HMD Skyline receives Android 15 update

20 January 2025
The update is seeding to users in Finland and is expected to roll out to more regions soon.

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Carol-, 14 Feb 2025Ah, forgot about the spare parts and accessories, i see wha... moreI hope so too, but I'm not really sure if that will happen. Like I said, I'm observing them very closely and since they are the last Android brand that I prefer buying that is officially available here, they have to be completely on point. Only then will I be able to continue buying from them. I have already given up on their feature phones and I'm very disappointed with their OS update promise. Fusion is also not a good device and their constant desire to launch completely basic devices is also a concern. Let's see what they manage to achieve.

    Carol-, 14 Feb 2025You're welcome, android still has some hidden stuff on... moreYeah I've played around with the animation options in developer settings. Frankly, I don't need them yet on this phone, given how smooth it runs usually, specially when 120Hz is selected. For the most part, I haven't faced issues with slowness, except for the occasional freezing of the UI, which is resolved by restarting the device.

      rohitmishra, 14 Feb 2025Thank you for the battery saver tip. :) I got the option to... moreAh, forgot about the spare parts and accessories, i see what you mean, but i think itwill come back in india too. But of course they offer more support for crest because is build there, sad that skyline is not.

        rohitmishra, 14 Feb 2025Thank you for the battery saver tip. :) I got the option to... moreYou're welcome, android still has some hidden stuff one can take advantage of😅.
        Oh yeah, the bluetooth thingy sounds annyoing, and i hate how they put the intergen toggles together, probably another way to stop the user from turning the networ off, so they can mine the hack out of it's data. Oh well...
        Nope the background data does not block the app from accessing the internet, it only does a minor thing like it tell the to not sync when in standby, or better said to sync a lot less often. I am talking about a real firewall, android and IOS are the only operating systems that do not have a firewall, and that is because they want it like this, so devs and themselvs can make money out of ads and tracking user data.
        I use Rethink dns to achive this, but of course there are some stuff that one needs to understand to properly set it and if you use VPN well, then you have to decide between fthe firewall or the von, tough they have no integrated wireguard. It is actually a pretty neet aop, but if google would have placed one directly in the core, a lot of stufs would have been just faster and better optimised, aka battery life. But hey, they brag about users privacy😅.

        I give you another tip in case you do not already know it, activate developers mode. If you do not know how to just go to settings/about phone/press on android version 15/ and repetly press build number till you see a message that you are now activated devveloper options, it might ask you for your pin before that. Now enter developers options and search for window animation scale, transition animation scale, and animator duration scale. Set them all to .5x, be careull not 5x but .5x. Tada you'll have a faster device all together.

          Carol-, 14 Feb 2025Thanks for the info, i was expecting that, google does not ... moreThank you for the battery saver tip. :) I got the option to prevent switching from 5g to 4g, among other options!

          Yeah Android has become stagnant in the last few versions. One annoying thing that I noticed on my phone is that now in the quick access menu, they have changed the bluetooth option. It is no longer an on/off toggle. You know the Internet option where you click on it and then you get the toggles for mobile data and wifi? Now the bluetooth option is the same. You click on it, then get a toggle saying 'Use Bluetooth', turn it on, and then you can see a list of saved/available devices. A simple toggle was easy to use. I don't know why they did this.

          What do you mean by blocking internet for certain apps? Can we not do that now? Tap and hold an app icon -> App Info -> Mobile data usage -> turn off "Background data" toggle. Is that what you meant?

          Check this out: https://www.hmd.com/en_in/self-repair-kits. We can place orders for repair kits and parts directly from HMD's website here in India. As of now, only Crest's parts are available. If you visit https://www.hmd.com/en_in/self-repair, you will see under the section "Phones you can fix at home", Skyline is listed, but the parts are not yet available. You can check out the accessories, for example in the German market, on https://www.hmd.com/de_de/accessories, but if you put en_in instead of de_de in the URL, you will only find parts for Crest for the Indian market - no cases or headphones. Time till tell if they make accessories available here.

            rohitmishra, 14 Feb 2025At least they have the parts listed. Here they have complet... moreThanks for the info, i was expecting that, google does not do much to the system this days, will be nice to finaly see some official options to block internet for apps that you do not what to use the internet. They probably will never do that, even tough they talk about how they enhached privacy with every update, while they did nothing but cripple android more and more, to the point i am afraid it will become like IOS.

            The parts are listed on ifixit not on there site, on their site i also do not see parts to buy. But if they removed the accessories side in india they probably will change to something new, i do not think that it will stay like that, they need yeah to sell their products.

            As for the battery saver mode, that is actually a feature and you can turn it off if you just press the "Battery Saver" not the switch but the writing, there you can choose what to happen when you enter battery saving mode. With super battery saver you can do the same.

              Carol-, 12 Feb 2025Well, it appears that even i cannot buy spare part for the ... moreAt least they have the parts listed. Here they have completely removed the 'Accessories' section from their website. It has been this way since they started using the HMD brand name. I'll see what they do going forward. Right now, HMD is under observation and everything they do will contribute to my association with them.

              With respect to Android 15, there's nothing to write home about. I was wondering if the update was even successful because I could see nothing different. One annoying thing is that now I cannot use 5g when I'm on battery saver mode. Skyline has been weird in these things since the start, but yeah nothing much in Android 15 that I have noticed.

                rohitmishra, 12 Feb 2025I will most likely install LineageOS on my Skyline if I kee... moreWell, it appears that even i cannot buy spare part for the moment in europe, i can see them but are not available as of now, so all is not lost.
                Cool, wierdly i did not yet receive android 15.
                Are there significant changes or nothing to write home about?

                  Carol-, 10 Feb 2025Yeah, i understand the frustration, as far as i understood ... moreI will most likely install LineageOS on my Skyline if I keep it for a long period. It's nice that they are allowing us to unlock the bootloader, unlike Asus.

                  Regarding the parts, no I don't need them now. My phone is in mint condition, thankfully. What is weird is that they also have another model here, called Crest. You can find third-party cases for Crest on Amazon and other shopping websites. You can also find repair kits being officially sold on HMD's online store. All Crest and Crest Max models are manufactured in India. So, I highly doubt things are going to change with respect to Skyline. Accessories as a whole are not available on the HMD store. They removed that section from their website when they "came back as HMD". Earlier, you could buy Nokia headphones at least from there, but not anymore. Just weird!

                  As for the updates, I just got Android 15 yesterday (11th Feb) and it came with the December security patch, which is not something I liked when I saw it.

                    rohitmishra, 06 Feb 2025As far as I've seen, iFixit isn't present in Indi... moreYeah, i understand the frustration, as far as i understood they now work on android 15 global release. It was released in finland not long ago, but i presume they might fix some bugs in the proccess and that is why they hold on the updates to global market. It should eventually come sometime this month, after that, security patchings should start roll more frequently again.
                    As for not finding parts, just wait, they will turn up at some point, you do not need them now, or do you? If you already broke it, well, not cool, but maybe you can contact them directly to send you some parts, if not, just wait, if they officialy sell this phone in your country, they are obligated to sell parts too.
                    If you are into custom rom-s the devices bootloader can be unlocked, the OEM unlocking is activated straight from the factory.

                      Carol-, 02 Feb 2025You won't find repair parts on hmd's website ypu ... moreAs far as I've seen, iFixit isn't present in India. And it's not just repair kits, even cases (both original and 3rd party) aren't available in India. It's almost like this phone wasn't officially launched here and I'm kind of starting to regret buying one. Also, we got the Made in China variant even though HMD manufactures all of their other models here. I wanted to give them a shot but it's starting to feel like a bad decision. Plus, when they're only offering three years of security updates, it was obvious to think that at least in the first year, these updates would be monthly. On the contrary, they are not. My Skyline sits on November 2024 patch still. It's making me kind of sad because I want to like them, but they don't.

                        Anonymous, 22 Jan 2025For a so called "repairable" phone, there's ... moreYou won't find repair parts on hmd's website ypu need to go to ifixit webpage and buy there, they partnered with ifixt for all of this.

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                          • Anonymous
                          • CbG
                          • 22 Jan 2025

                          For a so called "repairable" phone, there's currently no way to purchase the repair kits for this phone from HMD India website. And the price is still 36k - the launch price!

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                            • Minu
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                            • 22 Jan 2025

                            Aadrian, 21 Jan 2025HMD should follow the path of Fairphone, repair orientated ... moreFor reference, the Fairphone 2 got OTA updates until Android 9, which is exceptional.
                            Given its price point, a minimum of 4 Android version upgrades would make sense.

                              Donivan, 21 Jan 2025What a joke! Two major Android updates and three years of s... moreCrazy right? Seems like oxymoron to offer a phone which is easy to repair but short software support.

                              Back awhile I wouldn't care about software support but my current phone, RealMe X3 Superzoom is only updated till Android 11. I already can't use my insurance and banking app which is forcing me to buy a new phone now.

                                Donivan, 21 Jan 2025What a joke! Two major Android updates and three years of s... moreI don’t know who HMD thinks they’re fooling at this point. We all know damn well that they’re just as complicit in the exploitation done by the phone industry as any other manufacturer, and no repairability features are gonna change that.

                                  Donivan, 21 Jan 2025What a joke! Two major Android updates and three years of s... moreHMD should follow the path of Fairphone, repair orientated phones but like Fairphone with long and extended software support. I agree that 2 OS upgrades and 3 years of security patches is not enough.

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                                    • Anonymous
                                    • 0p}
                                    • 21 Jan 2025

                                    While s24 ultra only in February

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                                      • cake
                                      • 6p8
                                      • 21 Jan 2025

                                      How many units did they actually sell?

                                        What a joke! Two major Android updates and three years of security patches for repair oriented phone?!

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