HMD may have struck gold with the Skyline – the phone’s design mixes nostalgia for the Nokia N9 with a bold Neon Pink hero color and the repairability angle (while not unique) does earn some brownie points.
The phone is surprisingly capable – the Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 is by far the most powerful chip inside an HMD phone. Admittedly, the competition is the Snapdragon 695 and some Unisocs, but we’re glad to see that HMD is finally moving to better chips. The phone’s 6.55” display is a 144Hz OLED (FHD+) and features a 50MP selfie camera on top. On the rear, a 108MP main (OIS), 50MP 2x tele and 13MP ultra wide cameras.
The 4,600mAh battery is user replaceable, though you need tools. It supports both 33W wired and 15W wireless charging. And note that this supports Qi2 charging (with magnets, like Apple’s MagSafe), which is unheard of in Android land. Speaking of tools, with tools and guides from iFixit, you should be able to replace the screen at home in just 10 minutes. The one downside remains software support – HMD is committing to only 2 OS updates and 3 years of security patches. That’s at least a year short of what we would like to see from a €550 phone.
For €50 less, you can have the Realme GT 6. It has a better, larger display – 6.78” 1264p+ LTPO panel that runs at 120Hz and up to 6,000 nits. It’s protected with Gorilla Glass Victus 2 instead of GG3 like the HMD. The dust and water resistance rating is also better at IP65 (vs. IP54). And you get a more powerful Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset, though without the microSD slot. The 5,500mAh battery is 900mAh larger and supports 120W fast charging (no wireless, though).
The 50MP main camera features a large 1/1.4” sensor and the 50MP 2x portrait camera is comparable, as is the 8MP ultra wide. There’s also a 32MP selfie camera. Realme promises 3 OS updates and 4 years of security patches, but it doesn’t focus as much on repairability.
There’s also the Realme GT 6T for €100 less than the GT 6 (and €150 less than the HMD). It still has a better chipset – Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 – and a large, fast 5,500mAh battery with 120W charging. However, it loses the tele camera and the sensor in the 50MP main is smaller. This one is also on track for 3 OS updates and 4 years of patches.
For a bit more than the Skyline, you can have the Nothing Phone (2). It has a 6.7” LTPO display (120Hz), but it’s lower resolution than the Realmes (FHD+). This one is powered by the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 and a 4,700mAh battery with 45W wired and 15W wireless (original Qi, so no magnets).
It has a 50MP main and a 50MP ultra wide, plus a 32MP selfie camera, but no telephoto lens. Like Realme, Nothing promises 3 OS updates and 4 years of patches, but keep in mind that this is a 2023 model, so subtract one from those numbers.
The Nothing Phone (2a) drops the LTPO panel, but keeps the display at 6.7” FHD+ 120Hz. It has the same 50+50MP rear and 32MP front camera setup (but 4K video recording tops out at 30fps instead of 60fps).
The 2a uses the Dimensity 7200 Pro chipset, which edges out the Skyline chipset in graphics tests. The 5,000mAh battery supports only 45W wired charging, no wireless. The update schedule for the 2a is the same as the Phone (2), but as a 2024 model, this one started life with Android 14, so it has a leg up.
For the last phone today, we picked out something pretty cheap. The Realme Note 50 is a €100 phone that runs full Android 13 on the decently fast Unisoc T712 chipset. The 6.74” IPS LCD is large, but short on pixels with HD+ resolution (it has 90Hz refresh rate). The 5,000mAh battery is large, but so slow to charge at only 10W. We won’t mention the camera, since it’s not worth mentioning. The microSD slot and 3.5mm headphone jack are nice to see, though.
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