The ever-evolving world of smartphones has again seen some excitement with HMD Global coming up with its latest device, the HMD Skyline. This high-end spec gizmo for the next generation, with sleek design, will surely turn the heads of tech enthusiasts and casual users alike. The in-depth review of the HMD Skyline is given below based on its specifications, features, and overall performance.

HMD Skyline Review: Design and Build Quality

    The HMD Skyline is sleekly designed in a contemporary way: its body features only premium materials, such as an aluminum frame with glass back. The phone will sport the following dimensions: 160.8 x 74.6 x 7.9 mm, while it weighs 179 grams and will be compact enough to handle comfortably.

    If compact and light is what you're after, then the HMD Skyline won't fit the bill. Weighing in at 210 grams, this is quite a thick phone-to say the least. It's roughly the size of an iPhone 15 Pro Max and certainly has some heft in a pocket. Its design does stand out, though, and will no doubt impress those who miss the classic Nokia Windows Phone days. Its striking Neon Pink hue makes it a statement device, symbolic of HMD's ambition to be definitely remembered with its first set of non-Nokia branded phones. Together with the Nothing Phone 2a Plus and the Realme 13 Pro Plus, this makes the Skyline one of the coolest, most-reasonably-priced handsets from 2024. The colors in which the HMD Skyline is available are Neon Pink and Twisted Black.

    I had a chance to review the Neon Pink variant, with its matching wallpaper and black-and-white icons.The bottom panel houses the tray containing the nano SIMs and microSD card, USB-C 2.0 port, and speaker grille. On the right, you will find a volume rocker and the power button, which doubles as a fingerprint sensor. 

HMD Skyline Review: Display

    The HMD Skyline comes with a 6.5-inch AMOLED display, bearing a resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels. Therefore, it sets up a pixel density of about 405 PPI, which means highly vibrant colors and sharp text. It supports HDR10 for an even more enhanced viewing experience with richer colors and better contrast. The display goes to a peak brightness of 800 nits, meaning it's pretty readable even in bright sunlight.

    This means the HMD Skyline has an IP54 rating, so it's protected against dust and water sprays from any direction. The front is covered by Corning Gorilla Glass 3. For context, the Motorola Edge has a higher IP68 rating, with the Pixel 8a close behind with its IP67 rating. While those two are capable of surviving short swims, the Skyline isn't rated for that.

    The brightness of the HMD Skyline is noteworthy given its mid-ranger positioning. My colorimeter recorded a peak brightness of 922 nits, which will make the screen very well readable in intense direct sunlight.

HMD Skyline Review: Performance

    The Skyline comes fitted with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 2 chipset at the back, which promises seamless performance for multitasking and heavy game playing. This particular octa-core chip further combines 8GB of RAM with 128GB of internal storage, expandable via a microSD card slot up to 1TB. All these elements lead to a gadget that is snappy when browsing, streaming, or even playing graphics-intensive games.

    Throttling and heat generation are indeed handled reasonably well, usually, by mid-tier performance phones. For my tests, thermal throttling on the HMD Skyline kicked in after just 13 minutes of intensive use, at which time-after 20 minutes-it maintained 91.7% of its peak. That is quite excellent for its class.

    In Geekbench 6-a benchmarking test that measures processors' performance and power-the HMD Skyline had scored 1,031 and 2,919 in single-core and multi-core tests, respectively, whereas Motorola Edge, touting the very same Snapdragon 7 Gen 2 processor, is standing close by with its scores of 1,018 and 2,934. The Pixel 8a equipped with Google's Tensor G3 chip beat them far and away at 1,545 and 4,208 scores.

HMD Skyline Review: Camera System

    The HMD Skyline features a triple-camera arrangement at the rear, where it can be noted that the 64 MP with f/1.8 aperture is used as the primary sensor; hence, producing high-resolution images along with excellent low-light shooting. There is also a 12 MP ultra-wide lens, which takes a 120-degree shot-to-shot view and enhances the photography for panoramic and group shots, plus a 5 MP macro for stunning close-up images.

    It has a 32 MP selfie camera at the front, which has an f/2.0 aperture to keep selfies sharp and vivid. The phone also has other features such as OIS in its camera system, night mode, and 4K video recording.

    Things are bad in the dark, too. Without manually switching on Night mode, images taken by the HMD Skyline come out very dark. Even with Night mode switched on, the image quality tends to suffer massively, looking more like a significantly lower resolution sensor than the 12MP on offer, let alone 108MP. That's extremely disappointing, considering the primary camera is supposed to boast OIS.

    Coming to video recording, some noticeable limitations can be found in the HMD Skyline; it only supports 4K videos at 30 frames per second, not even 60 frames per second, although it has given 60 frames per second at Full HD resolution. The proper stabilization is only available at 1080p.

HMD Skyline Review: Battery Life

    The HMD Skyline packs in a formidable 4,500 mAh battery, with support for up to 33W fast charging, making it easy and quick for users to get back onto their phone without being dormant for too long. Real-world use will see the battery last comfortably all day with moderate use, such as web browsing and social media, with video streaming.

    The HMD Skyline does support 33W fast wired charging, 15W wireless charging, and 5W reverse wireless charging, but there is no charging adapter in the box. For its part, the Moto Edge refills faster with 68W wired and 15W wireless, while the Pixel 8a boasts an 18W wired and 7.5W wireless charging combo. Wired, the Skyline needed 2 hours and 6 minutes charging to go from 0-100%, whereas the Moto Edge and Pixel 8a took 1 hour and 56 minutes and 1 hour and 50 minutes, respectively, at test. 

HMD Skyline Review: Software

    It runs, out of the box, Android 14 for a clean and intuitive user experience. HMD Global committed to timely software updates and security patches so users can have the latest features at their fingertips.

    Aside from the previously noted limitation of getting only two Android updates and three years of security updates for HMD Skyline, another shortcoming for the software support. An Android 14 version that's straightforward and minimalistic in design, with a clean but basic experience.

    It only offers two years of major software updates for the Skyline, and a scant three years of security updates- less than some competitors manage. But HMD argues that repairability trumps the need for extended software support. The company's reasoning is that it believes users' need to have their device affordably and easily repairable outweighs having updates five years down the road, as they are unlikely to keep the phone that long. Also, the Detox Mode-a feature touted as one of the key selling points for the Skyline, which lets users temporarily disable apps and services to avoid interruptions-isn't available. HMD wants to include it with a software update that's expected by the end of August 2024. 

HMD Skyline Review: Additional Features

    The HMD Skyline is 5G compatible and enables users to access internet through the mobile networks faster than the previous networks. There is an in-display fingerprint scanner that helps with unlocking the device securely and quickly and stereo speakers for enhancing media and gaming sound. It is also incorporated with a dust and water resistant feature of up to IP68 in order to provide a good build in any environment. Also, it supports Dual SIM facility and that means the user is able to handle two numbers at any single time.

    The HMD Skyline supports the latest Wi-Fi 6E standard, although for performance testing I used a Wi-Fi 6 router.Standing near to the router itself, the Skyline managed download speeds of an impressive 518Mbps and average upload at 22.6Mbps. For comparison, the same spot had the iPhone 14 Pro record 398Mbps downloads and 22.8Mbps uploads. But when I moved the Skyline to the edge of my Wi-Fi network, speeds plummeted way down to 8.23Mbps for downloads and 2.57Mbps for uploads, while the iPhone 14 managed much better at 47.3Mbps and 15.9Mbps respectively. The bass-heavy sound of tracks like "Silent Shout" by The Knife is relatively well-produced at the low end by the HMD Skyline. I could hear the bass line pretty clearly in opening sections and even felt slight vibrations toward the back of the phone.

    The speakers go loud enough to fill a small room, but if you want the best experience with audio, then it would be best to use wireless headphones connected via the phone's Bluetooth 5.2.Note that the Skyline doesn't have a 3.5mm headphone jack. 

Is The HMD Skyline Worth Buying in 2024 ?

    The HMD Skyline strikes a fine balance-it is a nicely designed smartphone coming with fairly good performance and a camera system with variable features, along with high-resolution display and robust battery life. Such a device will no doubt be the most competent challenger in the mid-to-high-end class of smartphones. It should thus be considered by power users and anyone searching for an overall decent device.