HMD Fusion review: A fun, modular phone for the masses

Since its change from Nokia to HMD, Human Cellular Gadgets has launched some attention-grabbing smartphones and have telephones. These telephones give attention to high quality and practicality quite than uncooked energy and efficiency. With the HMD Fusion, HMD focuses on reliability and self-repairability (all of their smartphones are repairable), but in addition provides a modular twist, making it a enjoyable and thrilling system to play with. It’s priced at Rs. 17,999 in India, which places it up towards some very aggressive funds smartphones from Chinese language manufacturers.

HMD Fusion Design

The telephone is usually about design – in actual fact, I might confidently name it a design train. And that is actually unusual as a result of, for a design-focused telephone, it is solely obtainable in a single end: black.

However don’t be concerned! That is the place modular telephone concepts come to the rescue.

Meet HMD’s modular wardrobes

There are two kinds of fixation circumstances referred to as “Outfits”. The case is available in a field and is a gentle TPU case that may be hooked up to the telephone. Whereas it gives higher sturdiness from drops, it additionally makes the telephone thicker. Sadly, HMD solely sells the essential black trim in India.

The Flashy outfit gives a flash that works like a hoop mild

Subsequent are the Sensible Outfits, and HMD has launched two of them – the Flashy Outfit and the Gaming Outfit in India. Regardless of its look, the Stealth Costume (priced at Rs. 2,999) hides a singular function. The blue case has a raised silver ring that extends across the telephone’s digicam module. There is a hinge on the high and you may pull the underside fringe of the ring and switch it right into a devoted flash unit or ring once you’re capturing video and lighting your topic or your self. The LED will also be opened midway, doubling as a flip stand to carry the telephone up when watching movies. The plastic case can be fairly sturdy and gives good all-round safety, reminding me of the older Nokia XR20.

The second, the Gaming Outfit (priced at Rs. 2,999), wants no rationalization. It really works like a recreation controller, giving cell avid gamers bodily buttons and maintaining their fingers off the display.

Video games put on in motion

Sensible Outfits connects by way of 6 contact pins on the underside of the case, permitting customers to regulate Outfit-related options by way of the telephone. An icon depicting a light-weight bulb seems within the digicam app view once you mount the Flashy Outfit. This lets you activate and alter the brightness of the LED ring and in addition means that you can change or customise its tone to any diploma.

The contacts on the Gaming Outfit are used to attach the controller to the telephone. As soon as linked, the controller works high-quality with none points. This additionally reduces any lag usually present in Bluetooth controllers. I attempted the RipTide GP 2 and it labored as anticipated with none points. You will want to take away the telephone from its default Informal Outfit case earlier than connecting it to some other equipment.

In follow, each outfits had been sensible and carried out as anticipated. You will want to attach your telephone completely for the Sport Put on to detect it. HMD additionally encourages its customers to design their very own customized clothes (utilizing the paid HMD Fusion Developmental Toolkit) for the Fusion utilizing 3D printing.

The Gaming Outfit has its personal battery and a Kind-C connector

Like most HMD smartphones, the Fusion can be centered on self-repair. All it’s important to do is take away the TPU case to entry the screws and battery. There is no want for a curious plastic device both (HMD calls it Gen 2 repairability), as you should utilize the telephone with out the occasional put on.

Modular elements apart, I just like the telephone’s barebones design and its clear again panel. It is fairly slim and the screws across the again give it a really industrial look. Its primary IP54 (mud and water) ranking meets all the necessities for a funds 5G smartphone.

HMD Fusion Specs

The HMD Fusion has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 SoC, which is manufactured utilizing the 4nm fabrication course of, which ought to make it ok for many funds smartphone processing calls for. It additionally has 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, which could be expanded utilizing a shared microSD card slot. The telephone gives solely two SIM card slots, which may settle for two nano SIM playing cards or a SIM card + SD card mixture. Qualcomm’s chip gives highly effective connectivity, supporting a number of 5G bands, Bluetooth 5.1, Wi-Fi 6, USB Kind-C (2.0) and normal world positioning techniques. The telephone is powered by a 5000 mAh battery.

Fusion HMD efficiency

There is a 6.5-inch HD+ IPS LCD panel with a 90Hz refresh fee that does not sound like a lot, even for a funds smartphone. It will get you the fundamentals and is vivid sufficient for outside use, however it may well’t deal with direct daylight, which turns into a little bit of an issue when utilizing the digicam app. It isn’t that sharp both, so textual content and pictures look a bit gentle. Regardless of forcing the utmost refresh fee, it simply is not capable of supply noticeable ghosting when transferring.

All good put on has a 6-pin connector on the underside

We ran our normal benchmark checks and the outcomes (as anticipated) weren’t nice. In day-to-day use, the telephone runs apps nicely, however you will discover lag and stuttering when attempting to multitask. Video games run high-quality however on low to medium settings.

Regardless of its look, the Android 14 software program is full of quite a few third-party purposes. These embody video games, calling apps, VPN apps and extra. The great factor is that every one of those could be uninstalled, which may return it to its nearly inventory state. Nevertheless, even with out all these apps, the software program would not really feel as responsive correctly given the underlying {hardware}.

The telephone has solely two cameras. The 108-megapixel major digicam produces sharp 12-megapixel photographs in daylight whereas managing first rate low-light photographs, supplied you employ the devoted Evening mode. Particulars are on the decrease facet, however dynamic vary is nice. The selfie digicam shoots satisfactory 12-megapixel photographs regardless of utilizing the Flashy Outfit, however that does not supply a lot element.

HMD Fusion digicam highlights (faucet to enlarge photographs)

Instance of the HMD Fusion selfie digicam with the gear mild on (faucet to enlarge picture)

Regardless of the power-efficient processor, the HMD Fusion is one way or the other not sufficiently big on battery life. I ran our normal video cycle check and managed simply 16 hours and 13 minutes, which is nicely under par for a funds smartphone. Surprisingly, the 33W charger within the field carried out nicely, managing a full cost in 1 hour and 44 minutes.

HMD Fusion Verdict

In a sea of ​​extraordinary bar-shaped smartphones. The HMD fusion stands out for 2 causes. It’s not solely modular however may give its customers easy accessibility to its inside elements for substitute and restore. After utilizing the HMD Fusion, it isn’t too tough to conclude that it follows the standard HMD philosophy of delivering the fundamentals.

The telephone is a correct design train and, for the primary time, brings the goodness of modular smartphones to a funds package deal. The final time I skilled one thing comparable was in Motorola’s Z collection, which spanned the mid to premium section. Nothing’s CMF Cellphone 1 (Overview) additionally retails at this worth level and takes a modular method to a smartphone, however all of its superbly designed equipment are purposeful, not good.

Certain, the Fusion is not a performer, however the modular elements definitely preserve issues enjoyable and thrilling. There are tons of higher funds smartphones on the market, just like the Moto G85 5G (Overview) and Realme 13+ (Overview), below Rs. 20,000. Nevertheless, the HMD Fusion proves that the corporate can construct a modular platform, and for now, that appears to be sufficient, because it has the potential to carry again the modular development and maybe make smartphones enjoyable once more.