Mini Review: Unihertz Titan 2 Full Keyboard Phone

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Linuxslate.com Mini Review -- The Unihertz Titan 2 Full Keyboard Phone.

Decades ago, when this site was created, any tablet or slate computer running Linux was something unique. That was 7 years before the iPhone or any popular phone running Linux.

I think I can safely say that's changed. Android, which is based on a Linux kernel became the most popular operating system worldwide by the following decade, and of course the vast majority of devices running Android are slate style phones and tablets.

Linuxslate.com's roots started with making touchscreens work with Linux, but I never denied that entering text with an QWERTY computer is faster and more convenient. Many (Most?) gamers even prefer a QWERTY keyboard over a gaming controller.

Back in the day, I tried may portable devices with QWERTY keyboards -- The Nokia 9500 Phone (not Linux), the Pepper Pad 3 (Not a phone), and the Sharp Zaurus (2 Keyboard PDA's, but neither were phones.) Even the first commercially available Android Phone, the ADP-1/HTC Dream/T-Mobile G1 had a slide up display that revealed a physical QWERTY keyboard.

All the devices above, along with the Black Berry, and few other "attempts" like the Nokia Asha have long faded into the past. But here at Linuxslate.com, we still look for something unique, so when it came tired to think about replacing my aging (and unsupported) LG V60, I decided to try the Unihertz Titan 2. (I should mention that as of the writing, the release of the Unihertz Titan 2 Elite is only a month away -- More on this later.)

Unihertz Titan 2

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The Unihertz Titan 2 comes in packaging that is on par with the larger and more common companies in California and Korea. In the box are screen protectors for the front and rear screens (screen protectors are also pre-installed on both screens), A basic soft case, a nice feeling USB-C to USB-C cable, a USB-C to 3.5mm audio adapter (plain adapter -- not a DAC), and a 33W PD charger. There is also a basic SIM tool as we would expect, and an extremely limited "User Guide". The good news is that the "User Quide" is mostly devoid of "Chinglish" spelling and grammar issues, but I suspect that is because it is also mostly devoid of content. -- it is only about 3 very small pages in each language.

Interestingly, the Unihertz Specification page says the Titan 2 charges at 33W -- meaning that it is either limited by the provided charger, or the rated power margin of the included charger is exactly zero. Chinese power supplies with zero margin -- What could possibly go wrong? See more about charging in a future post.

Unihertz Titan 2 Packaging

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Size and Weight:

The Unihertz Titan 2 is definitely a Slab of a phone (Maybe I should also register Linuxslab.com). At 3.5 inches wide, it is wider than almost any phone except vertically folding phones -- when they are unfolded. Despite the width, it's only about 1mm wider than my LG V60 with the LG second screen case (When Closed).

Of course, the Unihertz Titan 2 is significantly shorter, and thus mush smaller overall than the V60. -- I may be one of the few who can say that I downsized to the Titan 2. The LG V60 was definitely a back pocket, or cargo pants only phone, and so is the T2 -- but the T2 does not stick out of my pocket nearly as much as the V60.

The Titan T2 also has very square corners. Aesthetically, I like the more "Euclidean" look of the Titan 2, and the corners have not interfered with holding the phone or with retrieving it from a pocket.

The Unihertz Titan 2 is only about 1mm wider than my LG V60 with the second screen case

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When the delivery person first handed me the box, I momentarily wondered if I had ordered a chunk of depleted uranium -- If we judge a phone simply by mass, the Unihertz Titan 2 is a good deal. That said however, the Titan 2 is also significantly downsizing for me in terms of weight. The Titan 2 weighs in at 274.1g with 1 sim card installed, and with the included case, compared to the LG V60 with the 2nd display case attached, which weighs 349.5g. While this makes carrying the Titan 2 significantly less burdensome for me, it definitely heavier than most 2025 phones.


The Screen:

I occasionally use my phone to show people pictures of the Vacuum Tube amplifiers that I design and build. I'd like to show them an easy to see picture, and I'd prefer to do it without unfolding my phone, and without having a gap right through the center from either a double screen design, or from the display having been flexed too many times.

Many times I have watched people comically rotating their phones sideways and back again tying to make a picture look right, or fighting the lag in auto-rotation. I may also want to read something in bed or on the couch. This may mean holding it in the "Hysteresis" angles of the screen rotation, causing it to switch while I'm reading. No thanks -- I want to lock my phone in it's natural orientation, and leave it that way.

With the Titan 2's 1440x1440 square screen (and thus square pixels) rotation doesn't matter. My goal of having auto rotation turned off has been realized except for a very few circumstances.

Also, with 1440 pixels across, 4:3 photos imported from my professional DSL camera appear much larger than on a "normal" phone in either orientation -- and without a comedy show of phone spinning.

16:9 YouTube videos also display very nicely on the Unihertz Titan 2. Again, rotation stays off, and the chat or comments share the display with the video in an almost PC manner. No bars at all, and in the case of a livestream with the chat displayed, the video plays larger than on a "normal" phone in either portrait or landscape -- and no black bars at all.

Unfortunately, the Titan 2's screen technology is long outdated, and it lacks the contrast we've come to expect in an OLED world. It suffers from yellowish whites, and blacks that are not nearly as black as the unexpectedly large black bezel at the top.


The Camera:

The camera also has a distinct "retro" feel to it. Not just the quality, but the fact that it is missing features like automatic detection of QR codes, makes it feel 3 Android versions behind my V60, not 3 versions ahead. (The built in camera app does read QR codes, but it must be manually selected.)

Increasing the zoom so that it switches to the telephoto lens results in dark pictures in pretty much any conditions except bright sunlight. To be honest, I would think it would actually be a challenge to source cameras this bad in the mid 2020's.

It would also be cool if the Titan T2 had a proper 2 step shutter button below the power button -- This would basically give it a form factor similar to a oversized Go Pro, or "point and shoot" camera. Sadly, the T2 lacks this, and the 2 programmable buttons are not 2 step, and are not in the best location to be programmed for this function.


This review continues in the next post.

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Mini Review: Unihertz Titan 2 Full Keyboard Phone: Part 2

The Rear "Subscreen"

Perhaps the biggest disappointment to me is the 410 × 502 rear screen. (I'm not sure how a totally separate display on the back of a device is a "Subscreen". I feel like making a looping slideshow of submarines, so that at least it can live up to it's name.)

I was really hoping that it worked like the cover (outside) screen on my dual screen (actually 3 screen) LG V60. I have it set to never time out. It has a nice, large display of the time, and icons for notifications. The date and battery percentage are also displayed -- all clearly visible all the time without touching the phone at all. The LG V60's monochrome OLED cover screen causes very little additional battery drain even when set to never time out.

Sadly, I have not been successful at getting the Titan 2's screen to do much anything useful at all. -- Yes, it looks cool, and while there are not hundreds of watch faces available like there are for most smartwatches, there are several included faces. There is (very) limited provision to make your own watch faces, but things like a notification bar or battery level display cannot be added to user watch faces.

Watch faces display a small red dot to indicate a notification, and part of the notification can be seen by swiping down on the watch face. However, not all notifications seen to appear. Not all of the included watch faces have the battery level display. Some -- seemingly at random -- also display other information like the date, and the number of steps you have taken that day.

Ironically, this rear display is quite crisp, and has dark blacks, and bright colors. Some of the watch faces are very well done and look like an elegant watch or clock.

You can also set the rear display to come on when a notification is received, and the notification is displayed, but notification is only shown for an instant. Recent notifications can be seen by sliding down on the clock face.

Since this rear "Subdisplay" is a full color 206K pixel display, setting it to never timeout significantly affects battery life.

Lastly, some apps can be added to the rear display -- however, most apps either will not run or are severely limited by the small screen size.


The Keyboard

If a square 1440x1440 square screen isn't enough to make the Unihertz Titan 2 stand out, the physical QWERTY keyboard below it will.

To get to the point, the physical keyboard isn't going to make typing any faster. It's not going to make writers compose there next masterpiece on the Titan 2.

What it does -- in equal parts -- is make typing more fun and more frustrating. Followers of Occam's Razor have already come to the conclusion that I must be a masochist, but I would like the reader to allow me to provide another explanation. First, the quality and feel of the T2's minuscule keyboard is about as good as it could be for a 3.5 inch wide space. The clicky keys are satisfying to press. Those who like popping bubble wrap will know exactly what I mean. Gamer's, writers and just anyone that spends a lot of time in front of a computer are willing to drop hundred's of dollars on mechanical or tactile keyboards just for that satisfying feel and click.

The backlight is also well implemented, adding to the satifaction of creating a text, email, or even editing a post on a web forum from a darkened airplane cabin or while laying in bed.

In addition to, and technically separate from the clicky press, each key is also part of a touch pad. You can scroll though local pictures, a document, or a web page -- all while your hand an fingers stay clear of any part of the screen -- let me see you do that on your candybar phone.

I'd like to belabor the usefulness of using the keyboard as a touchpad with a specific use case. I have an app that shows a graph of the power generated by my residential solar panels. This graph has a movable cursor that lets me see power generated/used at any particular time along this graph. On a "normal" phone, trying to position the cursor on a particular peak or point of interest was extremely frustrating because my finger would cover the point I was trying to select. On the Titan 2, I can use the touch keyboard to position the cursor precisely, all while my fingers are well clear of the screen. On the Titan 2, it's a real pleasure to use this app and any app that works in a similar manner.

So why do I say it is frustrating? Actually, I say it's worse than frustrating -- it's down right painful. As other reviews have pointed out, the T2 is just too wide to use one handed -- That's not a problem for me since except for traditional voice calls, I rarely use any mobile phone one-handed. I hold it near the bottom, cradled with 2 hands, and type, scroll, etc. with my thumbs. My palms keep the phone from tumbling onto the floor. It's not the sharp lower corners that cause any pain -- in fact, they help me to hold it securely with less pressure. The problem is that the natural, or relaxed position of my thumbs when I hold it this way is just above the top row of keys. Pressing the top row of keys is not a problem, as I only need to move my thumbs slightly out of their relaxed position. As I move down the keyboard, I must move my thumbs further from their rest position. I can't really just slide the phone up, because then it is not held securely by my palms.

The more seldom used special keys, and perhaps even some of that massive bezel at the top, should have been moved to the bottom. Of course, I'm not purporting to be a genius for discovering this. The keyboards on other similar devices, including the soon to be available Titan 2 Elite and Minimal Phone 2, have the keyboard laid out this way.

NOTE: I have purchased and received a wallet-style folding case for my Titan 2. This makes a bulky phone even bulkier, but the added thickness of the folded - open case, makes my thumb position -- even for the lower row of keys -- more comfortable. Link in a subsequent post.

Far more frustrating than a slightly sub-optimal physical layout, are dozens of examples of poor software choices that surround text entry on the Titan 2. The default Kika-Keyboard, which is designed to augment the physical keyboard with symbols, punctuation and and word suggestions, has undergone improvement, but still needs a lot of work. It's suggestions for word completion often fall someplace between useless and comical. Mine seems to have picked up the habit of suggesting "Chinese" for the next word for almost anything -- regardless if it follows a noun, verb or adjective.

Part of text entry in Google Messages is from the app, and part is from the Kika keyboard. Google will auto capitalize the first word of a sentence, but Kika will suggest non-capitalized suggestions for most proper noun suggestions, even if it suggests the desired word. I'll note that this applies to the rather commonly used 1st person pronoun "I", which if used mid-sentance requires far more effort than a single keystroke. Perhaps I should talk about myself less, or start identifying as "The Royal We", so as to at least reduce the percentage of wasted effort.

The Kika keyboard's word suggestions -- in addition to being almost comically unhelpful, are also presented in very large text -- some of the largest text seen on the T2's small screen. If they reduced or changed the font slightly, they could offer more suggestions, while simultaneously taking up less of a screen that is already significantly "Vertically Challenged" compared to other phones.

Due to the fact that it is specially designed to accompany the T2's physical keyboard, substituting other keyboards may or may not be better for the Titan 2. I haven't tried anything other than Google Gboard, but there are others that reportedly work well with the Titan 2.

Over all, I do think the Titan 2 physical keyboard is a "Net Gain" over a touchscreen keyboard -- with a few more software fixes to the Kika Keyboard, entering text on the Titan 2 could be a clear winner over the conventional on-screen and unsatisfying text entry of conventional mobile phones. Unihertz is definitely on to something here, and with a little effort could make the candy bar phone part of history.


Other General Comments (Positive and Negative ):

Another feature of the Uniherz Titan 2 that cannot be overlooked, is the 512G of storage. While the Titan 2 lacks an SD card slot, 512G gives me significantly more storage than my previous phone, including the SD card. Not having data spread across 2 volumes makes managing data and backups easier. In addition, a microSD card reader can be plugged into the Titan 2's USB-C port far more easily than accessing an SD card installed in a sim card tray. Obviously, you aren't going to leave it there, but it is an option for backups or transferring data.

Conclusion:

Overall, I really like my Titan 2. Despite its quirks, Chinglish, lack of main screen contrast, and cameras that would have been considered mediocre in the early 2000's,. I'm not going back to my LG. In fact if someone offered me a brand new Galaxy Fold, or top of the line iPhone for my Titan 2,. I'd put the phone they gave me up for sale on eBay and buy another Titan 2 -- Really.

Parts of this article, and other recent articles here on the Linuxslate.com Forums were written and/or edited on the Uniherz Titan 2.