HMD Arc: an Android smartphone for less than €100 that focuses on repairability

Less and less present with the Nokia brand, of which it owns the operation, the Finnish HMD hopes to gain notoriety with the help of mobiles launched in its own name. In recent months we have seen him launch the skylineTHE Pulse and the Fusion, and here it is returning today to the French market with a very low-cost smartphone, the Arc. It is practically identical to a terminal seen at the very beginning of the year, the Key.

This Arc, priced under €100, makes too many compromises to afford a standard version of Google's operating system: it runs Android 14 GB, a lighter version of the OS. This is explained by its light configuration, the smartphone making do with a Unisoc 9853A chip (Unisoc 9832E for the Key) flanked by only 2 to 4 GB of RAM. This 4G model has a 5000 mAh battery which should give it good endurance; its load, not surprisingly, does not exceed 10 W.

For the rest, the HMD Arc is equipped with a 6.52-inch LCD screen with HD definition (570 x 1080 pixels), a tenth refresh rate of 120 Hz and an announced maximum brightness of 460 cd/m². The definition of its back camera is 13 megapixels (8 Mpx on the Key) and its selfie camera captures 5 Mpx images. The smartphone has a mini-jack socket, Bluetooth 5.2 and wifi n.

HMD largely highlights the repairability of its smartphones. The brand promises for its Arc compatibility with what it calls “Gen1 repairability”, which guarantees the possibility of replacing certain elements of the device in the event of breakage or malfunction (the back cover, the screen, the port charging and battery). Note also that HMD announces that the Arc battery supports 800 charge cycles. Finally, we note that the mobile is IP54 certified (splash resistant); this certification applies to Europe, while the rest of the world is satisfied with IP52. These efforts are reserved for hardware, since HMD does not promise more than two years of security patches at the software level. For a smartphone billed at €99 (2/64 GB) or €119 (4/64 GB), this compromise is however not surprising.