HMD Fusion Review: Cheap Modular Android Phone

I have almost it’s been tested on close to 100 cheap phones over the past 9 years, and I’ve never had to worry about bringing a backup in case things go wrong. Budget phones are generally sluggish but work well enough. But I almost immediately regretted not bringing a spare smartphone when I took the HMD Fusion on a short cross-country trip.

The first sample of this Android phone kept freezing and restarting on the way to the airport. Then, further fueling my panic, it would unlock the home screen but my passcode wouldn’t work. “The passcode is incorrect.” What? Thankfully, a forced restart will get you back to normal. However, throughout the weekend of my friend’s wedding in Kentucky, the Fusion would reboot repeatedly. It also refused to launch Slack—though that might have been a blessing since work wasn’t on my mind at the time.

HMD said they couldn’t replicate my problems, so the company sent me another unit. It was really good. It’s hard to switch gears suddenly after being frustrated with this black monolith, but this is a decent phone for $300. It also has a trick up its sleeve that no other phone has today: mods.

Modular Phone Recovery

HMD may not be a familiar name, so to recap quickly, the Finnish company licensed the Nokia brand to release Nokia Android smartphones and feature phones (dumb phones). It started doing this in 2017, but earlier this year, the company announced that while it will still make Nokia phones, it plans to make phones under its own name (which, by the way, stands for Human Mobile Devices). Its feature phone business continues as well, with bigger collaborations like the boring phone and the Barbie Phone.

The HMD Fusion is one of those devices (there was also the Skyline and the Vibe). It focuses on maintainability—just remove a few screws and you can replace most parts, from the battery to the screen, and the company plans to carry these parts for 7 years. (Much of this is required to comply with upcoming European Union regulations.)

But what makes it indeed pogo pins stand out in the background. In fact, the entire back of the phone looks like it’s not perfect. That’s because you can attach “Clothes,” as HMD calls them. These modular parts can change the look of the phone by supporting it in different colors. They don’t have magnetic stickers like iPhones and MagSafe. Instead, these switches are like cases, and the pogo pins transmit not only power but also data.