HMD Touch 4G • Hacker News Board

Re: HMD Touch 4G

#111

Post by daneel_w » Mon, Jul 20, 2026, 2:59 PM UTC

Doohickey-d wrote: post #82

throwa356262 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CPU: single A7, 1GHz RAM: 64MB LP-DDR2 Flash: 128MB NAND I think the OS is an update of the Mocor RTOS by the SoC vendor Unisoc. I am curious if there are 3rd party apps on this device. If nothing else, it would be a fun challenge to write apps for something constrained like this.

This doesn't seem very competitive: it's priced at ₹4,199 (€38,08) on HMDs store. On Amazon France, you can buy an "Energizer U506S" for €40.19 with free shipping. And that one has: CPU: 1.5Ghz 4-core (MT6739 from 2017) RAM: 2GB Flash: 32GB (and has card slot, dual sim) And it runs Android 13 Go edition (probably not well, but enough to run Whatsapp and such). So this device is facing some competition at that price p…

But not everyone are thoughtless and uncritically think "biggerer number is betterer". I think a strong selling point of these phones is that they come with very little of the clutter and weight that Android has. A less complex relation to one's phone gives some peace of mind.

Re: HMD Touch 4G

#112

Post by cactusplant7374 » Mon, Jul 20, 2026, 4:55 PM UTC

abc123abc123 wrote: post #92

cactusplant7374 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is perfect. I've been looking for a burner phone for when I'm in Guayaquil. Something I wouldn't mind losing in a robbery.

Why would you voluntarily go to a place where you expect to be robbed? I go to places where there is very little, to no, risk of being robbed. This is good.

Family and food. Guayaquil has the best bolón.

Re: HMD Touch 4G

#113

Post by BenjiWiebe » Mon, Jul 20, 2026, 5:17 PM UTC

izacus wrote: post #40

traceroute66 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Did you mix up 4G with 3G/2G? Most operators have switched off both 3G and 2G by now.

This is why I'm asking, because noone is shutting down 4G anywhere. And 5G actually has LESS range than 4G.

5G has more range than 4G on the same frequency bands. 5G UWB has less range than 4G.

Re: HMD Touch 4G

#114

Post by foragerdev » Mon, Jul 20, 2026, 5:28 PM UTC

marysol5 wrote: post #89

foragerdev wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then it can be very handy in terms of its usability of wifi hotspot devices. In case you want to access intenret remotely on your laptop or in your car. And in developing countries, you have to register your phones imei and pay tax if the value of your phone is greater than certain amount. And in that cases the amount of tax is maybe 50% of the actual price of the phone. So your phone is basically a brick with camera…

But why not just your standard Android for that? I used to have an Android head unit in my old car, I used my phone hotspot for connectivity

When IMEI is blocked (for not paying the tax) SIM will not work. Let's say I have Iphone 17, it would have to 70% tax of its value to get sim working.

Re: HMD Touch 4G

#115

Post by mathgeek » Mon, Jul 20, 2026, 10:56 PM UTC

iamtedd wrote: post #100

mathgeek wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe GP’s point is India is the place a company would highlight cricket scores above other marketing lines.

Cricket season is just starting up. I could see this ad in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, or hell, even Australia. India's not special.

Do you have some examples? I love to explore such things.

Re: HMD Touch 4G

#116

Post by lloeki » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 2:14 PM UTC

roryirvine wrote: post #108

lloeki wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And it is indeed smaller than most smartphones. Apple never made a small smartphone I couldn't find specs for this thing but from the picture it looks to be about the same size as the original iPhone.

A bit smaller. Touch 4G: 102 x 62 x 11 iPhone: 115 x 61 x 12 The Samsung Z Flip is probably your best bet if small size is the most important factor - though, er, slightly more expensive than the HMD! Z Flip 7: 86 x 75 x 13

Thanks so that's like the same ballpark, which kind of validates my counterpoint about "small" phones (which at the time were considered immense)

Flip phone is cheating! Haha kidding. Still a Z Flip 7 is giant when unfolded.

Re: HMD Touch 4G

#117

Post by janv » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 3:57 PM UTC

slim wrote: post #106

janv wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it uses RTOS Touch. Looks like HMD/Nokia gave up on KaiOS a few years ago.

which makes it a new platform. any other phone uses rtos touch ?

Apparently some other HMD devices (HMD 105, HMD 110) use "RTOS". Most likely their proprietary feature phone OS, don't expect it will provide an option for user-installable apps.

Re: HMD Touch 4G

#118

Post by butz » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 7:20 PM UTC

jaclaz wrote: post #110

butz wrote: post #107

There is a severe lack of compact smartphones in the market. Are there any devices available with regular OS updates, that fit into normal sized pocket?

I have found a very usable phone (for what I do, which is not much) in low cost Chinese "mini rugged phones" namely I had (until I broke the screen and battery was not in very good condition) a "king kong mini" and then I got the (slightly larger) "king kong mini 3" (the 4 is the latest model, I believe). They are slightly heavier than you would expect, but have very long autonomy and fit nicely in a shirt's pocket.

Neat. Even with all that padding it is smaller than current "compact" devices.

Re: HMD Touch 4G

#119

Post by SahAssar » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 2:05 PM UTC

anilakar wrote: post #27

loosescrews wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems particularly similar to the short lived Microsoft Kin phones from 2010.

Considering how bad the Windows Phone ecosystem was, the smartphones were not much better...

Microsoft Kin was a separate thing, and was discontinued 48 days after launch.

Windows phone had excellent hardware (from nokia) and excellent UX, but very few apps bothered to support it. If my old windows phone was still updated and my critical apps supported it I'd still be using my lumia 800/900 series phones.

Re: HMD Touch 4G

#120

Post by dredmorbius » Sat, Aug 01, 2026, 5:57 PM UTC

kjellsbells wrote: post #6

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 the…

My read is that "Express Chat" is effectively a push-to-talk feature. It's implemented as an Android and iOS app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.moon.expre...> (Android) and https://apps.apple.com/in/app/express-chat/id6745220803> (iOS).

Several carriers offer this, usually aimed at corporate users (construction, maintenance, fleet workers, emergency responders). See Kyocera and Sonim, particularly their rugged phone offerings (Dura from Kyocera, XP from Sonim).

Carrier-based PTT is typically limited only to other phonesets on that carrier, though in practice the feature is generally accessed through a programmable key, and can be configured to use another (unlimited) press-to-talk app, such as Zello (which I've seen before) or Express Chat (#TIL).