The HMD Fuse smartphone approaches the difficulty of retaining kids protected on-line in an attention-grabbing method. As a substitute of age checks or content material bans, it consists of an AI-powered content material blocker particularly tuned to dam nudity from apps and web sites, delete photos and movies containing nudity from the telephone, and even cease the digital camera from capturing nude photos, in video, nonetheless, and streaming kind.
It does so utilizing an current device referred to as HarmBlock AI, which is constructed into the telephone’s software program, somewhat than being a separate app or working within the cloud, avoiding any method to bypass it together with with a VPN. HMD says the AI has been “ethically skilled on over 22 million dangerous photos” and doesn’t gather or share any knowledge from the telephone.
HarmBlock AI is simply a part of what makes the HMD Fuse excellent for teenagers. Out of the field it’s totally freed from, nicely, every thing. There’s no app retailer or pre-installed social apps, however there’s a built-in administration system the place, utilizing an app put in on their very own system, mother and father can approve what works on the telephone and what doesn’t.
Via the companion app, contacts should be accredited, so children can solely contact pre-approved numbers, and site monitoring will be arrange with protected zones, the place alerts are despatched when a baby enters or leaves. Nevertheless, as an alternative of retaining the telephone locked down eternally, the HMD Fuse’s performance will be elevated over time, together with entry to the Google Play Retailer and apps.
Below the cut-offs
The HMD Fuse is a comparatively commonplace mid-range smartphone, and excellent as somebody’s first system. It has a 6.56-inch display with a 90Hz refresh charge, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 processor, 6GB of RAM, and a 5,000mAh battery.
Use of the digital camera will be restricted within the Fuse’s administration app, however as soon as opened up, it has a 108-megapixel essential rear digital camera together with a 2MP depth digital camera, plus a 50MP fixed-focus selfie digital camera. HMD consists of two of its modular case “Outfits” within the field, one for general safety, and the opposite with a built-in ring mild.
The telephone follows on from HMD’s Fusion X1, the primary in a sequence of telephones designed for on-line security, which launched at MWC 2025 in March. It comes with the Xplora app already put in, which is used to handle the system and guarantee it’s protected for teenagers to take pleasure in. Each it and the Fuse are the results of HMD’s work with the Higher Telephone Venture, an effort to create smartphones that are protected for teenagers to make use of, and in addition to assist scale back smartphone and social media dependancy.
The HMD Fuse is on the market within the U.Okay. now by the Vodafone and Three networks, the place it prices £498 (about $670) with out a contract, or from £23 per thirty days, and this consists of the usage of HarmBlock AI. A U.S. launch has not been introduced presently.