After rumours and teasers, HMD has officially introduced the HMD Skyline smartphone with a repairable design called Gen2 Repairability; that enables at-home, user-friendly repairs on your smartphone by simply turning one screw to pop open the back cover using a screwdriver and guitar pick.
Gen2 Repairability
The number of steps to repair the HMD Skyline screen is 65% less than HMD’s first repairable smartphone, the G22, said the company. You simply turn one screw to pop open the back cover on the HMD Skyline.
With a little counter-clockwise twist, the corner of the back cover pop so you can slip a pry tool underneath to reveal a simple but elegant mechanism: a screw-driven rotating arm, with a spring to pull it back down when released. Turn it, and its cam lobe pushes against a plate on the back cover, which clips back together once done.
Once the back cover is removed, you have access to an array of screws to remove and disconnect the display cable. Once done, the screen falls out the front. HMD Skyline uses a foam gasket around the display perimeter to help mount maintain its IP54 rating.
The battery comes with a built-in plastic liner that you can pull apart by hand to quickly sperate the battery from the chassis. Once the battery is out, you can peel away the plastic from underneath. The last step before installing a new battery is to clean out the adhesive residue thar remains behind and install fresh adhesive strips.
The Gen2 repairability allows users to fix bent charging ports and scratched back covers in addition to changing the screen and a depleted battery, said the company.
Detox Mode
The new in-built Detox Mode with bespoke app and contact blocking, allows users to tailor their detox to their needs, focus on the real world and enjoy a balanced smartphone experience whenever they need a break from the digital world.
Camera
The phone has a 108MP rear camera with Hybrid OIS, 13MP ultra-wide and a 50MP telephoto camera for 50mm portraits. There is a 50MP front camera with autofocus and eye-tracking. It comes with in-built ‘selfie gesture’ hardware that can capture selfies by looking at the phone while making the universal peace sign (or one of three other hand signs) to activate the camera. With an update coming in August, it will support 4K selfie videos.
Display, SoC, Battery and more
The phone has a 6.55-inch pOLED display, boasting a 144 Hz refresh rate and HDR10 video playback. It is pwoered by Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 SoC. There is a Custom Button so that usersr can set it up to do one thing when they hold the button down, and another when they double press it, such as shortcut to your favourite game, navigating home, launching personal assistant and more.
The phone packs a 4600mAh battery that promises up to 48 hours of use. In addition to 33W fast charging, it also comes with Qi wireless charging that lets you charge the phone with any magnetized Qi2 charger. The battery has been teased to maintain at least 80% of its original capacity after 800 full charging cycles, according to the company.
HMD Skyline specifications
- 6.55-inch (1080 x 2400 pixels) FHD+ 20:9 aspect ratio pOLED display, 144Hz refresh rate up to 1000 nits brightness, Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection
- Up to 2.4GHz Octa Core Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 4nm Mobile Platform with Adreno 710 GPU
- 8GB / 12GB RAM, 128GB / 256GB storage, expandable memory up to 1TB with microSD
- Dual SIM (Nano SIM, eSIM)
- Android 14, 2 years of updates, 3 years of security patches
- 108MP rear camera with Hybrid OIS+EIS, LED flash, 13 MP Ultra-wide camera, 50 MP telephoto camera, Capture Fusion technology, 50mm Portrait mode, 4K video capture, OZO Spatial Audio capture with wind-noise cancellation
- 50MP auto focus front-facing camera with Eye-tracking focus
- Side-mounted fingerprint sensor, 2x Quick access buttons
- USB Type-C audio, Stereo Speakers, OZO Playback
- Dust and water resistant (IP54)
- Dimensions: 159.84 x 75.66 x 8.9mm; Weight: 209.5g
- 5G SA/NSA, Dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 ax (2.4GHz + 5GHz), Bluetooth 5.2, GPS/A-GPS, Galileo L1/L5 dual-band, GLONASS, BDS, USB Type-C, NFC
- 4600 mAh (user replaceable) battery with 33W wired charging, (QC4.0 and PD3.0 PPS compatible), 15W magnetic wireless charging, 5w reverse wireless charging, Qi2 certified
Pricing and availability
HMD Skyline comes in Neon Pink and Twisted Black colours and is priced at £399 (USD 518 / Rs. 43,340 approx.) / €499 (USD 545 / Rs. 45,620 approx.) for the 8GB + 128GB model and the 12GB + 256GB version costs £499 (USD 648 / Rs. 54,200 approx.) / €599 (USD 654 / Rs. 54,765 approx.). It is already on sale on HMD.com in select countries.
Self-repair support is available through iFixit in select markets.