HMD hopes to win over DIY modders with its next budget phone

The spirit of Motorola’s ill-fated MotoMods is set to live again in the form of the new HMD Fusion. 

Announced at this year’s IFA conference in Berlin, the mid-range smartphone features a modular design that’s reminiscent of the one found on the long-dead Moto Z series or more recently on Nothing’s CMF Phone 1. 

Like those device, the HMD Fusion supports a set of interchangeable accessories called Smart Outfits. One add-on might give your phone a built-in ring light while another adds an extra layer of ruggedised protection. HMD isn’t the first smartphone manufacturer to take a crack at a crafting a smartphone that lets you customise the hardware like you can software but the idea is just as alluring this time around as it was the last.

That said, HMD won’t be shipping its initial slate of Smart Outfits until later in the year.

In the interim, it’s committed to making the project open source with a developer kit and a set of APIs. If the popularity of the CMF Phone 1 among the 3D-printing crowd is any indication, this is probably a smart move on their part.

According to HMD’s global chief marketing officer Lars Silberbauer, the HMD Fusion is as much a bold fashion statement as it is a communications device.

“For the first time, we’re inviting people to embrace their creativity and build a device that’s totally tailored to them with our industry-first Smart Outfits,” he said.

As for the phone itself, the HMD Fusion comes powered by Android 14, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 processor, up to 12GB of RAM and up to 256GB of on-board storage. There’s a 6.56-inch HD LCD screen clocked at 90Hz on the front and a 108MP dual-lens camera on the back. 

Throw in a 50MP selfie camera and this all starts to sound like a close match for the kit found on the recently-announced HMD Skyline. That said, the HMD Fusion doesn't support Qi 2 or any form of wireless charging (though it does support 33W fast charging via USB-C). We’ll have to wait and see how closely the HMD Fusion hews to the rest of that blueprint, though we won’t have to wait too long.

In Australia, the HMD Fusion is set to retail for $499 and will go on sale from 10 October 2024 through Harvey Norman and JB Hi-Fi, Officeworks, Big W and the HMD website.