HMD Fusion: A budget repairable smartphone with modular flair

Review HMD's Fusion smartphone has a pogo-pin port on the back, allowing some nifty peripherals, including gaming controls, and its specs are open.

The HMD Fusion is a budget smartphone with a couple of appealing twists. The first is that the device is modular and repairable – iFixit already has guides on how to swap its battery and screen, among other things. HMD promises two years of Android updates and three years of security updates, which is slightly underwhelming, but still better than what the real bargain-basement kit offers.

The second is that at bottom center on the back is an inconspicuous row of six recessed contacts, which form an expansion connector for cases with added functionality. So far, HMD offers four "outfits" itself. One is a simple translucent plastic case, which comes in the box. The rugged outfit upgrades the handset's modest IP54 splash resistance to IP68 water and dust resistance, and adds a push-to-talk button. It's matte black and costs £69.99 ($89.99). Two more business-oriented outfits come from partner Coppernic: a barcode reader, and a contactless card reader.

Perhaps the most impressive of HMD's own add-ons is the gaming outfit, a £59.99 ($79.99) addition that turns the Fusion into a handheld console. It adds two joysticks, a D-pad, and eight control buttons, including A/B/X/Y, two shoulder buttons, and two trigger buttons. It also has its own audio socket for playing with headphones on. This grumpy old vulture is not a gamer, but the gadget sounds pretty good. The slightly odd aspect is that the Fusion is not a gaming handset. For that, we'd expect a much faster device with a higher-res display – and probably about four times the price.

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