No, you’re not mistaken. The HMD Skyline really does look a lot like the old Nokia Lumia 920, particularly from the front. From the squared-off corners to the way the screen sits in the frame rather than blending into it, HMD has absolutely channeled one of the best-looking smartphones ever made for the latest in its new smartphone range.
However, there’s no hint of a Microsoft Windows Phone revival to go along with the Lumia-like looks, as the Skyline runs Android 14 (not an RB26DETT, as I usually want to see powering a Skyline), and the big new feature isn’t so much its camera but something called Detox Mode. It’s the latest in HMD’s efforts to curb your phone use, and it lets you add apps and even people to a Hard Lock silent list so you’re not interrupted by anything at all for a set duration of time or until you reboot the phone.
Detox Mode can be manually activated or scheduled to activate at certain times. Plus, there is a widget for direct control from the home screen. It will be made available on the Skyline in a software update in August and will likely be a part of future HMD smartphones. The other major feature of the Skyline is its repairability, which HMD has prioritized over a long software update period, claiming more people want cheap and easy repairs than software updates that run for multiple years or longer than they will realistically keep the phone. The Skyline has two years of major updates and three years of security updates.
You don’t need to be a DIY wizard either, as HMD has refined the repairability even further than its first generation of phones. All it takes is a spudger, a small screwdriver, and less than 10 minutes to be able to replace a broken screen or a dead battery. Replacement parts will also be available from iFixit over the next five years. Repairing the phone yourself doesn’t invalidate the warranty, and the clever construction means the phone will even retain its IP54 water and dust resistance rating.
The Skyline’s camera array is led by a 108-megapixel camera on the back, with a 50MP telephoto for a 4x optical zoom, plus a 13MP wide-angle camera. On the front is a 50MP camera complete with eye-tracking and 4K video recording, plus gesture recognition, so you don’t have to tap the screen to take a photo. There’s a dedicated camera button on the aluminum frame, and its functionality can be customized, too. Other features include a 6.55-inch pOLED screen with a 144Hz refresh rate, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7S Gen 2 processor, and a 4,600mAh battery.
The HMD Skyline is available now in two colors — Twisted Black and Neon Pink — with a choice of either an 8GB RAM/128GB storage version for 399 British pounds or around $518, or 499 pounds/$648 for the 12GB RAM/256GB storage model. A U.S. release date is unknown at the moment, but should it get a release, it’ll start at $499.
