HMD Pulse, HMD Pulse+ and HMD Pulse Pro: Australian pricing, availability and early thoughts

HMD’s making its own-brand affordable HMD Pulse range of self-repairable smartphones available in Australia. Here’s what you need to know about each model, including pricing and specifications, plus my early impressions.

Update: You can read my full review of the HMD Pulse Pro here.

When can I buy the HMD Pulse, HMD Pulse+ and HMD Pulse Pro in Australia?

All three new HMD Pulse phones are available to buy in Australia now.

How much do the HMD Pulse, HMD Pulse+ and HMD Pulse Pro cost in Australia?

All three phones sit solidly in the budget space, with the HMD Pulse being the cheapest at $229. Jumping up to $259 will score you the HMD Pulse+, while the “flagship” (does that really count at this price point? Discuss below…) HMD Pulse Pro will set you back $299.

How do the HMD Pulse, HMD Pulse+ and HMD Pulse Pro compare?

To the specifications table!

Alex's Early Thoughts

I wrote a little while ago about in my view, HMD Global didn't really "need" Nokia branding for its smartphones any more.

That's not quite what they've done here -- the company will continue to produce some Nokia branded phones in 2024 -- but it's certainly an early shot to see how well the HMD brand can stand on its own feet, given they're priced like HMD Global's priced its prior Nokia smartphones, and with many of the same perks.

Just looking over the specs, there's a pretty gradual uptick as you spend a little more, as you'd expect, though I'm not (on paper) convinced that getting a Unison T606 based phone for $299 is going to be your best value bet for performance.

It is impressive in this budget space to see HMD Global commit to two OS upgrades for all three Pulse phones; that's great to see, even if the price you pay is quarterly security updates as a result.

The other big hook for the Pulse phones is that they're user-repairable. Now, technically any smartphone can be user repairable if you're feeling brave enough, but this is part of HMD Global's ongoing deal with iFixit to provide detailed instructions (and to sell repair kits and parts) to try to allow owners to repair devices themselves and extend the service life of their phones.

I love this in theory, because it's both financially and environmentally sound, though my last run with a repairable Nokia/HMD phone... did not go that well.

I've put in a request with HMD Global for review phones, so hopefully I should be able to more fully review the new HMD Pulse phones soon.

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