4/18/2026 at 4:40:37 PM
by phantomathkg
4/19/2026 at 8:12:32 AM
MT8766 (low-end 2020) and Android 12 (2021)https://docs.sidephone.com/en/articles/13624506-specificatio...
by nvllsvm
4/19/2026 at 11:16:50 AM
Oh cool, Mediatek. So it comes pre-exploited and vulnerable out of the box, awesome!by kotaKat
4/19/2026 at 1:37:29 AM
Can someone explain the appeal of the swappable keypad? I really see no advantage in having this. Just seems like extra engineering for no real reason.by xingped
4/19/2026 at 2:40:04 AM
Upgradeability and ease of repair.I can imagine a BlackBerry-style keyboard showing up at some point, or maybe even something that isn't a keyboard (ex: a mini arcade joystick + buttons for games)?
by m-p-3
4/19/2026 at 4:47:42 AM
W.r.t. repairs I don't think physical keypads have been the main source of difficult or costly repairs. You can easily make a keypad repairable or replaceable without this gimmicky swappable keypad.W.r.t. other style keypads, that's a big "if" they exist. Oftentimes unless there's a huge popularity of a product, those pie-in-the-sky future additions never get made or see the light of day. Hope they do for the people that want it, but I wouldn't hold my breath for how niche this product is.
by xingped
4/19/2026 at 3:00:09 AM
They have an iPod wheel/button for it in their site.It'd probably be useless for phone control, but I'd love a flac player with old iPod controls.
by nosioptar
4/19/2026 at 10:59:55 PM
Weird that the keyboard is removable but the battery isn't. Such a missed opportunity to make it more appealing to those who care about repairability.by thisislife2
4/20/2026 at 1:59:28 PM
Looks like it ishttps://docs.sidephone.com/en/articles/13656688-replace-the-...
by tweetle_beetle
4/18/2026 at 11:54:44 PM
I'd love to try these new phones. My current phone (Google Fold) is terrible. However1. google pixels are the best android devices AFAICT. Not a high bar, but that's that.
2. due to the prevalence of spam and scam calls: Not having an AI call filtering is a no-go. google pixel's have a really nice call screen.
Course we could have a competent government that would do something about scams (besides encouraging and supporting them). Then small business could actually compete. But the best we get is a rapist and scam artist.
by coreyoconnor
4/19/2026 at 11:28:56 PM
Am I really the only one that sees this for the waste of time, money, and intelligence it took to create...?another useless digital minimalism gimmick
by y0eswddl
4/18/2026 at 11:11:39 PM
Not having support for messaging apps is a bit much considering it's still Android based. Why is it WIP? What's the P to W? Play services?by Neywiny
4/19/2026 at 12:24:37 AM
They mention in several places that the phone is degoogled and that certain apps won't work due to lack of Play services. They also probably can't redistribute popular messaging apps without a special agreement with the developer, or risking it with Aurora Store or similar. Unfortunately Google is leading a fight to close Android that so far no big entity is really resisting anymore (Epic now having settled their lawsuit and agreeing to never badmouth Android again), with efforts such as Play Integrity API, automatic protection that they're pushing developers to activate, etc. Unless something changes, in the near future "it's Android" won't mean much for app compatibility...by a2128
4/19/2026 at 1:08:51 AM
Seems we all need to actively invest into forking Android or creating a separate mobile OS from scratch. Google will try for sure to boil us all slowly from open Android to the very much closed ios-like state of their OS.by zx8080
4/19/2026 at 2:02:39 AM
They support WhatsApp and Signal, according to the website."Telegram, Messenger, Threema, WeChat and more" are marked as WIP.
by monooso
4/19/2026 at 12:03:13 AM
Apps:- Proton VPN, Drive, Mail
- Signal
- Obtainium
- Uber
- Podcast player
- etc
by ftchd
4/19/2026 at 12:11:51 AM
Yes but why are they WIP? On a regular Android phone you just install them.by Neywiny
4/19/2026 at 2:00:34 AM
None of the apps listed by GP are identified as works in progress.This is the full list of WIP apps, from the website.
- Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal.
- Telegram, Messenger, Threema, WeChat and more.
- DUO, Aegis, and BitWarden.
by monooso
4/19/2026 at 1:40:09 PM
> AndroidDOA. We need more feature phones running custom firmware. Or Linux phones. What Jolla is doing with Sailfish is nice.
Stop leaning on Android. It's unnecessary baggage. Divest.
by branon
4/19/2026 at 3:27:01 AM
Speaking of,wonder how things are going with the Clicks keyboard and Communicator.
https://www.clicks.tech/ (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46467057)
by ChrisArchitect
4/18/2026 at 11:21:21 PM
Or I can just use my cellular Apple Watch (like I do now) for my “side phone”…by raw_anon_1111
4/19/2026 at 1:53:12 PM
Then do just that :)by beAbU