As the manufacturer behind the Nokia line of phones for the past eight years, HMD are a well respected name in mobile. They announced they would begin producing their own devices in May and I grabbed a review unit to check it out. 

The HMD Pulse Pro sells for $299 through JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman, Officeworks and Big W, with the phone sharing the same design as the Pulse+ and Pulse in an array of ‘calm’ colour choices.

HMD have included a large 6.56-inch display in the HMD Pulse Pro, with an octa-core Unisoc processor, 6GB of RAM (with an optional RAM boost) and 128GB of on-board storage, with a microSD card expansion slot available.

A big 5,000mAh battery has been packed into the body, which includes an IP52 rating against water and dust, and there’s 50MP cameras on the front and rear. 

Overall, for their first phone, it looks like HMD has packed a lot of hardware into their $299 phone. I’ve spent a few weeks with the HMD Pulse Pro and here’s how it went. 

Hardware 

Design

While a key selling point of the new HMD phones is repairability, you wouldn’t know it from looking at the design. It’s sleek, with a glossy rear panel that looks fantastic – but is a fingerprint magnet, so be prepared to wipe it down regularly.

The phone comes in three colours: Glacier Green, Twilight Purple or Black Ocean. HMD sent over the Glacier Green and it’s just gorgeous, but if you like a little more traditional colour choices, the Black Ocean looks to be just right.

The HMD Pulse line is repairable though, making it an option for those wanting their device to last. HMD have selected the three most common components – Display, battery and Charging port – to be available for repair, then partnered with iFixit to cover the logistics of supplying easy to follow guides and authorised spare parts for the phone.

The overall design of the phone itself isn’t new, with the flat rear back housing a small camera island, while on the front you get the big display that includes a camera. The big display is in 20:9 aspect ratio which makes for a taller phone that can be a little tall to use one-handed if you have small hands.

There’s a volume rocker and fingerprint sensor enabled power button on the left and a SIM tray with microSD card expansion on the right. The base includes a USB Type-C port for charging and data transfer – though at USB 2.0 speeds it’s quite slow, as well as downward firing mono speaker, and headphone jack. 

Display and Audio

HMD have opted to use a 720p resolution IPS LCD panel for the 6.56-inch display on the HMD Pulse Pro to keep the costs down. 

It’s still a nice big and bright display for daily use with the peak brightness of 600 nits able to make the screen easy to read even in full daylight. 

There’s a 90Hz refresh rate which makes for some smooth scrolling when you’re in games, or even just navigating around the system. The usual caveats surrounding higher refresh rates affecting battery life, however in my testing I found this wasn’t a huge impact at all. 

The lower resolution IPS panel is something to consider when comparing against the competition. Devices such as the Moto G84 and Samsung Galaxy A15 which are priced the same, yet include a higher resolution panel, as well as utilising AMOLED/pOLED tech for deeper blacks and more vibrant colours.

It’s a decent display, just one you can find beaten when you look around at the competition.

Audiophiles will be disappointed with the HMD Pulse Pro with only a single, downward firing Mono speaker on the base of the phone. It’s always disappointing when companies won’t pair the earpiece as a second speaker, but here we are.

HMD do include a 3.5mm audio jack on the bottom of the phone which is better than any in-built speakers you’ll find. 

Performance and Connectivity

Powered by an octa-core Unisoc T606 processor with 6GB of RAM and  128GB of storage, the HMD Pulse Pro isn’t running the highest end processor, but it does the job. 

Just as the HMD Pulse Pro is repairable on the hardware front, you can also configure the device…to an extent. 

HMD has included a virtual RAM boost that can boost RAM to either 4GB or 6GB, essentially converting your on-board storage to RAM. The concept has been used for years on various systems, and it works here smoothing out a few bumps, however you do still find yourself waiting a lot when using the phone. You can also improve the storage by using a microSD card to expand the on-board storage.

As far as performance goes, I highly recommend setting up the RAM boost ASAP. While the UNISOC T606 processor does ok, it’s certainly not a high performance processor ready to take on Qualcomm head-on. 

What the Unisoc T606 processor can do though, is chug along nicely just doing the work. You’ll spend a little time waiting when loading apps or games, but overall it’s a decently running system.

As usual, I ran the phone through the usual Geekbench and 3DMark benchmarks and here’s how they went.

For connectivity, HMD have utilised a numbr of older connection standards including Bluetooth 5.0 and Wifi 802.11 AC. You also only get 4G connectivity, with the Unisoc processor not able to use a 5G Modem. 

Camera

On the camera front, you get three cameras – two on the rear and a single selfie camera embedded in the display. 

The rear camera setup consists of a combination of a 50MP main sensor and 2MP depth sensor, for portrait photos with blurred background (bokeh) effect. The phone also includes a  50MP front-facing camera for selfies. 

Like many manufacturers, you don’t get a full 50MP shot out of the camera by default – though you can with Pro settings. Instead you’ll get a stacked image around 12MP in size which are both more manageable and shareable. 

LIke the rest of the phone, the HMD Pulse Pro has been built with goals in mind. The camera isn’t the greatest, but with enough time to frame and capture a shot, it’s not bad. 

The night time shots could be better, and computational photography algorithms to improve the shots would be a huge bonus here, but I won’t hold my breath for updates here. They’re decent, but could be better.

Charging and Battery

HMD have included a giant 5,000mAh battery in the Pulse Pro, and while the phone supports ‘fast’ charging, it’s not the fastest at a mere 20W. HMD, much like most manufacturers these days, also don’t supply a charger in the box, just a USB-C cable to plug into your existing PC or charging brick.

Charging times on the HMD Pulse Pro are also not particularly fast, with the phone able to get to 35% in half an hour, but takes almost two and a half hours to charge to 100% full.

HMD Pulse Pro charging times:

  • 5 Minutes: 2%
  • 15 Minutes: 14%
  • 30 Minutes: 35%
  • 60 Minutes: 74%
  • 90 Minutes: 93%
  • 120 Minutes: 99%
  • 135 Minutes: 99%
  • 142 Minutes: 100%

The HMD Pulse Pro, once charged, will easily get you through a full day on a single charge, and I was often into a second day before I needed to charge. Given the slow charging speeds though, I do recommend charging overnight. 

Software 

HMD have continued their love affair with almost stock Android, delivering a clean Android 14 build with only a few minor cosmetic changes. 

The phone runs the October 2023 security patch out of the box, but is expected to receive three years of quarterly updates. Just prior to publishing, I received the latest Over-The-Air (OTA) update, bringing the phone to June 2024.

While the phone launches with Android 14, just months before Android 15 is released, HMD has advised the Pulse Pro will receive two OS updates – a far cry short of the software promise from Samsung and Google who have both committed to 7 years of updates on even their ‘budget’ devices.  

The build of Android is clean on the HMD Pulse Pro – except for one annoying feature: The black and white icons. HMD have coded nifty black and white icons for the phone, however this falls apart and leaves it looking a mess as soon as you run into an app which has no custom icon. 

While the prospect of producing icons for every conceivable app is hard, HMD failed to even provide a black and white icon for default apps pre-installed on the phone such as Booking.com, Amazon and Kindred – a decidedly odd choice. 

Overall though, the software load on the HMD Pulse Pro is fairly small and makes for a smoother running device. 

Should you buy it?

As a phone maker, HMD knows what they’re doing, and while the Pulse Pro is underpowered for the most part, it still looks great and has the focus on repairability, which extends the life of the phone. 

The performance is definitely in need of improvement, and I’d love to see some improved post-processing on pictures captured – but overall, I like the concept of the HMD Pulse Pro. 

HMD has the potential to bring a lot to the mobile range, with the skills and knowhow to get it right. The Pulse Pro isn’t going to set the world alight, but it’s ticking a few boxes, and with enough boxes ticked, there’s definitely a future for HMD in the Australian mobile market.

If you want to check it out, the HMD Pulse Pro is on-sale now from JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman, Officeworks and Big W.