HMD Skyline MORE PICTURES

HMD Skyline

User opinions and reviews

Sort by:

  • M
  • Minu
  • ter
  • 15 Mar 2025

rohitmishra, 15 Mar 2025I didn't get the option to select Facebook or any othe... moreYour earlier phones came with older Android versions below Android 14.
HMD and Sharp are the existing brands using AOSP, so it's typical Google behaviour to force a set of pre-installed third-party apps on phones pre-installed with Android 13 or higher, that includes, but not limited to Facebook, LinkedIn, GoPro, Kindred and Netflix.

Those were recommended via the Google Play store's push notifications, so I had to disable the "app recommendations" notification channel on my parents' Nokia C32 phones, running Android 13 at the time. Fortunately enough, you can disable Google apps and use the "uninstall updates" button to get rid of them. After doing so, only the icon and its thumbnail data remain (between 4kb to 16kb). If anything, you can use ADB for further bloatware removal.

    Minu, 15 Mar 2025One thing you didn't mention: third party applications... moreI didn't get the option to select Facebook or any other app during the initial setup. Maybe it's a regional thing, not sure. There were fb, LinkedIn, kindred and some usual Google apps that were pre-installed. Thankfully, all three got uninstalled.

    I won't say it's not HMD's fault completely, because as far as I remember, my Moto G32 didn't come with FB and surely didn't come with LinkedIn pre-installed. Not did my Pixel 3a earlier. Also, FB is present on HMD's feature phones, which is the biggest hypocrisy I've seen on their part.

    Right now, on my Skyline, I have Android Auto, Google Calendar, Chrome, Google, Google TV, Keep, Meet, Personal Safety, YT, and YT Music. I don't use any of these and can't uninstall them. This is obviously Google's cunning, but stupid, tactic. I mean they won't make me use their apps by just having them installed. It just eats up space and irritates me 😅

    At least HMD doesn't run on OneUI. That's top-tier hell in terms of nonsensical apps that you can't remove. 🤮

      • M
      • Minu
      • ter
      • 15 Mar 2025

      rohitmishra, 13 Mar 2025** After six months of usage ** Pros: - Nice build qu... moreOne thing you didn't mention: third party applications such as Facebook can be deselected during setup. It also can be completely uninstalled due to being part of Google Play's suggested and recommended apps. It's not HMD's fault, but Google's instead.

        • M
        • Minu
        • ter
        • 15 Mar 2025

        Dave B., 11 Mar 2025Planning to get the Skyline. Does this phone strain the eye... moreGiven that it's an AMOLED phone, it isn't PWM-free, but has a higher PWM frequency due to using a LG AMOLED.

          • ?
          • Anonymous
          • XWj
          • 13 Mar 2025

          Looks amazing especially on that pink color

            ** After six months of usage **

            Pros:

            - Nice build quality. Feels sturdy in hand.
            - Smooth UI, thanks to high refresh rate
            - Decent cameras and audio
            - Kind of new design, even though the back looks generic
            - Bootloader can be unlocked.

            Cons:

            - No headphone jack
            - Too huge and bulky, uncomfortable in landscape mode because of sharp corners
            - Cameras disappoint you the more you zoom in. Not as great as advertised.
            - No repair kits available in my country. Original case just showed up on HMD's online store a few days ago (six months after launch!!)
            - Comes with some bloatware, some of which can be uninstalled, others not. Funny to see Facebook pre-installed on HMD phones 😂
            - Poor update promise
            - Worse implementation of update promise: It's mid March 2025 right now and my phone is on 1st December, 2024 security patch. They are not giving monthly updates even in the first year. Even the December patch came along with Android 15 update in mid February 2025.
            - Only 2 OS updates. Already received the first one within five months of launch. Android 16 is going to come in around June , so hopefully HMD will release that update at most by December 2025. That's it. That'll be the end of the road for this phone, unless you want to use a custom ROM. That's

              • D
              • Dave B.
              • I@a
              • 11 Mar 2025

              Planning to get the Skyline. Does this phone strain the eyes for because of low screen PWM?

                The 12/256GB version of the Skyline is available direct from HMD for £279 here in the UK, that's close to 50% off the retail price and definitely worth it.

                  • S
                  • Spearhead
                  • svh
                  • 04 Mar 2025

                  Very nice phone. If it had a 3.5mm jack, I would definitely buy it, because I often use my phone as a player in the car.

                    Anonymous, 27 Feb 2025That would make sense if normal users could buy the busines... moreIt has the bootload opened straight from factory, so it it might make sense for some users that want to keep their devices for longer. But yes, they should have at least offer a 5 years of security updates, after all, they need to do it on the same hardware for enterprise, would'n take them to much more money to do it for private customers.
                    I bought the darn thing because i received an offer i could not refuse for the 12GB RAM 256 GB storage version. The thing runs really smooth and cammera, tough some times inconsisten, for whatever reason, is mostly really good esoecially the optical zoom one.

                      • ?
                      • Anonymous
                      • CbG
                      • 27 Feb 2025

                      Carol-, 01 Feb 2025Sadly hmd lost some grownd instead of winning... they are n... moreThat would make sense if normal users could buy the business version too if they wanted to but this is not possible, at least in my country. I think Skyline can't be saved anymore but hopefully they will release Skyline 2 with a better strategy and far more aggression. Repair focused companies need to succeed!

                        I agree with GsmArena ratings of this phone

                          • b
                          • brnwsh777
                          • 04S
                          • 17 Feb 2025

                          If HMD makes this model , Nokia Skyline i Buy it ! andoriginal blue yellow red colours and white

                            Xenotyro, 13 Feb 2025Android 15 is now widely available for the Skyline and my f... moreThanks for the info. I tough that the annoying bug that does not apps to go full screen when gestures navigation is active, was only on mine, as i do kinde of findle with the devices a lot, like using adb to delete a lot of google stuff and well, assistent, digital wellbeing and so on.

                              Android 15 is now widely available for the Skyline and my first impressions are good. In terms of user-facing features and changes there are very few, but performance is good and standby battery drain is excellent.

                              In terms of minor fixes I noticed: the gesture nav bar now disappears when apps or videos are in full screen, the vibration motor is less 'buzzy' and 'spongy', and they finally enabled zoom in video mode when recording at 1x (previously you had to start recording at 2x in order to zoom 🤷‍♂️).

                              Focus Peaking is now only available in the Pro camera settings for some unknown reason, and there is a Codec preferences menu for audio which has some old Material UI. This menu is already available on the HMD Fusion.

                                angry bird, 08 Feb 2025HMD learn from Nothing company ,,, new ones in market doing... moreWell, at least that's true. They actually produce good devices that work well for a long time. I find that their biggest problem is, that most of their new devices start with a bit to many bugs, and then improve in time. The reason here could be saving some money? First users being the testers...just a fealing. Nokia x30 works without issues after more then 2 years of usage, installing and uninstalling 1000s of apps, you won't get that performance without factory reset from any of the most of android manufacturers. Of course it also depends of what you install....

                                  • a
                                  • angry bird
                                  • utQ
                                  • 08 Feb 2025

                                  HMD learn from Nothing company ,,, new ones in market doing better than you,,, shame on you HMD

                                    Anonymous, 21 Jan 2025I had to Google this and yes this is true! WTF!! Why can�... moreSadly hmd lost some grownd instead of winning... they are not even close to the big players when it comes to pricing and manufacturing capabilities, they just can't compete at that level. If they try to sell cheap with 5 years of support, they'd probably go insolvent in about a year, if they don't raise the price. But if they do raise the price, to be able to support a device for 5 years, probably way less people then they would need to survive, would buy. Businisses do not care that much about the 50 euros extra per device, or maybe 100, as long as they get a bloatware free device with good quality calling capabilities, repairable and security updates for longer, businesses have totaly different needs in comparison to normal customers. That might be one of the reasons. Another reason would be competition and pricing again. The big players have enough money to buy in bulk, thos giving them the advantage over price, because bulk is always cheapper, the more you buy, the cheapper it gets. Also, most of the big players, like samsung or xiaomi make money with a tone of bloatware in each and every device sold, and some brands even have their own manufacturing plants cutting some costs. Add to this the fact that most of them manufactures sell other stuff as well, so their busnisses support eachother in times where maybe smartphones are receiving a downgrade in sales, which hapes often, especially now, when more and more manufactureres offer more years of support. All this factors kill small companies like hmd, sadly... they have no time to reinvent, and have no proper loophole to take advantage and attract some new users towards them. So they actively reinvent themselves while still trying to remain relevant on the market releasing devices like skyline with the best support and hardware they got at this time, with this money. Anyway the moral of the story is, hmd cannot compete with chinese companies nor with the big players, because that is just imposible to do and will kill their business, and they cannot go fairphone route because fairphone is way ahead and there is a very niche market for such devices, so hmd won't survive there either. Because they still try to find the right market for their devices, untill they do it, they just release devices to keep them alive in the process. I find repairability a very important stept forward, but well, as we can all see, people care more about bloatware and paper specs then anything else, so this too might not be the end of "reinvation" for hmd. Even tough i said i won't buy this because of the shor 3 years security support, i might actually do, because i do not want to be left with chinese manufactures vs samsung on the non-niche market of fairphones or shifphones. But well, only i won't do much to help them...

                                      cozmo, 14 Jan 2025you should add Nokia X30 as the best device HMD come up wit... moreSkyline could follow if it had 5 years of support, but well, they did it very lazy.

                                        Anonymous, 06 Jan 2025in amazon uk, Skyline pink colour selling for 292£ while... moreI rather buy any phone from respectable stores, not ali express... especially motorolas and xiaomis.

                                          2 of 20