HMD Fusion Review: A Cheap Modular Android Phone Leave a comment

I’ve most likely examined near 100 low cost telephones during the last 9 years, and I’ve by no means actually needed to fear about bringing a backup in case issues go awry. Finances telephones are often sluggish however work properly sufficient. However I nearly instantly regretted not bringing a spare smartphone after I took the HMD Fusion on a brief journey to a different state.

The primary pattern of this Android cellphone stored freezing and restarting itself on the best way to the airport. Then, additional fueling my panic, it could boot up the house display however my passcode would not work. “Passcode is wrong.” What? Fortunately, a compelled restart would set it again to regular. Nevertheless, for the whole thing of the weekend of my good friend’s wedding ceremony in Kentucky, the Fusion would restart itself always. It additionally refused to launch Slack—although that will have been a blessing as work was off my thoughts that entire time.

HMD stated it couldn’t replicate my points, so the corporate despatched me one other unit. It has been completely advantageous. It is exhausting to out of the blue shift gears after being so pissed off at this black monolith, however this can be a first rate $300 cellphone. It additionally has a trick up its sleeve that no different cellphone has at present: mods.

Return of the Modular Telephone

HMD may not be a reputation you are accustomed to, so to recap shortly, it is a Finnish firm that licensed the Nokia model to churn out Nokia Android smartphones and have telephones (aka dumb telephones). It started doing this in 2017, however earlier this yr, the corporate introduced that whereas it could nonetheless make Nokia telephones, it additionally plans to craft telephones beneath its namesake (which, by the best way, stands for Human Cellular Units). Its characteristic cellphone enterprise continues too, with larger collaborations like The Boring Telephone and the Barbie Telephone.

The HMD Fusion is a kind of units (there was additionally the Skyline and the Vibe). It has a give attention to repairability—simply take away a handful of screws and you’ll change most of the elements, from the battery to the display, and the corporate plans to hold these elements for 7 years. (A lot of that is wanted to stick to imminent legal guidelines within the European Union.)

However what makes it actually stand out are the pogo pins on the again. The truth is, the entire again of the cellphone seems as if it is incomplete. That is as a result of you may connect “Outfits,” as HMD calls them. These modular elements can change the cellphone’s look with totally different coloration backings. They do not magnetically stick like iPhones and MagSafe. As an alternative, these Outfits are like circumstances, and the pogo pins do not simply switch energy however information as properly.