardware including the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy, 200MP main, 12MP ultrawide and 10MP rear cameras, and though it’s pretty chonky when fully folded, it’s actually 3.9mm thick – thinner than the Z Fold 7 – when fully unfolded.
The TriFold is already out in regions like South Korea, with the phone set to launch in the US sometime in the near future, so we don’t have long to wait to see this one in the flesh.
Honor Robot Phone
The Honor Robot Phone is the most mysterious phone in this list, because right now, all we’ve got to go on is a promotional video from Honor – which looks pretty CGI’d – and some brief hands-off demos at CES 2026. But, still, the premise is interesting, at least as far as regular bar phones go.
Honor is pitching it as a phone with an AI-powered camera on a fold-out robotic arm that deploys from the rear. When it’s not in use, it looks like it’ll function as a regular rear camera, but the main pitch here is that it’s meant to intelligently shoot photos and videos in different orientations, and to do so semi-autonomously for framing and tracking.
The video also focuses on what looks like a ‘personality’ for the camera, making it nod when you talk to it, and giving it sound effects when it sees something amazing like a starry sky – though I’m not sure the latter will actually happen.
Honor does at least claim it’ll act like an ‘emotional companion’ that can sense, adapt and evolve, but to what level, and how exactly, is yet to be seen.
Not much else is known about the Robot Phone so far, but Honor has confirmed it’s real and that it’ll be revealed at MWC 2026. Safe to say I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for that one on the show floor in a little over a month’s time.
