Unihertz Titan Pocket — a quirky product that has a niche audience
Unihertz Titan Pocket. Pic. Noel Campion.
Unihertz is an interesting phone maker that has released unique and interesting phones and their latest offering is no different. The Unihertz Titan Pocket features a QWERTY keyboard that harkens back to the glory days of the BlackBerry.
There’s no doubt this is a niche product and I don’t see the keyboard returning to smartphones like vinyl has but the Titan Pocket is for those who miss a physical keyboard but still want the advantages of a touchscreen Android smartphone.
The Titan Pocket is a cute and well-built phone that sports a distinctive design that will turn heads. The beautifully crafted industrial design features a 3.1-inch display with a 716x720px resolution. On the top right of the display is the front-facing camera with an 8MP sensor.
On the left edge are the volume up and down buttons as well as the dual SIM tray that also incorporates a microSD card slot.
On the right edge is the power button and a red shortcut button that will take a screenshot if you double press it or turn on the flashlight if you press and hold it. A short press will start call recording but all of these are just the default options and the shortcuts can be used to open specific apps too. All of the buttons feel great and have a really nice clicky feel.
The top of the Titan Pocket has a 3.5mm headphone jack and an IR blaster so it can double as a spare remote control for your TV or soundbar.
The bottom edge has the USB-C charging port and you also get an 18w quick charge 3.0 power brick in the box.
Around the back is a 16MP camera with LED flash while on the bottom is the loudspeaker.
Although the Titan Pocket is a bit of a chunky monkey, it feels great in the hand and is incredibly easy to use single-handed.
What makes the Titan Pocket so unique is the keyboard. Each key is raised at the back with a bevel on the top and on one side. This makes it easier to distinguish individual keys as you type. The rows of keys are separated with a silver line that not only looks great but also helps to further identify the keys.
One glaring omission is the lack of a dedicated numbers row — you have to press the ‘Alt’ key to get a number and punctuation characters. You can also use the Symbol key which will pop up a row of symbols on the screen to choose from.
The keyboard has white backlighting that does a great job of lighting up the keys. During daylight, the printed characters on the keys are easy to read but it’s a nice touch that when the light is low you can still easily see the keys.
There are also dedicated Back and multitasking keys on the top function row, as well as a Home button with a built-in fingerprint sensor. Press once to return to the home screen, press and hold to launch the Google Assistant.
The key travel is good and of course, you get the tactile feel of physical keys that provides excellent feedback. However, you have to apply pressure on each key to make it actuate and it takes time to get used to this. It also takes practice to be able to type fast without errors.
The Titan Pocket supports 4G but not 5G which isn’t a big deal. It’s powered by a Mediatek Helio P70 CPU with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage which can be expanded with a microSD card.
For everyday use, the P70 feels smooth and snappy but the combination of the small screen size and mid-range GPU means this isn't a phone for gaming on.
The display is only 720p but it looks sharp with vivid colours. Despite the small screen size, the 3.1-inch display is more than usable for most things but I did find the square aspect ratio less than ideal for some things. For example, on Instagram, you can’t see all of a vertical photo without scrolling. In Instagram Reels, you only see the middle of the video so the top and bottom are cropped.
When playing video from YouTube or Netflix, the image looks really small with black bars on top and bottom. If you like to consume media, play games or spend a lot of time in apps like Instagram the Titan Pocket is probably not the phone for you. For the basics like calling, texting, browsing and listening to music, the screen is absolutely fine.
The Titan Pocket has a large 4,000mAh battery that lasts up to two days. Thanks to the supplied charger it doesn’t take long to fully charge the battery.
There’s not too much to say about the cameras on the Titan Pocket other than they get the job done. The rear camera is 16MP and can capture okay photos and video in good light. The camera app is basic and lacks features like portrait mode, night mode or slow motion. There are timelapse and pro modes but that’s about it. The front-facing selfie is fine but can’t capture great detail and struggles in low light.
The Unihertz Titan Pocket is a quirky product that has a niche audience. The keyboard is excellent and if that’s your primary reason for looking at this phone then you won’t be disappointed. The phone is a lot of fun to use and is a solid performer for everyday tasks but it isn’t ideal for media consumption or gaming.
Titan Pocket is available for €261 ($299) at Unihertz
