- Good cameras
- Long battery life
- Repairability
- Blocky design
- Lack of updates
- Waiting for Digital Detox mode
The HMD Skyline is the fifth phone entering the market under HMD’s own brand name as it sets out to distinguish itself apart from its better-known Nokia brand. There's a lot to like about the Skyline but also a few things that leave you scratching your head. It's more than adequate in most areas but confused messaging means it might struggle to stand out in the competitive mid-range Android market.
It's a delicate balancing act between practical performance, nostalgia bait, and genuine innovation.
A vision in neon pink (and blue, and black)
The HMD Skyline certainly stands out in a sea of other smartphones with its squared-off edges and bright Neon Pink colouring. It’s a bit of a niche nostalgia play, referencing devices like the Nokia Lumia 800 and Nokia N9. While it makes for a really distinctive look in a world of curves, it’s not the most ergonomic design. Held in your hand upright there’s no issue but you really notice the hard edges the moment you hold the phone out landscape whether that’s to take photos or play games. It’s simply not as comfortable compared with most smartphones.
The triple-lens camera setup is decent with a 108MP main camera, 50MP telephoto lens, and 13MP ultra-wide. When shooting in bright light the photos turn out nice and vibrant but they lose some detail when using zoom or in lower light settings. Low-light shots in Night Mode are much brighter but aren't much sharper.
The front camera is also 50MP and it does take some nice selfies. They're very sharp thanks to some eye-based tracking. You can also trigger the front camera through a few unique hand signs - like throwing up a peace sign.
HMD Skyline camera samples
Check out these camera samples taken on the HMD Skyline. Click or tap on any photo to see a larger version.
Perhaps taking a cue from Apple’s Action Button, the Skyline features what HMD calls a “Custom Button”. It can be set to a variety of functions, like switching the ringer on or off, accessing the camera, navigating to a predetermined destination and more. Notably, there’s both single press or hold and double press - enabling you to pick two settings at once. I happily set the first as the ringer and a second press to access the Google Wallet.
This button will also be able to activate one of the exciting features I was looking forward to, a Digital Detox Mode which didn’t ship at launch. Intended to debut on the Skyline and then become a feature on other HMD phones, Digital Detox Mode is a slightly different take than what other manufacturers have developed. It has the features you'd expect, restrictions on accessing certain apps that you can set to a particular schedule, muting calls from certain contacts and changing your wallpaper while it's active.
The main difference is that while there’s a soft detox mode (which you can easily navigate around) there’s also the hard mode which once set can only be bypassed by power cycling the device off and on. The thinking is that this will create enough tension for the mode to actually be usable. Most people aren't going to want to actually reboot their device and so will be able to detox, but if you really need a certain app you're not locked out for hours. We’ll have more to say when we get to take it for a spin.
This feels like an awkward critique, but the Skyline is the first time I’ve ever used a phone that’s hurt me. A fair few times I was going about my day when my arm would swing by my side, and my knuckles would receive a hard hit from the corner of the Skyline jutting out of my pocket. Phone thieves of London beware: the HMD Skyline can do some serious damage should its owner decide to strike back. It turns out, yes we have rounded out the corners on our smartphones for good reason.
Practical, yes. Sustainable?
When it comes to daily performance, the HMD Skyline is a good all-rounder but it comes with a few trade-offs.
Powered by the older Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 chip the Skyline isn’t the fastest mid-range phone but it holds up well when switching and running apps and even playing games like Marvel Snap and Genshin Impact. However, with the latter, I didn’t notice it started to heat up significantly and drain the battery faster.
In terms of battery life, you can expect a full day and a bit more, with about six hours of screen time per charge. The ethos of digital detox was on my mind while testing the Skyline so I did find the battery lasted slightly longer on days when I wasn’t as actively using my phone. When the battery did run down it’s not very long to get back to full charge with 33W fast charging. Although you don’t get a wall charger in the box. I was able to get back to a full charge from 10% in over just an hour.
Notably, the HMD Skyline is the first Android device to arrive on the scene with Qi2 charging. This provides a similar magnetic alignment to MagSafe. It’s not executed 100% effectively as it might not align with the magnetic coils due to their placement lower on the back of the device. I was able to charge on an older charging pad I have but the positioning of the coils makes it slightly awkward with the phone not being centred on the pad.
There’s a sense of confused ideology within the HMD Skyline. One is a focus on sustainability. The HMD Skyline is one of the most repairable smartphones in the market with the screen, battery, back cover, speaker, charging port and SIM tray all being able to be repaired at home. iFixit - which partnered with HMD to provide self-repair kits - rates it at “9/10” repairability. Thankfully, I haven’t needed to conduct any repairs myself.
At the same time, this vision for sustainability isn't fully realised. With the HMD Skyline you get just two years of Android OS updates and three years of security updates. This is well behind the standard set by manufacturers like Google and Samsung who promise seven years of updates and importantly security protection on similarly priced devices. Even Apple has set a precedent for five to six years of updates for iPhones.
The Skyline is even advertised as being tested over 800 charge cycles before there’s a change in its charge capacity. Slower battery degradation or being able to repair all the important parts of the handset aren't that important if it's going to be reduced to an expensive media player in just a few year's time.
HMD Skyline - Final Thoughts
With repairability as a core feature and Digital Detox around the corner, it appears HMD is working hard to provide a real point of difference to consumers with the Skyline.
While the overall fit out of the HMD Skyline makes it a good all-rounder for this price stage it's still a hard sell for the sustainability-conscious or those who like to hold onto their phone for a good number of years. After all the price quickly doubles if you need to fork out for another phone in just three year's time anyway.
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Dylan Crismale
Digital Content Editor
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