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HMD Fusion smartphone is now available for purchase in Austria, Finland, France, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Spain and UK

12. 09. 2024 Thursday / By: Robert Denes / Reviews / Exact time: BST / Print this page

At IFA 2024, smartphone brand HMD is bringing the idea of ​​an expandable smartphone to life with HMD Fusion. The phone was teased earlier this year, but will get an official release at the show. The principle behind the smartphone is very similar to Motorola's Z devices: you can put cases on it that add extra features. HMD calls these cases "smart clothes". There are six pogo pins on the bottom of the back of the HMD Fusion. Five standard USB2.0 connections form for data and charging, while a sixth allows developers to add special features to cases.

HMD unveiled the new phone at an event that also focused on the Barbie flip phone and the three-year sponsorship deal HMD signed with FC Barcelona. Although the company Human Mobile Devices has been making phones under the Nokia name for years, its own brand is even less well known to the wider public. With the sponsorship deal and the high-profile devices HMD has already announced this year, it looks like the company is well on its way to increasing brand awareness.

You can use it "naked" without clothes. Although you don't really intend to, it shouldn't have a negative effect on your phone's performance. Without a case, the case is relatively thin: 8.3 mm. Combined with the straight sides, it fits quite well in the hand. It has an IP64 rating; This means that the electronics are protected against dust, but only splash-proof, not submersible.

The sides and back of the phone are made of matte plastic. In the middle, above the battery, there is a metal plate for strength. For a plastic device, the Fusion is really nice and stiff with no creaking when you try to bend it with two hands. Along with the metal center section and gold pogo pins on the bottom, the many screws on the back stand out on closer inspection. As with other recent HMD smartphones, repairability is a focus of the Fusion; although it takes a bit more work than the Skyline, which has the entire rear attached with a bolt, the Fusion opens in minutes. Next, the screen and battery should be easily replaceable, two parts that often fail, according to HMD. A new display costs 50 euros, a replacement battery costs half that.

The Fusion's box is a simple plastic case with no smart features ("casual wear"). In my opinion, this clear definitely doesn't improve the Fusion's hand feel. As usual in cases of this type, the material is quite "sticky" and cheap.

HMD promises to release four outfits with additional features in the coming months, priced "between $40 and $90," according to an employee at the event. So they're not as expensive as Motorola Mods used to be, and the functionality they add is much simpler, where the craziest mods came out, like a pico projector or polaroid printer.

HMD Fusion's wireless charging kit has to be one of the cheaper accessories. As the name suggests, this case allows you to charge the Fusion wirelessly; By default, this can only be done with cables. You may also want to consider the case, because it is made of a soft, rubber-like material, which makes the device feel much nicer in the hand than with the included device.

The Gaming Outfit is a game controller that consists of two parts, with joysticks and buttons, and a slide-out part in the middle where the smartphone fits. There are hundreds of these controllers out there, but the Fusion gear works via pogo pins rather than Bluetooth, allowing for a lag-free connection. The controller part does not need to be charged separately either, as it receives power through the taps. Partly due to the lack of a battery, the Gaming Outfit feels pretty light without a smartphone, though build quality is otherwise fine.

Two of their own dresses were not yet available for the event. The rugged outfit should not only make the case IP68 waterproof, but also include a charging coil for wireless charging and two additional buttons. The Flashy Outfit gives you access to a built-in ring flash that flips up from the case to take selfies. According to HMD, the hinge would withstand at least 2,000 openings. This is said to be the only case reported so far in which the software also has something that changes when you place the case on the phone: a button in the camera app that allows you to turn the light on or off. The two suits I was able to try have no adjustment options and no "recognition" when you're on the phone.

While the same concept has died a quiet death with other manufacturers, HMD believes it can be different with its own Fusion. According to HMD employees... at the event where the device was announced, the main reason is that the Fusion is much cheaper than previous expandable devices from LG and Motorola.

According to HMD, the concept would be more interesting today than before, so that interested parties can more easily design their own accessories. Programming skills are easier to learn and 3D printers make hardware cheaper. What's more, the HMD does nothing to get you started. The full specification for making the dress is open source and can be downloaded from the manufacturer's website. This is completely different from, for example, the case of the LG G5, where the module developers had to work together with the manufacturer's technicians, who then also shared the profits. Everything you create for HMD Fusion remains yours according to the manufacturer. In any case, the HMD community has no shortage of ideas, from gear with extra cameras to clothing with a fold-out solar panel. One company has already started working on the concept: the French company Coppernic, which added a barcode scanner to the device. This allows employees to scan access cards with their phones, for example.

As a developer of this concept - or a buyer of an accessory - I'd be interested to see how HMD sticks with this concept in the years to come. Motorola has kept the form factor of its devices exactly throughout the four generations of Moto Z phones, so the mods used for the first devices are also compatible with later models. When asked, HMD could not guarantee that they will keep the size of their devices unchanged for years to come. As a buyer of the Fusion and its outfits, you shouldn't count on the cases to fit the next model, although the slightly less specialized Gaming Outfit may still work. It can also fit slightly larger devices, provided the pins are in the same place on the bottom - which HMD says it wants to keep the same for a possible next model.

The low price point that HMD followed to make the Fusion concept a success, the specifications are quite low. In a price range where almost every device is equipped with an OLED screen with Full HD resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate, the Fusion has a 1612x720 pixel LCD screen that refreshes at up to 90Hz. The soc is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 with outdated computing cores and a design focused primarily on economy. While HMD has equipped the device with a 108MP main camera and a 50MP front-facing camera, there is no ultra-wide-angle or macro camera, which is often found in even basic smartphones.

HMD admits that its device's features can't keep up with some of its competitors. At the same time, the manufacturer states that the modular design and the repairable design also increase the costs of the design. Based on customer feedback, HMD believes that they have chosen the right path after all.

While perhaps not everyone is primarily interested in the best specs of a new smartphone, the Fusion's specs are so basic that they can negatively affect the user experience in many ways. For example, the screen is said to offer a peak brightness of 600d/m², lower than OLED screens of other models, which negatively affects readability in sunlight. It didn't bother me in HMD's dark demo room. From the feel of the interface, I could already tell that the device's soc does not have much reserve. Images from the 108MP camera looked quite noisy in the dimly lit test room, and videos were shot at 1080p / 60fps with SOC's limited ISP.

In addition to the specifications, the HMD Fusion does not impress on another point: the promised software updates. Like other HMD devices, they are very short. The device comes with the almost outdated version of Android 14 and gets two updates as well as three years of security updates. HMD argues that offering longer updates to a smaller player is very expensive, so longer updates would have pushed the price of the device higher. HMD again points to customer feedback. The other functions of the device are much would be considered preferable to a longer update policy. In terms of durability, which HMD likes to show with the Fusion, the manufacturer says it's more important to be able to easily install a new screen or battery than to keep the software up to date for another year.

Well, you can already buy the HMD Fusion smartphone in Austria In Finland, France, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Spain, same 8 GB RAM, 256 GB Speicher, Dual SIM 299 EUR (GBP 252, USD 329, INR 27677) and 6 GB RAM, 128 GB Speicher, Dual SIM capacity Black,Out of in stock for only EUR 269 (GBP 252, USD 329, INR 27670) while stocks last! I should note here that the stock is needed in the Netherlands, Finland, Spain, Italy and Germany!

It's good to know that HMD Global also offers accessories for the phone in several countries, which can be purchased in Austria and Germany at the price of the HMD Dual Port Wall Charger 30W - Black for EUR 24.99 or the Fusion Casual Outfit - Blue for EUR 24.99. You can also buy the HMD Fusion smartphone in the UK for 6GB RAM, 128GB Storage, Dual SIM for £229 (EUR 271, USD 298, INR 25102) and 8GB RAM, 256GB Storage, Dual SIM for £249 (EUR 294, USD 325, INR 27295) in Black with two accessories which are available in Fusion Casual Outfit - Pink and Fusion Casual Outfit - Blue for the same price of £24.99 (EUR 29, USD 32, INR 2739) by clicking on the links below!


HMD Fusion Austria

HMD Fusion Netherlands

HMD Fusion Finland

HMD Fusion France

HMD Fusion Germany

HMD Fusion Italy

HMD Fusion Spain

HMD Fusion UK

Via Link
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