HMD Pulse Pro Review | Trusted Reviews

Verdict

Despite a solid design and an exemplary level of repairability, the HMD Pulse Pro doesn’t do enough where it really counts. Performance is terrible, the display is sub-standard, and the camera provision simply isn’t up to scratch, even within the phone’s £150 weight class.

Introduction

No longer content with exclusively making smartphones under the storied Nokia banner, Finnish manufacturer HMD Mobile has opted to wear its own badge loud and proud with a series of new affordable smartphones.

We’ve already reviewed the HMD Skyline, a lower-mid-range handset with a unique repairability angle. However, this new self-branded phase actually kicked off with the HMD Pulse series, and we have here the top model in that mini-range, the HMD Pulse Pro.

Like the Skyline, it sports increased repairability as a lead feature, but the cost of the phone is a significantly lower £149.99. At this price, it’s mixing with affordable titans like the Moto G35 and the Samsung Galaxy A15.

We’ve rarely been bowled over by HMD’s Nokia phones, but in the ruggedised XR series it proved that it can add something new to the affordable handset scene. Can it do something similar under its own brand?

Design

• Excellent repairability
• Clean, mature look and feel
• Nice pops of colour

In a way, the HMD Pulse Pro’s design is its one killer feature. Not that you’d know that to look at it.

It’s a well put together phone for £149 with a solid feel and a clean look. HMD really displays its experience building such cheap phones here.

The frame of the phone is plastic, but its matte finish and subtly angled corners don’t draw attention to that fact. Look closely and you’ll see a seam on each corner, but you wouldn’t notice at a glance.

On the right edge of the phone you’ll find the power button-cum-fingerprint sensor, which is pleasingly recessed, making it easy to locate and activate without looking. I wouldn’t call the unlocking procedure fast – performance is not the HMD Pulse Pro’s strong suit, as we’ll go on to discuss – but it is reliable.

The rear of the phone has a somewhat generic look, and its shiny plastic finish is a bit of a fingerprint magnet. Again, though, it’s tastefully put together, with minimal embellishment and a welcome pop of vibrancy from the two brighter colours, Twilight Purple (like my test model) and Glacier Green. There’s also a Black Ocean option for you stealthy types.

At 163.2 x 75 x 8.6mm and 196g, the HMD Pulse just about falls into the ‘comfortable’ smartphone zone, though it is perhaps a little thick. You’d never call it compact, but nor are you unlikely to complain that it’s big and bulky – at least not if you’ve come from using another affordable phone from the usual brands (Motorola, Xiaomi, Realme etc.).

HMD has also gone to the trouble of providing IP52 certification. Sure, that means that the Pulse Pro is merely protected from a spritz of water and limited dust ingress, but any such reassurance is welcome at this end of the market.

So far so ordinary, but the HMD Pulse Pro’s key design feature is its increased repairability. It’s something that I was unable to put to the test, understandably, but the effort HMD has put in here is clear.

Head over to the HMD Phones Repair Hub on ifixit.com, and you’ll be able to source spare parts and step-by-step guides to help you replace the Pulse Pro’s screen, rear cover, charging port, and battery.

Will most people buying a phone for this price be interested in self-repairing their phone? Of course not, and I have my doubts over whether the HMD Pulse Pro will remain usable in several years time even without any damage. It’s also not a new provision, as HMD offered a similar thing with last year’s Nokia G22.

This sort of responsible, forward-thinking design is most welcome nonetheless, and HMD should be commended.

Screen

• IPS LCD is fine, if somewhat washed out
• 720p resolution not really sharp enough
• Adequate brightness

The HMD Pulse Pro packs a 6.65-inch screen, which is pretty large. Unfortunately, that size doesn’t do any favours for its 720p resolution.

I’ve said it before, but surely we’re at a point now where 1080p or FHD+ should be the baseline for all but the very cheapest phones. And by ‘very cheapest’, I’m talking sub-£100.

You probably won’t notice this pixel shortfall when flitting about the Pulse Pro’s home screen or even firing off a quick message. But any task that involves images or fine text, such as web browsing or viewing your snaps back in Google Photos, will reveal a certain fuzziness that can make such tasks a bit of a chore.

HMD has supplied a 90Hz refresh rate, which is probably the right spec on such limited hardware. It lends a little extra scrolling smoothness without accentuating the phone’s chugging general performance.

You can’t force the screen to 90Hz all the time, which is a little irritating, with the phone set to Adaptive by default. You can drop it to 60Hz in the interest of extending battery life, though that’s not something that should really be of concern.

With a stated maximum typical brightness of 480 nits, or 600 nits in high brightness mode (HBM), the HMD Pulse Pro isn’t the sort of phone you’ll want to sit outside in the sun with. On a sunny early-autumn’s day, I found text to be just about legible, but it was far from ideal.

Everything becomes decidedly less legible when the screen is viewed off-axis, regardless of ambient lighting. This is an IPS LCD, but that doesn’t seem to have aided viewing angles. This also means that you don’t get the popping colours and rich contrast of pricier phones with OLED panels.

There’s just the one speaker on the bottom of the phone. The output is pretty thin and tinny, but it remains reasonably clear even at loud volumes. That’s all you can ask for £150 or less. There’s always a 3.5mm headphone jack to lean on for audio, as well as the usual Bluetooth.

Performance

• Poor performance from limited Unisoc T606
• Poor 3D gaming performance
• 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage

If there’s one thing that holds the HMD Pulse Pro back, even more so than its weak display, it’s performance. As I’ve already mentioned, this thing chugs.

You don’t have to look very far for the culprit. HMD has opted for the same ageing Unisoc T606 chip that powered the Motorola E20 and the Nokia G21 back in 2022. The former had a £90 asking price at launch, while the latter came in at the same £150 as the HMD Pulse Pro, and both reviews criticised the performance of the respective phones.

That I’m sat here benchmarking exactly the same underwhelming chip (albeit backed by a more capacious 6GB of RAM) in a phone that costs the same or significantly more some two years later is unfortunate, to say the least.

Not that the Pulse Pro’s terrible benchmark results are even necessary to reach a conclusion here. You can just feel how slow this phone is from the sluggish unlocking process to simply flicking between home screens and menus, not to mention firing up apps.

Needless to say, you’ll want to remove the HMD Pulse Pro from consideration if you enjoy anything but the lightest form of gaming on your phone. I masochistically fired up Genshin Impact, and found a game that ran sluggishly on the default lowest settings. Remember that this is having to push way fewer pixels on that 720p display, too.

The sole UK model comes with 128GB of storage, which is a solid provision in such a cheap phone. There’s also a microSDXC slot if you wish to expand that.

Camera

• Single 50MP camera produces poor images in all conditions
• No ultra-wide or telephoto
• 50MP selfie camera is not as good as it sounds

When you put ‘Pro’ in the name of a phone, that often comes with expectations of an enhanced photographic experience. You’ll need to check those expectations at the door with the HMD Pulse Pro.

It supplies just the one main camera, a 50MP sensor with autofocus, but no OIS. This is backed by a 2MP depth sensor. There is no ultra-wide provision, while 2x telephoto shots are achieved by cropping in on that main sensor.

There’s nothing wrong with cutting out the additional cameras and focusing on one good one, but the HMD Pulse Pro’s single camera in no way meets the threshold of the term ‘good’.

While it refrains from punching up colours with an unnatural amount of processing, as can often happen with cheaper phones, the shots it captures tend towards the flat and lifeless. There’s a fundamental lack of detail here, and it struggles with contrast despite the insistence that an auto HDR function is in operation.

The HMD Pulse Pro’s camera also seems to struggle with any form of motion, even in good lighting. Check out my shots of a harbour scene, in which can be observed a disconcerting ghosting effect on a crane and of seagulls flying overhead.

Zoomed in 2x shots obviously share the same general tone of the 1x snaps, given that they come from the same sensor. However, the drop in detail is pronounced, reminding me of 5x or even 10x shots I’ve taken with more expensive phones.

HMD seems pleased with its provision of a 50MP selfie camera. That certainly sounds good on paper, especially for such a cheap phone.

In practice, however, the front camera struggles. Subject detail isn’t too bad, but highlights in the background tended to be horribly blown out.

Night mode is a complete write-off, with bags of noise and a general sensation of the lens being smeared with Vaseline.

Video capture only extends to 1080p at 30fps, and the resulting footage is predictably blurry and jerky. Without OIS, it was also very shaky even on seemingly steady pans.

Software

• Close-to-stock Android 14
• Only five third-party apps
• Two OS upgrades, three years of security updates

HMD has brought across one of the most appealing aspects of its Nokia phones: relatively clean, unadorned Android software.

The HMD Pulse Pro runs on Android 14 out of the box, and it doesn’t stray too far from Google’s own conception of its UI. The menus and layout are the same, and there’s the usual full selection of Google apps.

Where HMD does tinker with the look, its impact is limited. The default icons are given a minimalist monochrome look on the home screen, which looks pretty sleek. However, most subsequent app installations will be in full colour, and the contrast between the two is jarring.

What’s more, the aesthetic doesn’t carry through to the app tray. Thankfully, the effect can be turned off in the Settings menu.

The Pulse Pro isn’t entirely devoid of bloatware either. However, we’re talking about a grand total of five third-party apps (LinkedIn, Booking.com, Facebook, Amazon, and discount app Kindred), and they’re all stashed in their own folder.

This folder also contains HMD’s My Device app, which grants starter tips alongside an online storefront.

All in all, it’s crisp, clean, and unadorned – just how we like it. It’s a similar approach to Motorola’s, which is a good thing.

Less positive is the promise of a grand total of two OS upgrades and three years of security updates. Given HMD’s focus on the Pulse Pro’s repairability, it makes little sense that it won’t be supported much beyond the length of a mobile contract.

Battery Life

• Excellent stamina from 5000mAh battery
• Sluggish 20W wired charging support
• No charger in the box

The HMD Pulse Pro won’t be found wanting in the stamina stakes. The combination of a large 5000mAh battery, a low-power processor, and an undemanding 720p display produces genuine two-day potential.

In testing, an hour of Disney Plus streaming sapped just 5% of a charge, while 30 minutes of light gaming on Slay the Spire drained the same. Again, we have to emphasise that both of these apps were only having to output to a 720p display, but even so. That’s a good result.

Charging support is less positive. There’s no charger in the box, and in the process of rustling up your own solution, you’ll find that it tops out at 20W.

Using a dependable 30W Asus charger, 15 minutes of charging only got the HMD Pulse Pro to 15 percent, while 30 minutes got it to 36 percent. A full 100 percent charge from empty took me around 2 hours 15 minutes, which is an absolute age.

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