Since her passage from Nokia to HMD, human mobile devices have launched interesting smartphones and phones. These phones focus on quality and practicality instead of power and raw performance. With the MMD fusion, HMD focuses on reliability and self-repair (all their smartphones are repairable) but also adds a modular turn, making it a fun and exciting device. It is at the price of Rs. 17,999 in India, which puts it against very competitive budgetary smartphones from Chinese brands.
HMD Fusion Design
The phone mainly concerns design – in fact, I could call it with confidence a design exercise. And it’s really weird because, for a phone focused on design, it is only available in a single finish: black.
But don’t worry! Here is where the modular ideas of the phone come to the rescue.
Meet the modular HMD outfits
There are two types of brand-on-one cases like outfits. The relaxed outfit is available in the box and is a soft TPU box that can be attached to the phone. Although it offers better durability of the drops, it also makes the phone thicker. Unfortunately, HMD only sells basic black outfits in India.
Flashy outfit offers a flash that works like annular light
Then there are the smart outfits, and HMD launched two: the flashy outfit and the play outfit in India. Despite its appearance, the flashy outfit (at the price of Rs. 2,999) hides a unique functionality. The blue -colored case has a lifting silver ring that exceeds around the phone module on the phone. There is a hinge at the top, and you can remove the lower edge of the ring and transform it into a dedicated flash unit or annular light when revoking and lighting your subject or yourself. LED can also be opened halfway, dubbing as a flip-out stand to keep the phone when searching for videos. The plastic case is also quite robust and offers good global protection, reminding me of the former Nokia XR20.
The second playing outfit (at the price of Rs. 2,999), needs no explanation. It works like a game controller, giving players of mobile players and keeping their fingers out of the screen.
The playing in action
Intelligent outfits connect via 6 contact pins at the bottom of the case, allowing users to control the functionalities related to the outfit via the phone. An icon illustrating an bulb appears in the viewfinder of the camera application when you mount the flashy outfit. It allows you to turn on and adjust the brightness of the LED ring and also allows you to change or personalize your tone by any degree.
Contacts on the game outfit are used to connect the controller to the phone. Once connected, the controller works well without any problem. This also reduces any discrepancy generally found on Bluetooth controllers. I tried Riptide GP 2, and it worked as planned without any problems. You will have to withdraw the phone from its default casual outfit case before fixing it to any other accessory.
In practice, the two outfits were practical and operated as planned. You will have to attach the phone perfectly in place so that the game outfit detects it. HMD also encourages its users to design their personalized outfits (using the HMD Fusion Paid Development Box) for fusion using 3D printing.
The game outfit has its battery and a type C connector
Like most HMD smartphones, fusion also focuses on self-reforation. All you have to do is take off the TPU box to access the screws and the battery. There is also no need for a plastic control tool (HMD calls it repairability Gen 2), as you can use the phone without the relaxed outfit.
Aside from the modular bits, I like the bare design of the phone and its translucent rear panel. It’s pretty thin and the screws around the rear give it a very industrial look. Its IP54 basic note (dust and water) meets all the requirements of a budgetary 5G smartphone.
HMD merger specifications
The HMD Fusion contains a Qualcomm Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 SOC, which is manufactured using the 4 NM manufacturing process, which should make it good for most treatment requirements related to budgetary smartphones. There are also 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage, which can be extended using a shared slit for a microSD card. The phone only offers two SIM card locations, which can accept two Nano SIM cards or a SIM + SD card combination. The Qualcomm chipset provides robust connectivity, supporting several 5G, Bluetooth 5.1 strips, Wi-Fi 6, USB Type-C (2.0) and standard global positioning systems. The phone is powered by a 5,000 mAh battery.
HMD merger performance
There is an LCD HD + IPS panel of 6.5 inch with a 90 Hz cooling rate that does not look much, even for a budget smartphone. It makes you get the basics and is shiny enough to be used outside but cannot attack the direct sunlight, which becomes a bit of a problem when using the camera application. It’s not so clear either, so the text and the images seem a little soft. Despite the fact of forcing its peak refreshment rate, it is simply not able to deliver with notable ghosts during scrolling.
All smart outfits have a 6 -pin connector at the bottom
We carried out our usual reference tests, and the results (as planned) were not great. With daily use, the phone performs the applications very well, but you will notice slowdowns and stuttering when you try to multiply. The games work very well, but with low to medium adjustments.
| Benchmarks | HMD merger | Motorola G85 5G | IQOO Z9 5G | Realme 13+ 5g |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chipset | Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 | Snapdragon 6s Gen 3 (6m) | Dimensity Mediatek 7200 (4nm) | Dimensity Mediatek 7300 (4nm) |
| Display resolution | HD + | FHD + | FHD + | FHD + |
| ANTUTU V10 | 4,48,378 | 4.50,865 | 6.87.545 | 6.85.134 |
| PCMARK WORK 3.0 | 8,503 | 11,757 | 13.319 | 12,377 |
| Geekbench 6 single | 937 | 935 | 1 151 | 1,044 |
| Geekbench 6 Multi | 2,245 | 2,102 | 2,669 | 2,945 |
| GFXB T-REX | 70 | 89 | 108 | 61 |
| GFXB Manhattan 3.1 | 37 | 33 | 60 | 50 |
| GFXB car chase | 17 | 19 | 33 | 29 |
| 3DM Slingshot Extreme OpenGL | 1,775 | 3 259 | 5,766 | 5 174 |
| 3DM Slingshot | 2,712 | 4 406 | 6,654 | 6,672 |
| 3dm Life Sauvage | 673 | 1,569 | 4,126 | 3 161 |
| 3DM wild unlimited life | 669 | 1,578 | 4 205 | 3,155 |
Despite its appearance, Android 14 software is filled with many third -party applications. These include games, application calls, VPN applications and more. The right piece is that all these elements can be uninstalled, which can bring it back to its state. However, even without all these applications, the software does not feel as responsive as it should be given the underlying hardware.
The phone only has two cameras. The primary camera of 108 megapixels produces bace images of 12 over -dimensional megapixels in daylight while managing decent light images, provided you use the dedicated night mode. The details are on the lower side, but the dynamic range is good. The Selfie camera takes up passable images of 12 megapixels despite the use of flashy outfit, but that does not offer many details.
HMD Fusion primary camera samples (Press to enlarge the images)
HMD Fusion Selfie camera sample with flashy hold light (press to expansize the image)
Despite the potential economical processor, the HMD fusion is in a way not large enough for the battery life. I did our usual video loop test and only managed 16 hours and 13 minutes, which is below the brand for a budget smartphone. Surprisingly, the 33W charger in the box occurred decently, managing a full load in 1 hour and 44 minutes.
HMD merger verdict
In a sea of regular bar -shaped smartphones. The merger of HMD stands out for two reasons. It is not only modular, but can also give its users easily access to its interns to tinker and repair. After using the HMD merger, it is not too difficult to conclude that it follows HMD philosophy typical of the delivery of the bases.
The phone is an appropriate design exercise and, for the first time, brings the goodness of modular smartphones in a budget package. The last time I experienced something similar was on Motorola’s Z series, which lasted the mid -range to the premium segment. Nothing’s CMF Phone 1 (review) also sells at this price and adopts a modular approach to a smartphone, but all its beautifully designed accessories are functional, not intelligent.
Of course, merger is not an interpreter, but the modular bits keep things fun and exciting. There are tons of better budget smartphones, such as the Moto G85 5G (Revue) and Realme 13+ (Revue), under RS. 20,000. However, HMD merger proves that the company can build a modular platform, and for the moment, this seems sufficient, because it has the potential to bring the modular trend and possibly to make smartphones again amusing.
