Over the last few weeks, I’ve been testing an early prototype Unihertz Titan Slim. I believe someone at Unihertz meant Titan Narrow rather than Titan Slim. The Titan Slim measures 12.35mm thick. It’s only 2mm thinner than the folded Galaxy Z fold 3, and it doesn’t belong to be called slim.
Unihertz’s sixth smartphone, the Titan Pocket, was launched on Kickstarter in 2016. I have had the chance to test the other five. These phones are affordable, even if you don’t qualify for Kickstarter specials, and they target niche markets of the smartphone market. Each phone has exceeded its modest Kickstarter goals. The Titan Slim is the latest example, with over 2,000 backers pledges exceeding $535,000 as of the date of publication.
Hardware
Unihertz reached out to me first about the Titan Slim. I was excited as I thought it would be an updated version like a BlackBerry key2. I laughed so hard at the thinness of the phone’s title that I almost fell off my chair. The Key2 is 8.5mm thick, which is 4mm less than that of the Titan Slim. This phone isn’t slim or sleek, as you can see.
This phone is slimmer than the Unihertz Titan phones. However, those models are huge. Titan Narrow would be an appropriate name for the phone, which measures in at 67.6mm. The phone’s width means the keyboard is quite small. My aging fat fingers had difficulty using the keys. A smartphone with a QWERTY keyboard would be a great option for someone with smaller fingers.
The central fingerprint sensor functions as both a functional home button and a home button. When you create shortcuts, the keyboard functions that are available through the software appear to be copied from BlackBerry. The software allows you to create a large number of shortcuts for quick launches. You can swipe up and down on your keyboard to scroll through long pages. The space bar is too small, the shift key and other critical keys are high up in the top row. There is also too much bounce between the keyboard, display, and keyboard to create a seamless experience.
The front of the phone has a 4.2-inch LCD display. This screen is perfect for reading text content. It’s vibrant enough to be seen in any light condition and the colors are vivid.
Above the display is the headset speaker and 8MP front-facing camera. The phone has an IR transmitter at the top. However, despite its thickness, there is not a 3.5mm headset jack. The software allows you to control remote controls for different electronic products. You will find the USB-C port as well as the mono speaker at the bottom.
The volume and power buttons are located on the upper right with the power button beneath them. The customizable red button can be found on the left with the SIM card trays and the button above it. This button can be customized by pressing and holding the button.
The 48-megapixel camera can be found in the upper left corner. There is also a flash just to the right. The phone’s back is made of cheap glossy black plastic. This, combined with its glossy black sides, gives it a terrible feeling. We can’t complain at the $250 price.
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There were no timelapse, video or photo modes, nor was there any manual mode. The majority of images were blurred with poor focus and colors. They may still be useful for simple document capture or sharing limited photos via social media.
Software
The Unihertz Titan Slim comes with Android 11 as a default. I also tested the prototype and it had an August 5, 2021, Android security upgrade. There are no updates to firmware or security updates on other Unihertz phones that I have checked. Android 12 has been available for almost a year now and Android 13 will be out soon. This phone should not be purchased with the expectation that you will ever receive updates.
This phone runs Android 4.4. You can access the Google Discover page by swiping from left to right to get to the first panel. This is similar to a Pixel phone.
You get some apps from Unihertz, in addition to Google basics like calculator, calendar and camera. You will find an FM radio, IR remote app, music player and NoteBook, as well as a sound recorder and Toolbox.