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Finnish phone brand HMD Global has been releasing Android smartphones under the Nokia brand for almost a decade, including a revival of the iconic Nokia 3310. But now, HMD Global has decided to step out from the shadow of the Nokia brand — once the biggest-selling phone manufacturer on the planet — and launch a range of new devices under its own name.
Enter, the HMD Pulse, HMD Pulse+ and HMD Pulse Pro.
According to HMD, these Android phones "set the tone" for what to expect from future gadgets released under the Finnish brand, with "clean lines", "elegant repairability", "bold design" and an "accessible price".
With an RRP of just £99, the HMD Pulse range certainly seems to tick the last criteria. HMD will discount the price tag of its new phones even further if you trade-in an existing handset.
One unique trick baked into the entire Pulse line-up is the DIY reparability.
Rather than forcing you to book an appointment with an engineer in a store, or send your phone back to the factory on the other side of the planet for a replacement part, HMD has partnered with iFixit to offer repair kits to carry out a series of common fixes at-home.
With 6GB of RAM equipped on the slightly pricier Pulse+, HMD says you'll be able to run two-dozen apps running in the background without any impact on performance
HMD GLOBAL PRESS OFFICE
The HMD Pulse line-up ships with Android 14 out-of-the-box, with the manufacturer promising a minimum of two years of software upgrades — meaning these budget handsets will be able to run Android 16
HMD GLOBAL PRESS OFFICE
These kits start from as little as £17.99 and should let Pulse smartphone owners repair a damaged display, bent charging port, or dead battery "without an engineering degree", the phone brand promises.
This is something that HMD Global has dabbled with before, offering at-home reparability with handsets like the Nokia G22 and G42. The Finnish manufacturer predicts that 3 out of every 4 smartphones it sells in Europe this year will be repairable, up from 1 in 3 last year.
Every model in the HMD Pulse line-up ships with Android 14, with a guaranteed two years of security updates.
If you're looking for decent battery life, HMD Global claims the 5,000mAh lithium-ion cell inside the HMD Pulse and Pulse+ can last 59 hours between charges. Charging is handled via USB-C.
There's only 64GB of built-in storage, which isn't much and will soon run out if you're shooting plenty of photos and videos. But thankfully, HMD Global has equipped its handsets with MicroSD card support up to 256GB of expandable storage — plenty enough for even the most snap-happy users.
HMD Pulse+ comes equipped with a 50-megapixel rear camera for high-resolution photo and videos. The software is designed to optimise for different skin tones.
Lars Silberbauer, Chief Marketing Officer of Human Mobile Devices, said: "We’ve got our finger on the pulse, and recognise consumers’ needs and anticipate market trends; repair is the cornerstone of a fresh chapter in smartphone innovation. Forget the ordinary, this is a new era of smartphone sophistication with substance."
HMD Pulse, HMD Pulse+, and Pulse Pro are available now online at hmd.com as well asVodafone and O2 stores nationwide. Prices start from £99.99 and rise to £149.99 for the Pulse Pro.
