Over a decade ago, Dutch designer Dave Hakkens came up with the concept of Phonebloks. The idea was to take the fundamentals of Lego blocks and implement them to make a modular smartphone so that users can swap individual components whenever they want and the world gets lighter on e-waste.
The project never materialized, but Google borrowed the premise and came up with Project Ara. It looked fantastic and even paved the way for the FairPhone. However, after years of promising teasers and company interest, it was condemned to the Google Graveyard. HMD, the home of what was once Nokia, is now bringing the frenzy back with HMD Fusion.
Priced at $299, the phone sells the idea of Smart Outfits. Depending on your specific needs, these Smart Outfits can add wireless charging capability, a ring light, or simply sturdy protection for the Fusion. HMD says the “possibilities are endless,” but given the history of such ideas (read: Moto Mods), we strongly suggest some optimistic caution here.
HMD has engineered a system of six metallic pins on the otherwise naked phone shell, which serve as the connection point for these Smart Outfits. These customizable blocks will hit stores later this year, but that’s not the most promising part.
The Finnish company has developed an open-source platform for software integration and a hardware kit that anyone can use to customize their HMD Fusion. The one with a customizable ring light is the Flash Outfit, while the IP68-cleared protective case is the Rugged Outfit.
Of course, that’s assuming you have access to a 3D printer and know a bit of 3D modeling stuff. If you’re making a modular kit that also interacts with the software, HMD will help you with the necessary software sauce, aka APIs.
To go with the customizability aspect, the company has also designed the HMD Fusion with what it calls “Gen 2 repairability” in mind. An iFixit repair kit is already on the table for DIY enthusiasts, while the screw-based access system means users can deal with screen and battery replacements without having to pull their hair and some nasty glue. It’s essentially what we saw with the HMD Skyline earlier this year.
The HMD Fusion itself packs fairly impressive firepower for the asking price. It has a 108-megapixel camera at the back and a 50-megapixel selfie snapper, assisted by tricks like slo-mo capture and gesture recognition support on the front camera.
The HMD Fusion is powered by a modest Qualcomm Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 processor, 6GB of RAM, and 128GB of onboard storage. You can also insert a microSD card of 1TB capacity, and there’s a 3.5mm headphone jack. Oh, HMD, what a truly functional gentleman you are!
On the front, there’s a 6.5-inch HD+ screen with a 90Hz refresh rate. The phone has a 5,000mAh battery to keep the lights on, and it supports 33W fast charging. The Fusion runs Android 14 out of the box and will receive two OS upgrades and security updates at a quarterly cadence for an extra year.
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The HMD Fusion in its Transparent Casual Outfit costs $299 and will be up for grabs in the fourth quarter, while the smart outfits will be launched at a later date. Meanwhile, if you have the customization itch, check out the CMF Phone 1, which lets you make a rear shell on your own with any and all functional jazz you can imagine.