TL;DR
- HMD has introduced the Skyline smartphone, and it’s the primary Android cellphone with Qi2 wi-fi charging.
- The Skyline additionally affords an apparently replaceable battery, a 144Hz OLED display screen, and a versatile rear digital camera system.
- The cellphone prices £399.99 (~$520) within the UK, however there’s no phrase on US pricing but.
We’ve seen a great deal of HMD Skyline leaks over the previous couple of months, suggesting a smartphone with a design vaguely paying homage to basic Lumia telephones. Now, the Finnish model has totally revealed the brand new Android cellphone.
Maybe probably the most notable factor in regards to the HMD Skyline is that it appears to be the primary Android cellphone with Qi2 wi-fi charging assist. This normal permits for magnetic wi-fi charging very similar to Apple’s MagSafe charging function, enabling sooner, extra environment friendly, and cooler wi-fi charging. Extra particularly, the brand new cellphone helps 15W wi-fi charging, together with 5W reverse wi-fi charging.
Don’t care about wi-fi charging? You can too decide to cost the 4,600mAh battery by way of 33W wired charging. Moreover, HMD says the battery is replaceable, with a promotional video suggesting that the rear cowl pops off with the help of one thing resembling a SIM tray eject software.
The cellphone additionally stands out due to its {hardware} design, that includes a square-cut physique and rounded bezel corners that recall to mind telephones just like the Nokia Lumia 920. The corporate provides that the system is designed to be repairable, due to a partnership with iFixit. One different notable {hardware} addition is a remappable button on the left-hand facet, permitting you to launch apps and extra with a double-tap or press-and-hold.
HMD Skyline: Duking it out with Pixel 8a?
The remainder of the HMD Skyline spec sheet reveals an higher mid-range cellphone. There’s a 6.55-inch 144Hz OLED display screen (FHD+, 1,000 nits peak brightness), a mid-tier Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 chipset, 8GB or 12GB of RAM, and 128GB or 256GB of storage. The cellphone brings a microSD card slot too, providing as much as 512GB of additional house.
HMD’s new cellphone can be probably the most spectacular digital camera cellphone the corporate has produced in a very long time — on paper at the least. That rear digital camera bump hosts a 108MP essential digital camera with OIS, a 13MP ultrawide lens, and a 50MP 2x telephoto shooter (as much as 4x). We’ve additionally received a 50MP selfie digital camera with autofocus and 4K assist.
The HMD Skyline is supplied with a so-called “Steadiness Interface” pores and skin atop Android 14. The corporate says this pores and skin affords a Detox Mode that’s presumably a tackle Digital Wellbeing and system sounds which can be “extra chill” (e.g. alarm sounds, ringtones, notification alerts). The previous mode is listed as coming quickly. Sadly, these anticipating a terrific replace coverage should make do with two OS updates and three years of safety patches. That’s an actual disgrace when telephones from Samsung and Google have 5 to seven years of updates.
Different notable options embrace Gorilla Glass 3 on the entrance (tempered glass on the again), Bluetooth 5.2, an IP54 ranking, NFC, a facet fingerprint scanner, and Wi-Fi 6E.
The HMD Skyline is at the moment listed on the corporate’s UK and US web sites. The US web site doesn’t record pricing, however the 8GB/128GB mannequin is obtainable for £399.99 within the UK, whereas the 12GB/256GB variant will set you again £499.99.
That makes the cellphone at the least £100 cheaper than the Pixel 8a. HMD’s system brings benefits like Qi2 charging, sooner wired charging, an even bigger battery, a telephoto digital camera, and storage enlargement. Nevertheless, Google’s system affords nice picture processing, correct water resistance, an extended replace coverage, and a brighter display screen. Both approach, we’re glad to see HMD providing extra than simply low-end telephones once more.