HMD announced four new phones during MWC, including under its name. Which ones exactly, what they look like, and what they will be called, we do not yet know. The phones will not be finally unveiled until the summer of 2024. At least one will revolve around the character Barbie, Mattel's doll.
HMD is the first in hopefully a long list of announcements surrounding this year's Mobile World Congress, which is again taking place in Barcelona. You may know the company as the maker of Nokia phones, but it plans to release phones under its own name as well.
HMD only shared the above heavily camouflaged image. The one on the left is the Barbie phone. HMD partnered with Mattel, the creator and maker of the famous doll, for this.
Barbie Phone
The Barbie phone will be designed as a Flip Phone and is very reminiscent of the existing pink Nokia 2660 Flip. Don't expect a high-end device; according to HMD, the Barbie phone is ideal for digital detox.
The yellow phone will be a remake of the well-known Nokia, possibly the 8110 4G, also known as the "Banana Phone." The other two phones may come out under the HMD name, making them the first so-called HMD originals.
Self screen replacement
For the rightmost phone, it will be straightforward to replace the screen yourself. Whether other parts of the device can be repaired as well, as is the case with Fairphones, for example, should become apparent this summer when more is revealed.
HMD Fusion
HMD also thought about what the further future should bring. It wants to enable anyone to make phones in any form. To this end, HMD released a development toolkit. The beating heart is the HMD Fusion computing core. Others can then create "smart outfits" that make up the outside of the device.
An intelligent outfit could be a traditionally designed phone, a barcode scanner, and everything in between. Hardware is connected by bright "pogo pins" and runs Android 14, reminiscent of Project Ara. This also allowed users to assemble phones modularly, but ultimately foundered in the design phase.
