HMD has been producing smartphones and mobile phones under the Nokia brand for some time. But this time has passed and now the company has decided to abandon the legendary brand and produce smartphones under its own brand. HMD Skyline is one of the first such smartphones. And at first glance, you can see that HMD was still inspired by Nokia models. The smartphone has several interesting features besides the design. Let's talk about them in more detail.
HMD Skyline specifications
| Dimensions and weight | 159.8 x 76 x 8.9 mm210 grams |
| RAM and storage | 12 GB / 256 GB + microSD |
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 |
| Graphics processor | Adreno 710 |
| Wireless modules | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e (2,4 ГГц і 5 ГГц), Bluetooth 5.2, NFC |
| Display | 6.55-inch pOLEDResolution: 1080×2400 dots, 402 ppiUpdate frequency: 144 HzHDR10 |
| Main cameras | 108 megapixels wide-angle, 1/1.67", 0.64µm, ƒ/1.8, phase detection autofocus, optical stabilization;50 megapixel telephoto, 1/2.76", 0.64µm, ƒ/2, phase detection autofocus, 2x zoom;13 megapixel ultra-wide-angle, 1/3", 1.12µm, ƒ/2.5 |
| Front camera | 50 megapixels, ƒ/2.5, autofocus |
| Audio | Stereo speakers |
| Battery | 4600 mAh |
| Charging | Wired 33 W, wireless 15 W, reverse wireless charging |
| Connectors | USB Type-C 2.0 |
| Operating system | Android 14 |
| Recommended price | 22 999 UAH |
Package contents
The HMD Skyline comes in a relatively small pink box with the name and image of an equally pink smartphone. Unfortunately, the box contained a more traditional black version of the smartphone.
In addition to the HMD Skyline itself, the box contains a Type-C cable, a tray removal tool, and documentation. You will have to buy a power supply separately or use an old one.
Design and ergonomics
When you first see the HMD Skyline, you think of old Nokia models. Namely, Nokia N9 on MeeGo and Nokia Lumia 920 on Windows Phone. It's a kind of bar with sharp corners, flat bottom and top edges, and rounded sides. Of course, design is a very subjective thing, but HMD Skyline looks quite original and evokes certain nostalgic memories.
The protective glass of the display does not follow the shape of the case, but rather has rounded corners, which also refers to the aforementioned Nokia models. The smartphone screen is protected by Gorilla Glass 3. The bezels around the perimeter of the screen are relatively thin. The front camera is in the usual round hole in the middle of the top of the screen, and the earpiece speaker is above it.
The side frame is metal, matte black. The sides are rounded, which makes the smartphone feel good in the hand. On the right side are the volume and power buttons. The latter is flat and practically does not protrude beyond the surface of the frame. It has a built-in fingerprint scanner. The location of the buttons is quite convenient, but the power button is almost not felt due to its shape.
There is another button on the opposite side. It has a textured surface, which makes it feel good. It can be customized with additional shortcuts. By default, a long press will switch HMD Skyline to silent mode, and a double press will turn on the flashlight.
The top edge has only an additional microphone. At the bottom are the main speaker, microphone, tray, USB Type-C connector, and one T3 Torx screw used to tightly fix the back panel.
The tray is hybrid: it allows you to install two nano SIMs, or install a microSD memory card instead of the second one. At the same time, the smartphone will still be able to have 2 SIM cards thanks to eSIM support. It is quite unusual to see a microSD slot in a modern mid-range smartphone.
The back cover of the HMD Skyline is made of frosted glass, in our case black. It does not have any additional patterns or drawings. Just the HMD logo in the middle.
The rear camera is designed quite typically: in the form of a rather large glossy rectangle with rounded corners. It includes three modules and an LED flash. The camera unit, of course, protrudes slightly above the surface of the back cover, but not as much as in most modern smartphones.
HMD Skyline turned out to be quite large and heavy, given the not-so-large display diagonal. For some, this may be an important factor when choosing. But using a smartphone is quite convenient. There is protection against dust and splashes according to the IP54 standard. Yes, there are now more affordable models with a higher level of protection. But this is entirely justified, given one of the most interesting features of the smartphone: its high maintainability.
HMD claims that you can easily replace the display, back cover, battery, and charging port yourself. iFixit gave the HMD Skyline 9 out of 10 points for repairability. To access the main parts, you need to partially unscrew the aforementioned T3 Torx screw and use a thin card or a pry bar to remove the back cover. But replacement parts must be purchased either from HMD or from iFixit. In any case, this option is a good bonus: even in the service, replacing the main parts will take a minimum of time.
Display
The HMD Skyline uses a 6.55-inch pOLED display with a resolution of 2400x1080 and an aspect ratio of 20:9. The pixel density is about 402 ppi. It has a refresh rate of 144 Hz and supports HDR10. It is claimed that the peak local brightness in automatic mode is 1000 cd/m². There is support for Always on Display with the display of all the basic information (clock, date, notification icons, track in the player).
There is a basic set of options in the settings. You can choose between dark and light themes, night mode, font sizes, interface scale, Always on Display, color temperature adjustment, and refresh rate. There are 60, 120, 144 Hz modes available, as well as an adaptive mode, but when using it, the maximum frequency is limited to 120 Hz.
The screen has a quite pleasant picture with rich colors and maximum viewing angles. At certain angles, the white color slightly takes on a greenish tint, which is a specific feature of variations on the theme of OLED screens. The screen is not a record holder in terms of brightness, but its level is sufficient for comfortable use even in bright sunlight.
The maximum brightness in manual mode was 460,636 cd/m², which is really not much for a modern smartphone. The color gamut is quite expectedly wider than sRGB. There is a slight deviation towards cooler shades. Which can be adjusted in the color temperature settings if desired.
Security
Unlike most modern mid-range smartphones with OLED displays, the HMD Skyline does not have an in-screen fingerprint scanner. This is probably due to the modular design to facilitate repairs. Instead, we have a classic capacitive scanner in the power button. There are no problems with it: it works very quickly and accurately, without errors.
The owner's face recognition function is also provided. It traditionally uses only the front camera without additional sensors. Therefore, the level of security is lower than that of a fingerprint scanner. Works well in good lighting conditions.
Performance and software
The HMD Skyline is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 processor, which is manufactured on a 4nm process technology. In terms of performance, this processor is between the mid-range and budget segment. It has 4 ARM Cortex-A78 cores with a frequency of 2.4 GHz and 4 Cortex-A55 cores with a frequency of 1.95 GHz. The Adreno 710 accelerator is responsible for graphics. The amount of RAM is 12 GB, and there is a function to expand it using the storage, so it can be increased by another 12 GB. The internal storage itself has a capacity of 256 GB, but it uses a rather slow UFS 2.1 memory. As mentioned earlier, there is a microSD card slot.
In synthetic tests, the smartphone expectedly demonstrates low performance, which corresponds to the mid-budget segment. But in everyday use, no problems arise: the interface works smoothly, applications launch quickly and work stably.
Stability is also quite good. At 15 minutes of maximum load in the CPU Throttling Test, the processor performance drops to 91%, which is a good indicator.
Relatively modern games run well on a smartphone. Call of Duty Mobile on high settings runs at a stable 60 FPS. In Diablo Immortal and XCOM2, the frequency is limited to 30 frames per second. And they hold steady, with no noticeable dropouts or staters.
HMD Skyline has a completely standard set of modern wireless interfaces: dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e, Bluetooth 5.2 with support for SBC, AAC, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive codecs, and an NFC module. GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, and BDS are used for positioning.
HMD Skyline will delight fans of pure Android without shells. The smartphone runs on Android 14. But they promise only 2 major OS updates and 3 years of security updates. Samsung, Motorola, not to mention Google, offer longer support for their devices. The interface of Android 14 is absolutely standard: desktops, a separate list of all applications, widgets, two navigation options (buttons, gestures), customization (themes, color schemes, icons), and a curtain with large buttons.
Among the less familiar features, it's worth mentioning the customization of actions for the additional button and double-clicking the power button.
HMD has installed a theme with monochrome icons and a couple of applications. My Device with information and device diagnostics. Digital Detox - the ability to turn off notifications and certain applications for a while to take a break from your smartphone. And the mysterious Kindred - for shopping and tracking discounts.
Sound
Stereo sound in HMD Skyline is implemented as standard for the vast majority of modern smartphones. The main speaker is on the bottom edge and the earpiece speaker is the second channel. The speakers are well balanced, but the difference is still a little noticeable. The sound quality is very good, with some low frequencies.
The volume margin is good. It will be hard to miss a call, and it's enough to watch a video. But the smartphone also has a high volume mode, which is activated by pressing the corresponding button when the volume is already at maximum. The smartphone becomes very loud indeed, but the sound quality is very noticeably reduced.
Cameras
HMD Skyline is equipped with a triple rear camera. The main one has a resolution of 108 megapixels. It uses a 1/1.67" sensor with a pixel size of 0.64µm, the optics have an aperture of ƒ/1.8 and optical stabilization. There is phase detection autofocus. The maximum video resolution is 4K, 30 frames per second, which applies to all three cameras. The telephoto camera has a sensor with a resolution of 50 megapixels, 1/2.76", 0.64µm, ƒ/2, phase detection autofocus and 2x zoom. Ultra-wide-anglecamera - 13 megapixels, 1/3", 1.12µm, ƒ/2.5 aperture. Without autofocus. The front camera is 50 megapixels, ƒ/2.5 with autofocus.
The camera interface is no different from most modern Android smartphones, so you won't have any problems using it.
The main camera produces high-quality photos in sufficient light. With relatively correct white balance and good detail. Shadows are handled well, there are almost no areas that are too bright. At night, the detail drops a bit, as does the color accuracy. But the result is quite pleasant:
The ultra-wide-angle loses a little in terms of dynamic range, but the relative naturalness of colors and detail are very good in case of sufficient lighting. In the evening, noise and blurring around the perimeter of the frame are already slightly noticeable:
The telephoto camera has a 2x zoom, the photos are mostly of good quality, but sometimes a little overexposed. The camera also copes well with night photography. Although sometimes the photos are not quite clear:
HMD Skyline also has a digital zoom of 3x and 4x. During the day, the photos are of high quality, at night there is occasional noticeable blurring and a slightly strange white balance at 3x:
4x zoom:
HMD Skyline does not shoot video in the best way. The detail and white balance are good, but the stabilizer works poorly. The video twitches and there is a noticeable jelly effect. 4K 30 FPS on the main camera:
4K 30 FPS video on an ultra-wide-angle camera:
4K 30 FPS video with 2x zoom:
Battery life
HMD Skyline is equipped with a 4600 mAh battery. Most smartphones of this class have batteries with a capacity of 5000 mAh or more, although the difference is not very significant. Even with a fairly energy-efficient processor, the battery life turned out to be rather mediocre. With active use (calls, social networks, instant messengers, mail, browser, camera, music, YouTube), the smartphone works until late at night. This is quite acceptable, but there are competitors that live longer.
The smartphone supports 33W charging, Power Delivery 3.0 PPS, Quick Charge 4 standards. It also supports 15W wireless charging and reverse wireless charging. I didn't have a Power Delivery power supply at hand, and the smartphone took about an hour and a half to charge from a third-party power supply.