I’ve essentially been online on mobile since the old days of GPRS gave us a stunning 50kbps internet speeds, so using a feature phone for a couple of days was daunting, but I took one for the team to check out the recently announced HMD 110 – and it was actually pretty good. 

Priced at just $79, the HMD 110 is what it is. It’s a feature phone that makes calls, sends texts and has a camera on-board. It has some ‘apps’ to help or entertain you, but apart from that, it’s a budget priced phone.

I gave it 24 hours to use the HMD 110, just to see how it went. 

Hardware

Design

The HMD 110 has a funky look thanks to the Blue and Titanium colour schemes. While the Titanium (Black) seems a little plain, the Blue which HMD sent over for review is more purple in the light, and has a sparkly, lustrous sheen which almost has a colour shift, along with a very subtle texture to the finish which has a pleasant feel in the hand. .

The plastic back panel is easily removable which reveals the removable battery, as well as giving you access to the dual SIM trays and the microSD card slot. 

While it is a plastic rear, the phone is actually fairly durable with an IP54 dust/water resistance – so while you won’t be swimming with it, you can be pretty confident a drop of water isn’t going to kill it. 

The rear panel has a circular opening for the camera – which we’ll discuss in a minute – and the whole phone is lightweight, weighing just 93.5 grams, and while a bit of thickness to it, it still slips easily into your pocket or the glovebox.

The front of the phone includes the 2.4 inch QVGA (320×240) resolution colour display display, which is decently bright enough to see in most lighting conditions.

The display sits above the keypad, which includes left and right selectors, a 5-way D-Pad, as well as call and power buttons above a number pad. 

The old T9 key layout is a little jarring to use after all these years, but the muscle memory returns fast and I was texting quickly within minutes of firing up the phone. 

Battery and Charging

The HMD 110 includes a 1450 mAh Removable battery, with no charger included in the box – though you do get a cable to charge the phone through the USB-C port on the base.

In terms of battery life, the HMD 110 is hard to gauge. As it’s not a smartphone, I had to dual-carry so I wouldn’t miss any emails or messages from family. 

In terms of me using it, it lasted the 24 hours I tested it with barely a dent in the battery indicator. I had to leave it on, playing Snake and more occasionally just to get it flat enough to find out how long it took to charge, so it has great standby time.

Charging was decent, but it was a full 3 hours using the supplied cable connected to a USB port to charge. 

Performance and Connectivity

The phone is powered by a Unisoc T127 processor with 128MB (yes, Megabytes) of RAM and 64GB of on-board storage which you can expand with a microSD card. 

Performance wise, it works. It’s a little slow to switch apps, but it’s a feature phone and that’s not really what it’s designed for. It’s reliable and loads all the apps on the phone easily.

The phone is 4G compatible, so you can use any of the networks with confidence with support for all our Telcos and the 4G bands. 

There’s only Bluetooth on-board, so you can’t just connect to WiFi to use the browser or Facebook, so you’ll need to rely on your mobile data connection which can get a little expensive if you want to surf a lot.

Camera

There’s a QVGA resolution camera on the back of the phone with an LED flash. 

The camera quality is….fairly average, with the shots looking ok on the phone display, but really don’t look great when shown on a larger display – which with a 320×240 resolution – that’s just about every display. The other issue is that it appears to have the focal length of a Mack truck, so you need to move back a bit to ensure your subject is in frame.

You can record video as well as take photos, though the videos are possibly worse than the still shots. 

There’s a few camera options, including filters you can apply, Green, Blue, Yellow, Negative or Black and White, and you can even set a burst mode to capture action – though this did not work out well, resulting in just blurs.

Software

The HMD 110 runs the S30+​ OS, a holdover from Nokia feature phones. As far as ‘apps’ go, there’s not a lot here, but thanks to HMD Global’s previous Nokia affiliation there’s Snake on-board which gives you hours of nostalgic fun. 

You do get apps, a browser, Gallery app and FM Radio – which really needs a headset plugged into the Headphone jack on the base to get any decent reception – as well as utilities like video and audio players, Files app, Clock for alarms and even Facebook, which is a real trip to try and scroll your feed on a 2.4” display.


There’s also a bunch of ‘Extras’ like a recorder, torch, Unit Conversion, Calculator and Calendar – though you can’t associate your online Google, Outlook or any other calendars, simply add new events. There’s also a World Clock and Timer, which are separate to the main Alarm app found on the main app page.

As well as Snake there’s also a few other games pre-installed: Arrow Master, Racing Attack, Ninja Up, Doodle Jump, Air Strike and Football Cup. These are premium games, and are trial only, offering between 3-5 free plays before you need to buy them. There doesn’t seem to be a way to uninstall them, so they’re just there and with limited options 

The limited input options are still great for navigating around the OS, and you’ll be scrolling through easily in no time.

The Settings offer a few options including changing ringtone, and there’s options for people with low vision, increasing text size, or changing the icon size in the app drawer. You can’t change the background, but you can add in a custom startup label, which could include contact info if you want.

Final Thoughts

The HMD 110 is a great little feature phone that does what it says, and really doesn’t do much else. It’s there to make phone calls, receive texts and anything else is a bonus. 

The performance is good enough, and it makes phone calls, and sends text messages really well. The camera, apps and everything else is fairly rudimentary and are there more as a bonus than a core feature.

At $79 you’re not going to be breaking the bank to buy it and if you’re looking for something to throw in a glove box for emergencies, or just need the basics, then this is the phone for you. 

If you want to pick up a HMD 110, they’re available now at JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman and Officeworks for A$79.