While Apple and Samsung duke it out at the top, HMD’s doing what it can to push the budget market forward. The company’s newly announced HMD Touch 4G — currently only available in India — is certainly that, taking smartphone elements and sticking ’em inside a ‘dumb phone’ in what the company calls a ‘hybrid’ phone.
Touch wood for HMD’s budget efforts in SA
That means a couple of things. One, it’s got a (relatively small) 3.2in “vibrant” LCD touchscreen and even video-calling capabilities with the 0.3MP front-facing cam, and two — no recognisable OS. HMD employs a custom OS — RTOS Touch — which means no Android apps and, worst of all, no checking out Dune just as Denis intended.
Instead, owners are forced to make do with Cloud Phone Service, where they can get browser-only apps like Express Chat that will handle text, audio, and video messages. Fortunately, the app is available on other stores, but you’ll need to convince your Android- and iOS-owning friends to download it if messaging is a must-have.
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Or you could just stick to making phone calls, which for many is the whole attraction of the thing. For others, of course, the appeal lies in the HMD Touch 4G’s extremely low price tag, coming in at ₹5,000, translating to less than R1k locally (R970). We’ve reached out to HMD to find out whether it’s headed for South Africa, where the lightweight design and price tag would easily attract customers.
If that wasn’t enough to convince you, the 3.5mm port that most other smartphone-makers have since ditched might just do the trick. At that price, you’ve essentially got yourself a high-end iPod. It’ll need patience and a microSD card, because the Unisoc T127 chipset, 64MB of RAM, and 138MB of storage probably won’t cut it.
