HMD has been often called the producer of Nokia-branded telephones for years now, however now the corporate desires to begin promoting telephones below its personal model. The primary is the “HMD Pulse” line, a sequence of three low-end telephones which can be headed for Europe. The US is getting an HMD-branded telephone, too—the HMD Vibe—however that will not be out till Might.
Europe’s getting the 140-euro HMD Pulse, 160-euro Pulse+, and the 180-euro Pulse Professional. If you cannot inform from the costs, these are destined for Europe for now, however should you convert them to USD, that is about $150, $170, and $190, respectively. With solely $20 between tiers, there is not an enormous distinction from one mannequin to the following. All of them have bottom-of-the-barrel Unisoc T606 SoCs. That is a 12 nm chip with two Cortex A75 Arm cores, two A55 cores, an ARM Mali-G57 MP1, and it is 4G solely. Beforehand, HMD used this chip within the 2023 HMD Nokia G22. In addition they all have 90 Hz, 6.65-inch, 1612×720 LCDs, 128GB of storage, and 5,000 mAh batteries.
As for the variations, the bottom mannequin has 4GB of RAM, a 13 MP major rear digital camera, an 8 MP entrance digital camera, and 10 W wired charging. The Plus mannequin upgrades to a 50 MP major digital camera, whereas the Professional mannequin has 6GB of RAM, a 50 MP major digital camera, 50 MP entrance digital camera, and 20 W wired charging. There’s a second lens digital camera on the again, but it surely seems to be solely a 2 MP “depth sensor” on all fashions.
Oddly, the Professional design is barely worse than the cheaper telephones, with thicker bezels and a backside chin. Apart from that, the telephones have near-identical designs, and so they all look good for a telephone at this value. The Pulse telephones, and solely the Pulse telephones, apparently, are marketed as “constructed to be repairable” and may have elements that can be accessible at iFixit. It is onerous to say precisely what “repairable” means since none of that data is out but, however HMD’s final “repairable” telephone did not comprise any repair-focused improvements. It simply appeared like a standard, non-waterproof low cost telephone with a brand new advertising and marketing angle.
The US is getting the intently associated “HMD Vibe,” which feels like a extra succesful system with a Snapdragon 680. It is previous so far as Qualcomm chips go (from 2021), but it surely’s not a Unisoc. This can be a 6 nm chip with 4 Cortex A73 cores and 4 Cortex A53 cores. It has 6GB of RAM, the identical display as the opposite gadgets, and solely a 4,000 mAh battery for $150. The digital camera feels like a low-end loadout, with solely a 13 MP major shooter and a 5 MP entrance. All of the telephones have NFC, a 3.5 mm headphone jack, a Micro SD slot, USB-C ports, and so they include Android 14 and two OS upgrades. The European telephones all have facet fingerprint readers, and the actual deal-breaker for the US appears to be that it would not have a fingerprint reader in any respect.
HMD’s need to step away from the Nokia model is an odd one. Plenty of historic telephone corporations that washed out of the telephone market have licensed their model to a 3rd get together, giving rise to the “zombie model” pattern. Blackberry, Palm, and Motorola all come to thoughts. HMD was completely different, although; at launch, it was extra of a non secular successor to Nokia quite than a random producer licensing the model. Each corporations are Finnish, and HMD’s headquarters are proper throughout the road from Nokia. The corporate’s management is stuffed with former Nokia executives. Nokia even owns 10 p.c of HMD, whereas FIH Cell, a division of Chinese language manufacturing juggernaut Foxconn, owns 14 p.c.
Regardless of all that, HMD is stepping out of the shadow of Nokia and making an attempt to start out its personal model. The corporate plans to go together with a “multi-brand” technique now, so Nokia telephones will stick round, however count on to see extra HMD-branded telephones sooner or later. The corporate can be open to different model partnerships. It simply launched a weird “Heineken” dumbphone in partnership with the beer model and is planning a “Barbie flip telephone” with Mattel this summer time.
Itemizing picture by HMD