- HMD has launched HMD Pulse, Pulse+, and Pulse Pro smartphones.
- All three devices come with the Unisoc T606 SoCs, 5,000 mAh batteries, and 720p LCD 90Hz displays.
- The HMD Pulse costs €140, the Pulse+ costs €150, and the Pulse Pro costs €180.
HMD announced during MWC 2024 that it will be ditching the Nokia branding in favor of its own. The firm has now announced its first HMD-branded smartphone trio with “Gen 1 repairability.” Here’s everything you need to know about the newly launched HMD smartphones. The lineup consists of three devices — the HMD Pulse, Pulse+, and Pulse Pro. The firm claims that with Gen 1 repairability, users can use self-repair kits from iFixit to replace components like the battery with ease. Here are the specifications of all HMD devices.
HMD Pulse
The HMD Pulse is the most basic offering in the lineup. All three models come with an HD+ 6.65-inch LCD panel with a 90Hz refresh rate, peak brightness of 600 nits, and 70% color coverage on the NTSC gamut.
The HMD Pulse has dual rear cameras, the primary being a 13MP wide snapper and the secondary being a 2 MP depth sensor. The selfie camera is an 8 MP snapper and resides in the punch hole in the middle of the display.
Powering all three devices is a Unisoc T606 SoC. The battery on the Pulse is a 5,000 mAh unit with 10W charging, which HMD says is “QuickFix replaceable.” This doesn’t mean the back can be opened with ease to swap batteries but the replacement process should be easier than most phones. HMD claims the battery is rated for up to 800 charge cycles, and the device is IP52-rated.
For those unaware, the T606 SoC is manufactured using a 12 nm process and comes with two Cortex-A75 cores and six Cortex-A55 cores. The GPU is a Mali-G57 MP1, and the SoC doesn’t support 5G. Nothing about the phone screams modern.
The RAM and storage options are 4/6GB RAM and 64GB eMMC 5.1 storage. The device does have a microSD card slot and supports cards of up to 256 GB. As for the software, the phone comes with Android 14 and HMD has promised two major updates and three years of security patches.
HMD Pulse+
Cameras and storage, RAM options, and pricing are the only differences between the base Pulse and Pulse+ models. The Pulse+ also uses dual rear cameras but the primary sensor is a 50 MP snapper. The secondary snapper is a depth sensor. HMD did not give out the details about the primary sensor on the Pulse+.
The Pulse+ has 128 GB storage and 4/6/8 GB RAM. Besides, all three smartphones support NFC, Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.0, and virtual RAM options. All three devices boast a side fingerprint scanner, face unlock, and a USB 2.0 Type-C port.
HMD Pulse Pro
Despite the Pro moniker, the Pulse Pro isn’t very different from its siblings. There’s the same Unisoc T606 SoC, 5000 mAh battery, and IP52 rating, and the only difference is the charging speed which is 20W on the Pro vs 10W on the Pulse and Pulse+. The cameras and storage variants remain the same with no change in the number of software updates either.
The Pulse, Pulse+, and Pulse Pro come in three colorways. Pulse has Dreamy Pink, Meteor Black, and Atmos Blue options. The Pulse+ comes in Apricot Crush, Midnight Blue, and Glacier Green colors. The Pulse Pro comes in Glacier Green, Black Ocean, and Twilight Purple colorways.
The HMD Pulse and Pulse+ will be available starting today on the HMD website for €140 and €150 respectively. The company says the Pulse Pro will be available soon and will retail for €180.
What are your thoughts on the latest HMD devices? How intrigued or disappointed are you? Let us know in the comments below.
