HMD Touch 4G: A Hybrid Phone Blending Smartphone Features with Feature Phone Simplicity
I am introducing the HMD Touch 4G, a unique hybrid device that merges the vibrant touchscreen and smart capabilities of a smartphone with the reliability and affordability of a feature phone. It offers global 4G LTE roaming, a Cloud phone service for news and cricket, and the Express Chat app for video calls and voice messages. This compact phone bridges the gap between two worlds, providing modern connectivity without the complexity of a full smartphone.
The line between smartphone and feature phone just got a bit smudgy.
- alfanick
What is special about this? Does it cost $20? Is it a cheap smart phone (why do they call it a hybrid phone?) targetting India (mentioning of cricket)?
- mangecoeur
You know it's an India focused device when the top selling point is "Check the cricket results" ;)
- blululu
Ok, this is kinda cool. In case you wanted to read the actual specs:
https://www.hmd.com/en_in/hmd-touch-4g/specs?sku=1GE001CPG30...
and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMD_Touch_4G
RTOS Touch on a Unisoc T127... that's cool.
Amazed they can get the price that low.
- throwa356262
This is a odd one. I don't think it can compete with cheap android phones.
But I would love an android in small form factor like this. Can live without hi-res display and multiple cameras, if they can get the phone down to this size.
IMO, Xperia mini was the perfect phone.
- pr337h4m
Without WhatsApp support it will not go far.
- danangReader
I really liked to buy these HMD phones for my kids. Unfortunately the camera quality is not very good enough . Sometimes kids need decent image quality for printig and home work, and I couldn't think a few MBs are nice to have nowadays.
- ferongr
This is nothing new. It's a dumb-phone with a touchscreen. There were quite a few examples back in the day in the late 00s.
- kjellsbells
This is an odd little device. It seems you can only call other express chat users? it's reminiscent of cellphone systems from the old old days like Nextel walkie talkies. Also I see its available in India only and given the feature restrictions perhaps it's meant as an ultra low end device ?
If HMD came out with something that was optimized to the nth degree for whatsapp calls, that might be interesting, but even then I wonder how cheap it would need to be to compete with budget androids.