HMD Skyline aims to be the most repairable Android
HMD’s latest mid-ranger, the HMD Skyline, sports a design that harkens back to the Nokia Lumia 920, with a boxy chassis and colorful finish. Despite a retro exterior, though, the insides are all-new.
This device is all about repairability, unlike some of the similarly priced mid-range phones out there. Often, when a manufacturer talks about repairability, they mean that replacement parts are readily available to service centers, and taking the phone apart isn’t likely to destroy the whole thing. HMD however, has taken things a step further, with what it calls Gen 2 repairability.
This means that you can repair the phone at home, and removing the rear casing is as simple as turning a screw, with no heat gun or pry tools required. To support this initiative, the brand has teamed up with iFixit to distribute disassembly kits, as well as replacement displays, batteries, and charging ports at reasonable prices.
Of course, this only matters if the phone is worth repairing in the first place, so let’s take a look at the specs. The HMD Skyline utilizes a Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 chipset to power performance, along with 8GB or 12GB of RAM and 128GB or 256GB of storage. It also sports a microSD card slot, with support for up to 1TB of additional storage.
It has a 6.55-inch OLED display with an FHD+ resolution and a speedy 144Hz refresh rate. The battery has a 4600 mAh capacity and can charge at 33W with a wire, or 15W wirelessly. Interestingly, there’s support for magnetic charging accessories, so there’s a good chance it’ll work with MagSafe chargers designed for iPhone.
There’s plenty going on in the camera department, too. You get a 108MP main snapper, a 12MP ultrawide, and a 50MP 2x telephoto on the rear. Around the front, there’s a punch-hole selfie camera with a whopping 50MP resolution and eye-tracking autofocus. Sounds like a promising pick for selfie aficionados.
The HMD Skyline retails for $499 / £399 / €499 and it’s available now on HMD’s website. To see what the Android competitor brands have to offer, see our guides to the best Google Pixel phones and the best Samsung phones. Or, if you’re a fan of Apple smartphones, check out everything we know so far about the next generation in our iPhone 16 guide.
