It’s the 1990s and the air rings with “Doo do doo do, doo do doo” – yes, it’s none other than the famed phrase from classical guitar piece ‘Gran Vals’, more commonly recognised by those of us from ‘the past’ as the Nokia tune – possibly the most recognised noise in the 90s and Noughties, when Nokia dominated the mobile phoneosphere.
Then something happened. In 2007, Steve Jobs took to the stage in Cupertino, California, and waved the world’s first iPhone in the air, and the fate of Nokia (alongside Ericsson and Motorola) was sealed. I mean, there was more to it than that, but in a nutshell, that’s where the rot set in, seeing Nokia hang up its mobile phone hat for good in 2014, flogging that side of the business to Microsoft. But then, in 2016, former Nokia employees came together and bought the business back, under the shiny new name of HMD Global.
Setting out its stall straight away, HMD (Human Mobile Devices), kicked off the rebirth by launching five feature phones under the Nokia name, following them up with six new Android smartphones in 2017. Since then, we’ve been treated to some reimagined classics, such as the 3310 that almost everyone had in the early 2000s, and some truly innovative, Chuck Norris-hard, and eco-friendly smart-blowers, such as the near-indestructible XR21 and the self-repairable G42, all at prices that keep them within the realistic reach of Joe and Joanne Public.
Now, with the recent launch of HMD’s first HMD-branded smartphone, the Pulse Pro, it seemed like an excellent time to take an overview of the HMD/Nokia range, put a cross-section of models through their paces and, of course, become absolutely re-obsessed with Snake. All together now: “Doo do doo do, doo do doo…”
Best HMD & Nokia phones at a glance:
- Best for performance perfection at a piffling price: HMD Pulse Pro - £129.99, Argos
- Best for old-school feature phone fun: Nokia 3210 - £75, Argos
- Best for a freedom-brining flipping good phone: Nokia 2660 Flip - £50, Amazon
- Best for budget 5G and swift phone fixes: Nokia G42 - £170.66, Amazon
- Best for tween talking: Nokia 235 4G - £57.30, Amazon
HMD Skyline
While I appreciate that having the ability to fix your own phone will not appeal to all, the HMD Skyline represents a massive evolutionary step forward on the self-fix-its to have come before. With this Pink or Black blower, you can retain the same phone for years upon end and simply replace the broken component when something goes wrong. As such, the Skyline is nothing less than a testament to HMD’s genius.
A decidedly snappy 8-core Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 consisting of 4x Cortex-A78 cores at 2400MHz and 4x Cortex-A55 at 1950MHz makes the HMD Skyline nippy. Along with this potently powerful processor comes either 8GB RAM and 128GB of storage, or 16GB and 256GB housed in a sleek and solid, 100 per cent recycled aluminium body.
So am I sold on the idea of a smartphone that I can disassemble and rebuild myself? If the product felt shoddy, if the build felt cheap and the functionality felt lacking, I wouldn’t even entertain the idea of touching it. But as it stands, the Skyline, with its premium build, superb tech spec and, of course, endless fixing flexibility strikes me as the overpoweringly obvious choice for the forward-thinking seeking a truly accident- and, moreover, future-proof smartphone. Human Mobile Devices indeed.
Buy now £449.99, Clove
HMD Pulse Pro
Best for: Performance perfection at a piffling price
HMD’s first original device, The Pulse Pro has a lot riding on its exquisitely narrow shoulders, being the model by which many will judge the whole present position of the company and possibly even rush to condemn the future of HMD as an entire entity too, so no pressure.
Available in three colours, Glacier Green, Twilight Purple and Black Ocean, the Pulse Pro is a good size at 6.5-odd-inches, yet weighs a near-nothing at 196g, all while feeling rather robust in the hand for a new 4G smartphone that costs a piffling £150.
Decidedly sleek, with a premium feel to it, everything you would hope for is on the outside, including an on/off switch/fingerprint reader, sim tray, volume, USB-C input and 3.5mm headphone jack, while round the back you’ll find a humongous 50MP camera (more on that to come) and that soon to be ubiquitous HMD logo. But, as attractive as an option as the Pulse Pro clearly is, it’s what’s on the inside that counts, so time to break out the metaphorical crowbar.
Running on the current latest version of Android (14), at the heart of the Pulse is a Unisoc T606, an entry-level octa-core processor with two beefy ARM Cortex A75 cores clocking up to 1.6GHz and six oomph-efficient ARM Cortex A55 cores clocking up to 1.6GHz, while the GPU appears in the shape of a Mali-G57 MP1, so the new HMD is more than geared up for speed, connectivity, graphics and gameplay, so don’t expect to experience any lag no matter how brutal your standard smart day. This comes served in conjunction with 128GB of storage, expandable to 256GB with the addition of a MicroSD card, and an ample 6GB RAM (virtual RAM options: 4GB, 6GB, 8GB). All of which means that the Pulse Pro is certainly saying all the right things.
Screen-wise, the 6.5-and-a-bit inch IPS LCD HD+ HID features a 1612 x 720 resolution, with a 90Hz refresh rate and typical brightness of 480-nits, so images, whether static or whizzing around like a blue-bottomed wotnot, are sharp, detailed, bright and vibrant, while scrolling the screen is smooth.
When it comes to connectivity, the Pulse Pro can manage network speeds up to 4G and comes packing Bluetooth 5.0 and NFC too, to keep the contactless options open. So, no, no ultra-fast 5G for those with just no damn time to wait, but as 4G is fast enough for most, unless you’re planning on battering bandwidth, you’ll be both fine and dandy.
With a mighty 50MP camera both front and back, complete with 2MP Depth and 2MP Macro snappers round the rear, subject shots and selfies are stunningly sharp and detailed, while the slow-mo video mode is probably more fun than it should be.
Finally, we come to the battery, a capacious 5000mAh affair that can deliver up to 59 hours of power, features 20W fast charging, and is good for some 800 full charging cycles. What happens after 800? You simply order a replacement battery and change it yourself. Yep, the HMD Pulse Pro, unlike most others of its smart ilk, will keep going for as long as you do.
In all, then, handsome and power-packed, the shiny new Pulse Pro is a ‘budget’ smartphone that goes big on design, build quality, battery, and seamless performance; and for a mere £150 it bears the mark of an absolute bargain.
- Display: 6.56-inches, HD+ HID, 90Hz
- Resolution: 1612 x 720
- Operating system: Android 14
- CPU: Unisoc T606
- Max network speed: 4G
- Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, Wi-Fi
- Internal storage: 128GB (expandable to 256GB via MicroSD)
- RAM: 6GB
- Front camera: 50MP
- Rear camera: 50MP Main + 2MP Depth + 2MP Macro
- Dimensions: 163.19 x 75.02 x 8.55mm (HxWxD)
- Weight: 196g
- Colour options: Glacier Green, Twilight Purple, Black Ocean
Buy now £156.00, AO
Nokia 3210
Best for: Old school feature phone fun
A modern-day reimagining of an absolute classic that your parents may have mentioned in whispers steeped in wist, the original 3210 hit the cellphone (that’s what we used to call them, kids) world back in the late 90s and tore up the rulebook. Interchangeable covers made it a fashion must-have, an internal antenna made it a game-changer and something new called “predictive text” made using it amazing.
Now it’s back, bringing with it all the nostalgia and none of the internet nonsense. Yep, that’s right, weary doom-scroller, although it is 4G, what the 3210 provides is a seriously stripped-down version of the World Wide Web, looking more like an age-old WAP (Wireless Application Protocol, not the filth Cardi B went on about), making it basic, slow, difficult to navigate as there’s no touchscreen, and yes, what I’d call excitingly clunky. And that’s the point, take a break from all that information/disinformation overload and use your phone to talk, text and play some classic games that are the feature phone version of dancefloor bangers.
Adhering to the look of the original as much as possible, the 3210’s screen is a 2.4-inch QVGA, so nice and sharp, bright and detailed, the curvy lines of the body very reminiscent of the original, although the remorseless march of technology has reduced the weight considerably from 151g back in 1999 to a feather-light 88g today. But we’re not here to fat-shame old phones, as this lightening of the load, alongside the slim, diminutive design is a breath of fresh air in a world of weighty smartphones.
Featuring Bluetooth 5.0 to cover wireless connectivity, the 3210 comes with 128MB of storage (up to 32GB via MicroSD) and 64MB RAM, which should be more than sufficient to serve what this phone is intended for.
And what is it intended for? Well, with a tiny 2MP main camera, it’s intended to set you free from the ‘always connected’ curse of 21st-century life, as I may have mentioned, but also, small and light and armed with an array of features such as an alarm clock, audio player, radio player, ebook reader, photo and video viewer, and a gaggle of games, plus a battery that delivers up to 9.8-hours of talk time, it’s an ideal festival phone now that that season of merrymaking is almost upon us. Plus, should you lose it in the landslide of mud that generally accompanies such events, £75 is a cost far easier to swallow.
Available in suitable 90s-named colours of Y2K Gold, Grunge Black or, not strictly 90s relevant, Scuba Blue, the new 3210 is both a giddy meander down Mobile Memory Lane and an absolutely triumphant return.
- Display: 2.4-inches
- Resolution: QVGA
- Operating system: S30+
- CPU: Unisoc T107
- Max network speed: 4G
- Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0
- Internal storage: 128MB (expandable to 32GB via MicroSD)
- RAM: 64MB
- Front camera: n/a
- Rear camera: 2MP
- Dimensions: 122 x 52 x 13.14mm (HxWxD)
- Weight: 87.8g
- Colour options: Y2K Gold, Scuba Blue, Grunge Black
Buy now £49.99, Argos
Nokia 2660 Flip
Best for: A freedom-brining flipping good phone
It has been said that it’s important to take timeout for a digital detox every so often. While I don’t dispute or doubt that, I don’t believe it helps to go completely cold turkey, so while killing the social feeds for a bit is a ‘thing’, the capability to make and take calls and texts, enjoy some stress-free sounds and, erm, see in the dark are all important aspects to the day-to-day.
Which brings me to this: the Nokia 2660 Flip, a folding feature phone that does all of the above… and, happily, very little else.
Firstly, some specs. Weighing just 123g, the 2660 has a 2.8-inch QVGA display and a 1.77-inch QQVGA secondary display on the outside to keep you abreast of all the stuff that’s not happening to you, the Flip features a Unisoc T107 processor, which does an excellent job keeping all the low-key features, such as the voice recorder, converter, torch, calculator, seven onboard games, and assembled multimedia all in check and running smoothly.
With Bluetooth 4.2 and network compatibility up to 4G, and a single 0.3MP camera, the Flip does, well, what the Flip does, which is keep you connected to the world while freeing you from the mind-clutter of the online circus.
Design-wise, the 2660 is pleasingly chunky, so fits the hand well, opens with ease and is imbued with large, well-spaced buttons, making it an ideal first phone for kids, as it allows them to keep in contact but safe from all the weirdos lurking on the web, and also for the elderly… for much the same reasons.
Available in Pop Pink, Lush Green, Red, Blue or Black, the 2660 Flip is a slice of basic brilliance that harks back to a simpler time when phones were phones and the internet was something that you left behind when you left the house.
- Display: 2.8-inches
- Resolution: QVGA
- Secondary display: 1.77-inch QQVGA
- Operating system: S30+
- CPU: Unisoc T107
- Max network speed: GSM/3G/4G
- Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.2
- Internal storage: 128MB (expandable to 32GB via MicroSD)
- RAM: 48MB
- Front camera: n/a
- Rear camera: 0.3MP
- Dimensions: 108 x 55 x 18.9mm (HxWxD)
- Weight: 123g
- Colour options: Lush Green, Red, Blue, Black, Pop Pink
Buy now £65.00, Amazon
Nokia G42
Best for: Budget 5G and swift phone fixes
Two things that you don’t see together very often: 5G phones and self-fixability. Indeed, you’d almost imagine smart mobile manufacturers wanted to have you paying extra to replace smashed screens and burnt-out batteries, either through expensive official channels or chancing it with that bloke with the place just off the High Street called ‘Fone Doktor’. However, not HMD with the Nokia G42, an affordable smartphone with QuickFix repairability.
What’s QuickFit? Imagine you’ve managed to fumble your phone down hard onto the deck, causing massive trauma. No problem! Simply contact iFixit for Nokia phone replacement parts, and they will supply you with the bits, the tools and easy-to-follow instructions to get the job done yourself.
So, yes, fixable by your own fair hand, the G42 also comes harnessing the speed of 5G, runs on Android 13, and has the performance powerhouse that is the Snapdragon 480 + 5G platform consisting of eight cores in two clusters, a performance cluster with two ARM Cortex A76 cores clocking up to 2.2GHz and an efficiency cluster with six small ARM Cortex A55 cores clocking up to 1.8 GHz, at its heart, making the whole smart shebang seriously speedy.
With Wi-Fi 6 connectivity, Bluetooth 5.1 and NFC seeing to the wireless side of things with seamlessly smooth aplomb, there is also an 8MP front camera and 50MP rear with 2MP Depth and 2MP Macro lenses to give all the essential photo and video power you need to record your time in this world in glorious, vivid detail.
A 6.56-inch HD+ touchscreen display with 1612 x 720 resolution and 90Hz refresh rate, keeps things popping up front, while colour options currently include So Peach, So Grey and So Purple, so there.
Currently reduced on the HMD site from £170 to just £99, the G42 could well be the 5G smartphone bargain of the year, and with the self-fix thing, for many years to come too.
- Display: 6.56-inches, HD+, 90Hz
- Resolution: 1612 x 720
- Operating system: Android 13
- CPU: Snapdragon 480 + 5G
- Max network speed: 5G
- Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.1, Wi-Fi, NFC
- Internal storage: 128GB (expandable to 1TB via MicroSD)
- RAM: 4GB
- Front camera: 8MP
- Rear camera: 50MP Main, 2MP Depth and 2MP Macro
- Dimensions: 165 x 75.8 x 8.55mm
- Weight: 194g
- Colour options: So Peach, So Grey, So Purple
Buy now £170.66, Amazon
Nokia 235 4G
Best for: Tween talking
A nifty little Nokia feature phone that strips things back to the bare necessities, the 235 is small, light, cheap and brilliant at being basic, so whether you’re on a digital detox or looking for a reliable phone for the kids or the oldies that benefit from only basic internet browsing, look no further.
With a 2.8-inch QVGA non-touchscreen display, the 235 runs on Nokia’s Series OS and manages a maximum 4G network speed, so while internet access may be much less of a consideration, calling and texting are very much the order of the day.
A simply flat bar of a phone, the 235 is easy to operate even for fumbling thumbs, while internal storage is 128MB, mercifully expandable to 32GB with a MicroSD card, so if you’re prone to going snap-happy, then you’ll need that additional card to cope with all the, ahem, 2MP images the 235 can capture.
Other features include an MP3 player, FM radio, and all the usual calculator and converter apps that occasionally crop up as useful, plus an array of games including Snake, of course, and, well, that’s about it.
Everything you could want from a basic blower, without the fear of getting in trouble online or being troubled by anything or anyone online, the Nokia 235 comes in Blue, Black or Purple, for a whole Lady Godiva under £70.
- Display: 2.8-inch
- Resolution: QVGA
- Operating system: S30+
- CPU: Unisoc T107
- Max network speed: 4G
- Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0
- Internal storage: 128MB (expandable to 32GB via MicroSD)
- RAM: 64GB
- Front camera: n/a
- Rear camera: 2MP
- Dimensions: 127.2 x 54.2 x 11.6mm (HxWxD)
- Weight: 108g
- Colour options: Blue, Black, Purple
Buy now £57.30, Amazon
