HMD Reviews 16

I bought a HMD Skyline phone as it was advertised as self repairable. I was hoping I would be able to extend the life of the phone through this feature.
The battery is starting to degrade and I thought I'd change the battery. Sadly the batteries are not available and ifixit (who are one of the two suppliers) have no idea when they will get any.
I've contacted HMD and they just say if I want a replacement I can send my phone to them. That just defeats the whole point of having a SELF repairable phone.
I feel scammed.
I will not be buying a HMD again. I advise anyone to think very carefully before going anywhere near them.

I have had several Nokia phones (8+) over the years (still have my brick running from 2010) and have recommended them. However, recent support and options has led me to stop. Only one official repair centre in Europe.... it's in Romania, and you can't get a price estimate on repairs until you ship it and wait to hear from them. Not great if you're in the UK wanting a quick fix.

Spares to do self repair are limited to certain models. In my case, the X30 5G doesn't have spares unless you're a registered repair centre. I just needed to replace the speaker. Now I'll have to give a local guy £70 just to do it because I personally can't get the part... or ship it to Romania for official repair.

Side note on performance. The two models you can repair with iFixit have been purchased by myself as well. The g22 is slow... so slow the kid stopped using it and my friend went with a different phone all together. Also had an issue with Wi-Fi stability with that phone. The g42 5G is fine for calls and that's all my wife's charity uses it for, but we bought a Samsung when they needed a second phone. Same cost, better specs on performance unfortunately... and longer software support in many cases.

Note: This is review is following my attempts to engage with HMD (taken over for Nokia) on getting a phone repaired.

I purchased a HMD Nokia 5.4 cellular phone, as I had Nokias when they were Nokia from 1996 onwards until ceased manufacturing, always positive experiences.
HMD Nokia 5.4 - a brick would be a more cost effective device as a mobile phone, camera, digital device.
HMD aware of the issues, promised an operating system update WHICH NEVER CAME.
You have to restart the phone several times a day, will still have issues running apps, every time you restart that is 20% of battery lost, every time you restart expect 10 mins before you can use it, which is a 1 km walk to the station, and get on the train.
I would suggest any potential buyer avoid HMD anything like the plague (the plague would be a more useful phone to be honest).

I previously was using a Samsung 21+. An expensive phone that I need to replace. Looking at the options, I decided on the HMD Skyline. Good camera, Android 15, self repairable. A great option at an affordable price. I bought one. Then I tried connecting a USB-C plug and play microphone to record video. Nothing. tried a direct wire, nothing. No 3.5mm headphone jack like was on the video I watched. Totally incompatible, after doing a side by side set up with my Samsung, which worked first time. Then I thought, I'll try my Interphone M2 motorcycle comms unit. Nada. I have been persevering with this for 3 weeks!
So, HMD, I am sorry. Great idea, crappy integration with the rest of the tech world. Going back to my ageing Samsung because at least that reads bluetooth devices.
Giving HMD Skyline 1 star because 0 is not an option.

I bought the HMD Fusion. I was impressed when it arrived, and it was an excellent phone, well built and nicely presented.
Unfortunately I could not get it to stream calls to my hearing aids, which I was able to do with my previous phone, a Google Pixel. I tried to contact HMD about this to find out if there was a fix. I tried, and tried, and tried. I had one solitary reply asking for my IMEI number, which I gave them, and then nothing. I could only contact them via Facebook as their contact form on the website didn't work for me. So, without hearing aid support the phone was useless for me and I've reverted back to my Google Pixel. My Fusion is up on eBay and will be a good buy for someone as long as they don't use hearing aids.

I ordered a phone for €49.99, but it was defective upon arrival (a manufacturing defect). After insisting, I finally received a return label (because I had supposedly had to pay for the costs myself) but when making this, I had to fill out a form that it was supposedly DHL's fault. When sending this form, customer service had first forwarded a form that had already been filled out by a previous customer, a violation of privacy in my eyes. In the end, I did not receive a new device, but I did get my money back and I had to order a new device that had in the meantime been saved to €79.99 (€30 more expensive!). I had to subscribe to newsletters to possibly get the device back under promotional conditions, while I initially immediately asked for another device, I suddenly had to order another device when the promotional prices were still valid. It was the first time I ordered via the website, so ordering another device was not an option because I did not even know how the previous one would be handled. The customer service was also not in my native language, even though the website was in my native language. This was the worst customer service I have ever had, both online and in real life. This whole proces took 3 weeks.

original tekst:
Ik heb een telefoon gesteld voor €49,99, maar bij aankomst was deze defect (een fabrieksfout). Na aandringen kreeg ik eindelijk een retourlabel (want eerst had ik zogezegd zelf voor de kosten moeten opdraaien) maar bij het maken hiervan moest ik een formulier invullen dat het zogezegd de fout was van DHL. Bij het opsturen van dit formulier had de klantendienst eerst een formulier doorgestuurd die reeds was ingevuld door een vorige klant, een schending van privacy in mijn ogen. Uiteindelijk heb ik geen nieuw toestel gekregen maar wel mijn geld terug gekregen en moest ik maar een nieuw toestel bestellen die ondertussen weer was opgeslagen naar €79,99 (€30 duurder!). Ik moest me maar inschrijven op nieuwsbrieven om het toestel eventueel weer aan actie-voorwaarden te krijgen, terwijl ik initieel onmiddelijk om een ander toestel vroeg, ik moest maar ineens een ander toestel bestellen wanneer de actieprijzen nog geldig waren. Het was de eerste keer dat ik bestelde via de website, dus nog een toestel bestellen was geen optie omdat ik niet eens wist hoe het vorige ging afgehandeld worden. De klantendienst was ook niet in mijn moedertaal, ondanks de website wel in mijn moedertaal was. Dit was de slechte klantenservice die ik ooit heb gehad, zowel online als in het echte leven. Heel dit gebeuren duurde 3 weken.

I brought a phone. It was supposed to be next day delivery but it didn't come 5 days later And it was broke when it arrived and the I had to send the phone back Then I had to argue to get my refund back because there was not going to send me a new phone. And when you phone customer service , all they keep saying is the given time we ve past it to the relevant team I think I have give them time it has been 20 day now

Brilliant first experience with HMD

I bought a refurbished HMD Skyline. Received it just 3 days later. Pristine condition. Photo was great but battery not good enough for me.

So I asked for a product return (straight in my account), followed the free DHL return process. I received the full refund like 1 hour after the phone arrived back at the company.

Had no need to contact the customer support, everything was one point and I salute my experience as a customer. Highly trustable from this experience.

Nokia 2660 is the shittiest feature phone I have ever owned. It must be made by people who have never owned a feature phone before.
Worst things:
- keypad is both shit to click and does not register clicks even when firmly pushed
- spelling help is ridiculous
- everything about writing on it is absolut trash
- emergency button is in the way
- sound control is in the way so the phone turns sound off on its own

What an shame in needing to give a star, even to rogues don't deserve it in order to make a review.
Older days I used to travel a bit and particular "style" of business management seemed to acceptable when buying and selling goats in asian markets, not so much this day and age in Europe.
If I don't hear from them by the end of a day tomorrow, I'll be cancelling payment via credit card, as I've spent 2 days trying/"chasing" (failing) for the order placed 4 days ago. Have been promised next day DHL delivery.- no notification and worse of all their "email contact form" doesn't work at all, that I tried several times over. I've got a feeling, they are just a scam, stealing peoples money, without and intension to fulfil their contractual obligation. Trading Standards will be informed too, but such shambles of a business have no place to operate in Europe and/or UK.
Avoid, like a olague.

The Barbie phone was worth the wait. People talk about it being a “dumbphone.” This phone is as dumb or smart as you can make it to be. I can check personal and work e-mail with the IMAP feature, take photos, surf the web, take calls and do it all with a Barbie movie look. The phone camera isn’t an iPhone 2024, that is OK with me. I loved my T-Mobile Sidekick phones with that vibe. Someone who wants a purely dumbphone feel can not use the added features. Up to you. Make it a Barbie iPhone lite on flip or a year 2000 Barbie phone!

The calls are so crisp. Do not know why my iPhone 2019 was so rotten on calls. I don’t miss my iPhone one bit and all the stupid app alerts that came with it.

The lanyard bracelet beaded string is a practical invention. I can wear my phone around my wrist, no fears of misplacing it on a walk outside. Know where it is if I carry a large purse.

The HMD staff answer questions on social media with unscripted human responses.

I AM SO HAPPY WITH MY NEW PHONE. THANK YOU, HMD. Have been telling everyone this phone will give me a career and personal life boost because I can avoid what I hate about modern tech and have a cool phone. This feels like my old Sidekick got inside a cute Barbie flip!