Since its shift from Nokia to HMD, Human Cellular Units has been launching some attention-grabbing smartphones and have telephones. These telephones give attention to high quality and practicality as an alternative of uncooked energy and efficiency. With the HMD Fusion, HMD focuses on reliability and self-repairability (all of their smartphones are repairable) but additionally provides a modular twist, making it a enjoyable and thrilling machine to play with. It is 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 principally about design—the truth is, I may confidently name it a design train. And that is actually bizarre as a result of, for a telephone targeted on design, it is solely out there in a single end: black.

However fear not! This is the place the telephone’s modular concepts come to the rescue.

Meet HMD’s modular Outfits

There are two sorts of snap-on instances branded as Outfits. The Informal Outfit comes within the field and is a comfortable TPU case that may be connected to the telephone. Whereas it offers higher sturdiness from drops, it additionally makes the telephone thicker. Sadly, HMD solely sells primary black Outfits in India.

The Flashy Outfit affords a flash that capabilities like a hoop gentle

Then there are the Good Outfits, and HMD has launched two of those—the Flashy Outfit and the Gaming Outfit in India. Regardless of its look, the Flashy Outfit (priced at Rs. 2,999) hides a singular characteristic. The blue-coloured case has a raised silver ring that protrudes across the telephone’s digicam module. There is a hinge on the high, and you may pull out the underside fringe of the ring and switch it right into a devoted flash unit or ring gentle when vlogging and lightweight up your topic or your self. The LED may also be opened midway, doubling as a flip-out stand to carry the telephone up when watching movies. The plastic case can also be fairly rugged and offers good all-round safety, reminding me of the older Nokia XR20.

The second, Gaming Outfit (priced at Rs. 2,999), doesn’t want any clarification. It capabilities as a recreation controller, giving cell avid gamers bodily buttons and preserving their fingers off the show.

The Gaming Outfit in motion

The Good Outfits join through 6 contact pins on the backside of the case, letting customers management options associated to the Outfit through the telephone. An icon depicting a bulb exhibits up within the digicam app’s viewfinder whenever you mount the Flashy Outfit. It enables you to activate and alter the brightness of the LED ring and likewise enables you to change or customise its tone by any diploma.

Contacts on the Gaming Outfit are used to attach the controller to the telephone. As soon as linked, the controller works nicely with none points. This additionally reduces any lag normally discovered on Bluetooth controllers. I attempted out RipTide GP 2, and it labored as anticipated with no issues. You have to to take away the telephone from its default Informal Outfit case earlier than attaching it to some other accent.

In apply, each Outfits had been sensible and labored as anticipated. You have to to connect the telephone completely in place for the Gaming Outfit to detect it. HMD additionally encourages its customers to design their customized Outfits (utilizing the paid HMD Fusion Developmental Toolkit) for the Fusion utilizing 3D printing.

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

Like most HMD smartphones, Fusion can also be targeted on self-repair. All it’s a must to do is peel off the TPU case to get entry to the screws and the battery. There isn’t any want for a plastic prying software both (HMD calls it Gen 2 repairability), as you should use the telephone with out the Informal Outfit.

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

HMD Fusion Specs

The HMD Fusion packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 SoC, which is manufactured utilizing the 4nm fabrication course of, which ought to make it adequate for many funds smartphone-related processing necessities. There’s additionally 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, which may be expanded utilizing a shared slot for a microSD card. The telephone solely affords two SIM card slots, which may settle for two nano SIM playing cards or a SIM card + SD card mixture. The Qualcomm chipset offers strong connectivity, supporting a number of 5G bands, Bluetooth 5.1, Wi-Fi 6, USB Kind-C (2.0), and customary international positioning programs. The telephone is powered by a 5,000mAh battery.

HMD Fusion Efficiency

There is a 6.5-inch HD+ IPS LCD panel with a 90Hz refresh charge that doesn’t sound like a lot, even for a funds smartphone. It will get you the fundamentals and is brilliant sufficient for use outdoor however can’t deal with direct daylight, which turns into a little bit of an issue when utilizing the digicam app. It is not as sharp both, so textual content and pictures do seem a bit comfortable. Regardless of forcing its peak refresh charge, it is simply not in a position to ship with noticeable ghosting when scrolling.

All Good Outfits have a 6-pin connector on the backside

We ran our common benchmark assessments, and the outcomes (as anticipated) weren’t nice. With each day utilization, the telephone runs apps simply high-quality, however you’ll discover slowdowns and stuttering when making an attempt to multitask. Video games work simply high-quality, however at low to medium settings.

Regardless of its look, the Android 14 software program is full of quite a few third-party apps. These embrace video games, calling apps, VPN apps and extra. The great bit is that every one of those may be uninstalled, which may carry it again to its near-stock state. Nevertheless, even with out all of those apps, the software program doesn’t really feel as responsive appropriately given the underlying {hardware}.

The telephone has simply two cameras. The 108-megapixel main digicam produces oversharpened 12-megapixel binned photos in daylight whereas managing first rate low-light photos, supplied you utilize the devoted Evening mode. The small print are on the decrease aspect, however the dynamic vary is nice. The selfie digicam shoots satisfactory 12-megapixel photos regardless of utilizing the Flashy Outfit, however that does not supply a lot element.

HMD Fusion main digicam samples (faucet to increase photos)

HMD Fusion selfie digicam pattern with Flashy Outfit gentle (faucet to increase picture)

Regardless of the power-efficient processor, the HMD Fusion in some way is not sufficiently big for battery life. I ran our common video loop take a look at and managed simply 16 hours and 13 minutes, which is nicely beneath the mark for a funds smartphone. Surprisingly, the 33W charger within the field carried out decently, managing a full cost in 1 hour and 44 minutes.

HMD Fusion Verdict

In a sea of standard bar-shaped smartphones. HMD’s Fusion stands out for 2 causes. It isn’t solely modular however can even give its customers quick access to its internals for tinkering and restore. After utilizing the HMD Fusion, it isn’t too onerous 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 right into a funds bundle. The final time I skilled one thing related was on Motorola’s Z sequence, which spanned the mid-range to the premium phase. Nothing’s CMF Phone 1 (Review) additionally retails at this worth level and takes a modular strategy to a smartphone, however all of its fantastically designed equipment are practical, not good.

In fact, the Fusion is just not a performer, however the modular bits certain hold issues enjoyable and thrilling. There are tonnes of better-budget smartphones on the market, just like the Moto G85 5G (Review) and the Realme 13+ (Review), below Rs. 20,000. Nevertheless, the HMD Fusion proves that the corporate can construct a modular platform, and for now, that appears sufficient, because it has the potential to carry again the modular development and probably make smartphones enjoyable once more.