I felt the Unihertz Titan 2 was too big, too ugly, and too janky—but the Unihertz Titan 2 Elite may just be the biggest glow-up across one generation I’ve seen in my entire career of covering Android phones.

9/10

Brand

Unihertz

SoC

MediaTek Dimensity 7400

Display

4-inch AMOLED

RAM

12GB

The Unihertz Titan 2 Elite is a refined follow-up to the Titan 2, with a more pocketable design and quality of life improvements throughout. It’s one of the best phones with a physical keyboard on the market today.

Pros & Cons

• A physical keyboard
• Smaller size feels great in a pocket and in the hand
• Build quality feels like a flagship phone
• Expandable storage

• Camera is a reminder that this is a mid-range phone
• Unihertz has a poor track record with software updates

Price and availability

At the time of writing, the Unihertz Titan 2 Elite is only available for pre-order on Kickstarter, though it’s from a company with a proven track record of shipping products. The base model I have on hand costs $380, but a pro model is also available for $480. Both come in two color options: black and orange. I was sent the orange, though I would prefer the black.

Every hardware improvement I wanted to see

It’s like Unihertz took notes and checked every box

When I first unboxed the Unihertz Titan 2, it was the most viscerally negative reaction I ever had to a phone. It looked and felt comically large—a wide and thick brick of a device that I couldn’t possibly be expected to keep in any of my pants pockets. The corners were square and angular enough to make a 2024 Samsung feel contoured to the hand. The giant Unihertz branding above the display felt like a throwback to a hallmark of PC design that even modern computer monitors have moved away from.

The Titan 2 Elite is a different story in every respect. Far from being the largest slab phone I’ve attempted to slide into my pocket, it is now one of the smallest. Held up against the Google Pixel 10A I recently reviewed, it is effectively the same width and a full inch shorter. The corners have been curved to match, meaning the handset now rests comfortably against the pad of my palm. Plus, all branding has been scrubbed away from the front of the device. Design-wise, I have no notes.

As for the software, it is virtually unchanged from the prior model, so check out my review of the Unihertz Titan 2 for an idea of what to expect there.

A screen that’s much more pleasing to look at

But one you will still stare at much, much less

Credit: Bertel King / How-To Geek

The screen on the Titan 2 Elite isn’t a perfect square, but it’s close. The prior 4.5-inch display has shrunk down to four inches and is remarkably similar to the cover display of a Moto Razr or Samsung Galaxy Z Flip. It has made the leap from an LCD to an AMOLED, which masks some of the ways the display isn’t an improvement. The pixel density has dropped from 453PPI to 401PPI. The 1440×1440 screen resolution has decreased to 1080×1200.

Yet I prefer the screen on this year’s phone more than its predecessor. AMOLED offers deeper blacks that allow the display to blend in with its surrounding bezels. Plus, the refresh rate is no longer limited to 60Hz. You have your choice of 90Hz, 120Hz, and a variable refresh rate. This leads to an experience that feels snappier.

This screen is a looker, and not just compared to the prior model’s LCD. As I hop between this and both the Galaxy and Pixel devices I have on hand, the Elite doesn’t merely look good for a mid-range device—it looks every bit as good as a flagship. The Elite branding actually feels appropriate. And no, I don’t miss the second screen that was on the rear of the Titan 2. I feel ditching that was, again, another smart choice.

Yet despite the stunner of a screen, thanks to the aspect ratio, this is likely to be a phone you look at less than those other devices. Video streaming is perfectly doable, but TV shows look tiny with letter boxing on this square display. Vertical video is even less appealing.

But the screen is perfectly sized for the tasks this phone is designed for. You can see numerous lines of text as you type and multiple chat bubbles in a texting thread. Whether it is email or creating an entry in a journal app, typing feels better served by having a wide screen that doesn’t need to be shared with a virtual keyboard.

Gaming, too, is a surprising standout. For sure, most mobile games aren’t designed for this aspect ratio, and many of your favorites may not transition all that well. But if you’re a fan of emulating classic games, the Unihertz Titan 2 Elite is shaped like a Game Boy, and reliving those memories with physical buttons is reason enough for certain customers to buy this phone.

All the power, speed, and longevity this phone needs

More horsepower could do more harm than good

Credit: Bertel King / How-To Geek

During my time daily driving this device, I have experienced nothing short of a buttery smooth experience. Animations are consistently smooth, and apps load instantly. The phone’s MediaTek Dimensity 7400 is not going to benchmark anywhere close to what you might find in a Snapdragon 8 Elite, but it’s more than enough processing power to do this phone justice.

Even game emulation doesn’t demand a lot of power when you’re playing the kind of games that ran on the consoles this phone resembles. If a weaker processor allows for better battery life, that’s a trade-off I’m happy Unihertz made. So far, I have encountered zero reasons to wish I had the MediaTek Dimensity 8400 that comes in the Pro version instead.

The messaging apps this device is best suited for don’t demand a lot of power. For that matter, text doesn’t demand much in the way of storage space either. I generally insist on 512GB of storage, but I find the 256GB of the base model to be more than enough. I’m not filling this device with my library of DRM-free comics, nor is it a device I want to view all of my photos on, either. But if I did want to pack it full of files, there’s space for microSD card right next to the SIM card, and that’s a delight to see.

The phone comes with a 4050mAh silicon-carbon battery, which is quite less than the 5050mAh of the Titan 2 and the 6,000mAh of the original Titan. Still, this is a large capacity for a phone this small. The Titan 2 Elite has a max charge speed of 33W, which feels like a fast charge on a battery this size. Given the nature of the device, I didn’t spend hours each day with the screen on, and battery life was only a concern on days when I heavily made use of the phone as a hotspot. It’s a perfectly fine hotspot, by the way.

The camera is the phone’s weakest link

The quality is competent, but don’t expect to be wowed

Credit: Bertel King / How-To Geek

You probably saw this coming, but if there’s one area where the Unihertz Titan 2 Elite feels every bit like a mid-range phone, it’s the camera. Having both a 50MP main camera and a 50MP telephoto is appreciated, but as is often the case with smartphone cameras, the secret is in the processing.

The built-in camera software just doesn’t do this phone all that many favors. I’ve seen mention that photos get a noticeable step-up in quality if you install Google’s camera app, but that’s not as simple as tapping a button in the Play Store. We review cameras as they’re shipped, but just know that the quality you see here may actually be the baseline, rather than the peak, of what this hardware can do.

Even out of the box, photos taken on this camera look stellar on its own display. It’s when you view the photos on a larger monitor that you notice that they look a bit bland. Still, the camera is solid enough that I don’t regret taking this phone with me on several trips as the only way to capture memories, nor do I feel embarrassed when I share images with others. So while I wouldn’t buy this phone for the camera, the camera isn’t enough to stop me from buying it, either.

Should you buy the Unihertz Titan 2 Elite?

Credit: Bertel King / How-To Geek

If you’ve longed for a return of tiny QWERTY keyboards, the Unihertz Titan 2 Elite is for you, but I’m happy to say that this isn’t your only option. Last year’s Minimal Phone paired a physical keyboard with a black and white E Ink screen. Then there’s the upcoming Clicks Communicator, which is a slightly larger phone that you might find more comfortable to type on. I wish I could tell you to visit a store and place both phones in your hand to see which keyboard you prefer. Absent that option, you’ll have to go with your gut.

If you, like me, would rather trade a more spacious keyboard for a more pocketable device, then I think you’ll be happy with your purchase. Unihertz has truly stepped up its game, and with five years of promised software support, I hope this device has years of appreciation ahead of it. I love this device, and I’m quite confident you will, too.

9/10

Brand

Unihertz

SoC

MediaTek Dimensity 7400

The Unihertz Titan 2 Elite is a refined follow-up to the Titan 2, with a more pocketable design and quality of life improvements throughout. It’s one of the best phones with a physical keyboard on the market today.