HMD just announced a modular phone that will be widely available in the US

Earlier this year, HMD Global split from the Nokia brand, as it announced its first exclusive branded phones with the Pulse Pro and Vibe. It was a sad but exciting — bittersweet — moment in the history of smartphone brands, as while we were excited about HMD’s offerings, it killed a small part of us to see Nokia die a second death. Nonetheless, HMD is charging ahead with full steam, and after it unveiled and released the Barbie flip phone (yes, you heard that correctly), the company’s tendency to go outside the box is now on full display. Along those lines, HMD just announced its newest phone that follows in the path that the CMF Phone 1 walked on most recently.

After a bit of pre-announcement fanfare, HMD unveiled the HMD Fusion, a new smartphone that will feature multiple types of modular “interchangeable outfits” that add functionality, such as a ring light or magnetic wireless charging. It will start at £199 in the UK and €249 in Europe, and it’s expected to cost around $299 (according to GSM Arena) when it eventually goes on sale in the US. While its specs are markedly unimpressive, sporting a 6.56-inch 90Hz FHD screen powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 SoC and up to 8GB of RAM, its cameras are solid, especially for the price. It features a 50MP selfie camera and a 108MP rear camera.

Successful modular phones are hard to come by

(Source: HMD Global)

Obviously, the list of modular smartphones is minuscule, but the list of successful modular smartphones is even smaller. Back in 2013, Google and Motorola unveiled Project Ara, a modular phone project that came from the leftovers of the Israeli startup brand, Modu. It went into the Google Graveyard in 2016. More failed developments over the years led to Moto Mods locking Motorola into a cycle of failure, and the modular phone landscape looked bleak. While it’s not exactly as modular as Google, Motorola, and other visionaries imagined it would be over a decade ago, the CMF Phone 1 proved that modularity is still possible, popular, and inexpensive (at $200). However, it’s not widely available in the US; that’s where HMD can step in.

IFA 2024 gets underway on Friday, Sept. 6, and we’re excited about the numerous announcements and reveals that will come from the world’s biggest tech companies over the next few days. We’ll be able to check out HMD’s recent offerings, like the Barbie flip phone and the HMD Fusion, but there are multiple other exciting products ready for the masses. We’re expecting multiple Google TV-compatible projects, an E-ink smartphone, and a new foldable phone to be revealed along with many other currently unknown surprises. CES 2024 in January gave us some fantastic announcements that held us over for the following few months, and we’re sure that IFA 2024 will do the same.