TL;DR
- HMD has announced the Skyline smartphone, and it’s the first Android phone with Qi2 wireless charging.
- The Skyline also offers an apparently replaceable battery, a 144Hz OLED screen, and a flexible rear camera system.
- The phone costs £399.99 (~$520) in the UK, but there’s no word on US pricing yet.
We’ve seen loads of HMD Skyline leaks over the last few months, suggesting a smartphone with a design vaguely reminiscent of classic Lumia phones. Now, the Finnish brand has fully revealed the new Android phone.
Perhaps the most notable thing about the HMD Skyline is that it seems to be the first Android phone with Qi2 wireless charging support. This standard allows for magnetic wireless charging much like Apple’s MagSafe charging feature, enabling faster, more efficient, and cooler wireless charging. More specifically, the new phone supports 15W wireless charging, along with 5W reverse wireless charging.
Don’t care about wireless charging? You can also opt to charge the 4,600mAh battery via 33W wired charging. Furthermore, HMD says the battery is replaceable, with a promotional video suggesting that the rear cover pops off with the aid of something resembling a SIM tray eject tool.
The phone also stands out thanks to its hardware design, featuring a square-cut body and rounded bezel corners that bring to mind phones like the Nokia Lumia 920. The company adds that the device is designed to be repairable, thanks to a partnership with iFixit. One other notable hardware addition is a remappable button on the left-hand side, allowing you to launch apps and more with a double-tap or press-and-hold.
HMD Skyline: Duking it out with Pixel 8a?
The rest of the HMD Skyline spec sheet reveals an upper mid-range phone. There’s a 6.55-inch 144Hz OLED screen (FHD+, 1,000 nits peak brightness), a mid-tier Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 chipset, 8GB or 12GB of RAM, and 128GB or 256GB of storage. The phone brings a microSD card slot too, offering up to 512GB of extra space.
HMD’s new phone is also the most impressive camera phone the company has produced in a long time — on paper at least. That rear camera bump hosts a 108MP main camera with OIS, a 13MP ultrawide lens, and a 50MP 2x telephoto shooter (up to 4x). We’ve also got a 50MP selfie camera with autofocus and 4K support.
The HMD Skyline is equipped with a so-called “Balance Interface” skin atop Android 14. The company says this skin offers a Detox Mode that’s presumably a take on Digital Wellbeing and system sounds that are “more chill” (e.g. alarm sounds, ringtones, notification alerts). The former mode is listed as coming soon. Unfortunately, those expecting a great update policy will have to make do with two OS updates and three years of security patches. That’s a real shame when phones from Samsung and Google have five to seven years of updates.
Other notable features include Gorilla Glass 3 on the front (tempered glass on the back), Bluetooth 5.2, an IP54 rating, NFC, a side fingerprint scanner, and Wi-Fi 6E.
The HMD Skyline is currently listed on the company’s UK and US websites. The US website doesn’t list pricing, but the 8GB/128GB model is available for £399.99 in the UK, while the 12GB/256GB variant will set you back £499.99.
That makes the phone at least £100 cheaper than the Pixel 8a. HMD’s device brings advantages like Qi2 charging, faster wired charging, a bigger battery, a telephoto camera, and storage expansion. However, Google’s device offers great image processing, proper water resistance, a longer update policy, and a brighter screen. Either way, we’re glad to see HMD offering more than just low-end phones again.