Making smartphone customization a reality with HMD Fusion and Smart Outfits

Smart Outfits change what HMD Fusion can do — and there’s seemingly no end to the possibilities.

When two protons combine to form one heavier one, a portion of their mass is released in the form of energy. A lot of energy. This reaction is what powers the sun — and it’s what gave our latest smartphone its namesake. HMD Fusion: it’s all about two things coming together to make something new.

We announced HMD Fusion back in Barcelona at MWC earlier this year. Then, at IFA in Berlin this September, we fully unveiled the phone and the upcoming range of compatible Smart Outfits.¹ Their two-way connection with HMD Fusion allows you to control new features from the phone, and for the phone to take on whole new functionalities.

Ready to find out more? Let’s dig a little deeper into what some of the Smart Outfits do, what the open-source toolkit means for innovation, and what our repairability partners have to say about this customizable smartphone.

More than a case

When we talk about "Smart Outfits," we’re not just talking about fancy cases here. HMD Fusion hooks up to Smart Outfits with a two-way pin connector. In one direction — let’s call it the phone-to-outfit direction — you can control an outfit’s functionality from the phone. The Fusion Flashy Outfit is a great example. It has a built-in light ring for lighting your subjects in shots taken on the rear camera, and it flips up to light your selfies, too. You can control the light’s brightness and color exactly where and when you need it — right in the phone’s camera app as you’re prepping the perfect shot.

The outfit-to-phone direction means that Smart Outfits enable new methods of input. The Fusion Wireless Charging Outfit adds — you guessed it — wireless charging support. And the Fusion Rugged Outfit features an in-case-of-emergency button that sends a pre-determined SMS to a contact of your choice. So, whether it’s power to the battery or a signal conveyed by a button press, the outfit-to-phone direction is what sends things from the Smart Outfit to the phone.

Not all outfits use the pin connectors to add a new functionality to HMD Fusion. The Casual Outfit for example is just to give the phone a new look. But even these are something more than accessories. These style-led outfits are more akin to changeable back covers than cases – a feature that many of us remember from some of our first feature phones.

So, the TL;DR is this: Smart Outfits let you do different things with your HMD Fusion phone. And because they are easy to change, you can literally have wireless charging one day and a built-in camera light the next. And as new Smart Outfits are added to the range, the list of things that HMD Fusion can just keep getting longer.

The four outfits we announced in IFA will be available later in 2024, and we’ve got a few more planned beyond those. But we don’t want to be the only ones to explore what HMD Fusion is capable off. You’re in on this, too.

Innovators, assemble.

What do you want your HMD Fusion to be? Something to help you at work perhaps, like a barcode scanner or a payment terminal? Or maybe you just want to cover the back in your very own artwork? Well, it’s all possible, because the HMD Fusion toolkit is public. So with the right technical know-how and a 3D printer, you can build your own Smart Outfits.

If you’re just looking to change the look of your HMD Fusion, the CAD file will be enough. If you’re a tech-head looking to build a smart outfit with some new functionality, you’ll need the API too. They’re both available in the toolkit, so take a look.

HMD Fusion can do things we haven’t even thought of yet, and that kind of blows our minds, to be honest. If you’re not a techie, relax. Just watch and wait to see what other folks out there will come up with. We certainly are.

It’s repairable, too.

We’ve built a lot of momentum into the repairable phones space with the HMD Pulse smartphones and HMD Skyline, and HMD Fusion continues that trend — it’s repairable with tools, parts, and guides from iFixit in select markets.² So, if the iFixit store is available in your region, you can replace a damaged screen, depleted battery and other parts of HMD Fusion right at home.

Our partnership with iFixit is going strong, so we were keen to show HMD Fusion to Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixit, to get his verdict. “The Fusion phone is exactly the sort of product that we need more of,” Kyle said. “This is more than just a smartphone; it’s a movement toward modular, upgradeable hardware that gets better over time. HMD is empowering people with hardware that is designed to last.”

HMD Fusion is taking what mobile device repairability is all about and going a step further — device longevity. Being able to replace key components makes it much easier to keep a phone in good shape. Stack this with the customization options that from Smart Outfits and HMD Fusion is prepared to adapt to smartphone needs that you may have in the future.

Daily life changes. HMD Fusion can, too.

Our lives can take twists and turns we don’t expect. And these aren’t always big, dramatic changes — they can just alter what our everyday routines look like. So, with our goal to make smartphones that really last, we wanted to look at something in addition to repairability and make something that can adapt further down the line. Whether you need to mix things up on a daily basis or just want the safety net of knowing that your phone can rise to future challenges, HMD Fusion and Smart Outfits will deliver.