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The UniHertz Titan 2 is Truly a Dream Come True

This article is a transcript of a video that you can watch by clicking the thumbnail below. Hence, certain statements may not make sense in this text form, and watching the video instead is recommended.

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Intro

If you’ve missed the last two videos, I highly recommend watching them before this one. In case you have, you know my Titan 2 is already set up for use, and it’s finally time to review it.

Review

Since I switched to the UniHertz Titan 2 as my daily driver, I’ve been paying close attention to every single aspect that I can about this phone, taking the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 as a reference. So, the following is my review of the Titan 2:

  • Resemblance to BlackBerry Passport: The Titan 2 resembles the BlackBerry Passport more closely than the original Titan, and every time I look at it, it takes me back a decade, reminding me of my younger self. At times, I sub-consciously swiped left on the home screen expecting something to show up, which, if you had used a BlackBerry 10 device, you know it was the BlackBerry Hub. This means that this phone is bringing back my muscle memory from 2015, one that I did not even remember I had. There is one thing missing, which is the customizable notification LED, but I guess we’ve learned to live without it after all these years, so I won’t complain.
  • Package: The contents of the box include a charging cable and a charging brick (both of which I will preserve in the box, for the future owner when the Titan 2 Pocket comes out), a screen protector, a TPU case, and, of course, the Titan 2. As huge as the Titan 2 is, it’s pretty much the same in hands, with or without the case. Even the back finish is pretty similar, so it would be hard to figure out whether you have a case on or not.
  • Design & Build Quality: I love the full black design, do not mind the big UniHertz emblem on the front, and have even gotten used to the secondary screen. I was skeptical about it since I saw it for the first time in those promotional videos, but once I received it, it didn’t take long for it to grow on me. The dimensions do make it difficult to operate with one hand at times, but I’m sure that will fade with more time spent with this device. The corners and edges of this device play a larger role in making it harder to put and remove it from the pocket than the dimensions itself. The build quality doesn’t leave anything to be complained about, not that I’d love to drop this one every now and then.
  • Display: The display is gorgeous, again very similar to the BlackBerry Passport, albeit with the IPS screen technology and not an OLED as we’ve gotten used to lately. For issues with the square form-factor, UniHertz has included a “mini-mode” that it has done with the other two square-screened Titan models, and it is invaluable.
  • Second Screen: For the secondary display, I’m still to find a use for it in my workflow, but till then, a simple analog clock widget should help.
  • Keyboard: The UniHertz Titan 2 is my fifth QWERTY keyboard phone today, so I consider myself eligible to talk about it. This keyboard is awesome, and very similar to that on the BlackBerry Passport as well, at least as far as I remember. The actuation feel on buttons is a little inconsistent between the keys, and the backlight is not uniform either. Apart from the swipe gestures for scrolling and controlling the cursor, the cursor assistance isn’t merely to move the cursor over text, but I found an undocumented, or rather hidden feature, using which placing your finger over a button triggers a touch at a corresponding location on the touchscreen.
  • Biometrics & Security: Both fingerprint scans through the power button and face detection work pretty well.
  • Software Experience: The software setup is pretty stock-like, pretty lightweight compared to Samsung’s One UI. It’s also a breath of fresh air to see useful built-in apps rather than having multiple apps for a single use, right out of the box. There are several useful configuration options, like the swapping of keyboard keys, memory extension, call recording, and more.
  • Performance: I’m not a performance geek, but nothing about it stood out during my experience with the phone till this point. It’s plenty responsive without any slowness.
  • Battery & Charging: According to my estimate, the battery runtime of this device is more than twice as that of my Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5. Not that I use my phone all the time, but leaving the house with a full charge, I returned home with more than half of the capacity left, and then I could use the phone for yet another day without even connecting to the charger. My Z Flip 5 could never do that, even after a charging session or two during the trip. The lack of wireless charging bothers me a little, but the USB-C port accepts all possible charging cables, unlike my Z Flip 5.
  • Connectivity: The Titan 2 also delivers on connectivity options and adds an IR Blaster right at the top of the device, turning this phone into an IR remote.
  • Camera System: I usually do not care about cellphone cameras, and prefer to use a digital camera instead. However, with the few shots I’ve taken with these two lenses, I do not have any complaints here either. These are reasonably precise, and I’m sure whatever little noise there is, it could be fixed through an editor like Darktable. The video is indeed shaky, especially for the telephoto lens. One of the things I could not figure out is the functionality of this super flashlight.
  • Audio: Audio, both through the earpiece and the loudspeaker, is great as well. Maybe your expensive phones have better fidelity, but this mono speaker is more than sufficient on a productivity-focused smartphone.
  • Network & Call Quality: My experience with network reception and call quality with T-Mobile has been great as well.
  • AI & Smart Features: There are no AI features that you would see in offerings from major manufacturers. Gemini is installed by default, and I guess the consumer base of this phone wouldn’t be looking for an AI phone anyway.
  • Accessories & Ecosystem: I’m not aware of the accessories ecosystem of UniHertz yet, but I’m sure there will be more like this crowdfunding effort for a few more options with the cover case.
  • Price & Value: In the world of expensive flagship phones that need to be replaced with another one that suddenly becomes the best thing ever to happen to humanity, this device, priced at $400 brand new and even cheaper through the Kickstarter campaign, is a true value for money.
  • Quirks & Bugs: Apart from the touchscreen ghosting issue that flooded their Facebook group and subreddit as soon as the initial phones made their way to the owners, I haven’t seen or heard of anything major.

Dodging the Infamous Ghost Touches Bug at Launch

As I mentioned in my previous video, my theory for the reason I did not face the touchscreen ghosting issues as the other users from United States using the device with a T-Mobile SIM, is that I used the SIM card slot 1, which you’d otherwise miss if you didn’t pay attention to the numbering on the tray, as the slot on the top is slot 2, with the slot 1 at the bottom of the tray. Maybe the issue was only with slot 2?

Gains and Losses

Every phone switch brings with it at least a few gains and losses, and the following are the major changes this time:

  1. I lost the ability to fold my phone in half, but in exchange, I received a QWERTY keyboard with touch gestures.
  2. I lost wireless charging, but in exchange, I received a battery that is much larger and lasts much longer than the Z Flip 5.
  3. I lost stereo speakers, but in exchange, I received an additional telephoto camera lens, dual physical SIM slots, a couple of extra quick-access buttons, an infrared blaster, an FM radio, and even a secondary screen that I’m still figuring out the best use for.

Conclusion

My BlackBerry Passport was one of the most expensive phones at that time, while the UniHertz Titan 2 is almost at the other end of the spectrum, right from the launch, especially if you consider the Kickstarter price. Speaking in relative terms, this Titan 2 is less than one-fourth of the price of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5.

It’s quite a Déjà vu machine, taking me a decade back to my younger self. Overall, I couldn’t have been happier, and I’d definitely rate this one as one of the top five cellphones I’ve ever used. This means a lot, especially given my history using some of the best enthusiast phones before. It is, nonetheless, a huge testament to UniHertz for creating something like this and reviving the BlackBerry Passport for us, something that BlackBerry couldn’t do themselves. This is clearly not a phone for everyone, but neither is Emacs, nor Lisp, nor many other things I find it hard to operate without. I guess for the ones among us who are built differently, this is the perfect smartphone out there, especially at the price.

I would conclude this review by saying that I could only have dreamed of the BlackBerry Passport returning with modern features like 5G connectivity, a better processor, larger memory, higher internal storage, a USB-C charging port, dual SIM support, a better camera setup, and a recent Android version, among others. But the UniHertz Titan 2 proves that your wildest dreams can also come true.