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 once I took the HMD Fusion on a brief journey to a different state.

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

HMD stated it couldn’t replicate my points, so the corporate despatched me one other unit. It has been completely wonderful. It is onerous to instantly shift gears after being so annoyed at this black monolith, however it is a respectable $300 telephone. It additionally has a trick up its sleeve that no different telephone has at the moment: mods.

Return of the Modular Telephone

HMD won’t 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 might nonetheless make Nokia telephones, it additionally plans to craft telephones below its namesake (which, by the way in which, stands for Human Cellular Units). Its function telephone enterprise continues too, with greater collaborations like The Boring Telephone and the Barbie Telephone.

The HMD Fusion is a type 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 may change most of the elements, from the battery to the display screen, and the corporate plans to hold these elements for 7 years. (A lot of that is wanted to stick to approaching legal guidelines within the European Union.)

However what makes it actually stand out are the pogo pins on the again. In reality, the entire again of the telephone appears as if it is incomplete. That is as a result of you possibly can connect “Outfits,” as HMD calls them. These modular elements can change the telephone’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.