The latest European smartphone manufacturer has released a new line of affordable cameras: Pulse, Pulse+, and Pulse Pro. Today, we will take a look at the older model – HMD Pulse Pro. This smartphone promises good photos, but in addition to the camera, we also tested the processor performance, measured the battery life, and are ready to share our experience.
Content
| Technical characteristics | |
| Display | 6.65″ IPS |
| 1612×720 265 ppi | |
| 90 Hz 480-600 nits | |
| Processor | Unisoc Tiger T606 |
| Graphics | Mali-G57 |
| RAM | 6 GB |
| ROM | 128 GB + micro SD |
| Communication | 4G LTE |
| Wi-Fi 5 | |
| Bluetooth 5.0 | |
| NFC | |
| Interfaces | 3.5 mm jack |
| USB Type C 2.0 | |
| Main camera | 50 MP + 2 MP |
| Front camera | 50 MP |
| Battery | 5000 mAh |
| Charging | 20 W |
| System | Android 14 |
| Dimensions | 163×75×8.6 mm |
| Weight | 196 grams |
The HMD Pulse Pro comes with a minimal package with a USB Type C cable, a paper clip to open the SIM card slot, and paper documentation. There is no charger or case included, which is something that almost all Chinese manufacturers can boast of.
Visually, HMD Pulse Pro does not stand out except for the back panel. The camera unit is still as ugly as in most smartphones in this price category, but the panel itself resembles the Apple iPhone 8. The plastic case is made «to look like glass». The surface works like a mirror and looks much better than matte plastic.
A small, neat, compact camera unit would have made the HMD Pulse Pro look luxurious because those decorative rings the size of a coin would have been a no-brainer. The bezels around the screen are large, the camera notch is centered, and the dimensions of the phone itself are impressive. The smartphone is already not very thin, and with the HMD Pulse Pro case it will be even thicker. However, rarely does a budget phone have a body less than 8 mm thick.
One of the main drawbacks was the build quality. At the bottom near the Type C connector, you can hear a creak if you press the smartphone from the very bottom of the screen. On the left side, there is a barely noticeable defect in the case in the form of two tiny specks that can be felt to the touch. Perhaps this is an isolated case, but it is enough to spoil the impression of the brand.
The bottom panel has a 3.5 mm headphone jack, USB Type C, and a speaker. There is only one speaker, so the sound is flat, without bass, although the volume is enough. On the right is the lock button with a built-in fingerprint scanner. The scanner is not fast (it has a delay of several hundred ms), but it never makes mistakes, even with sweaty hands. Above is the volume control key. On the opposite side is a connector for two SIM cards and a memory card.
The 4G LTE wireless module picks up the signal adequately. The connection speed is highly dependent on Vodafone coverage (tested with this operator), so it ranges from 100 Kbps to 90 Mbps in Ivano-Frankivsk region.
There is also Wi-Fi version 5.0, as well as Bluetooth 5.0 and FM radio. Without headphones, the radio 30 kilometers away from the regional center is not very good, but with them you can catch up to 10 radio stations. It’s a useful option with free music and news when the Internet doesn’t work at all.
The HMD Pulse Pro screen has a diagonal of 6.65 inches and a resolution of 1612×720 pixels. The manufacturer claims a peak brightness of up to 600 nits. It behaves surprisingly well in direct sunlight.
The main problem with the screen is the viewing angles because looking from the bottom/top, the image loses a lot of brightness. Colors are not distorted, but everything becomes pale. The situation is much better on the sides.
The refresh rate is 90 Hz, the smoothness of the interface is felt, but not everywhere. There are lags due to a slow processor, a drop in FPS when scrolling, etc., although in general it is better than 60 Hz, so it makes no sense to turn off the mode for the sake of phantom 90 Hz power saving.
In advertising materials, the manufacturer emphasizes the photo capabilities of HMD Pulse Pro for a reason. The smartphone has a 50 MP wide module and a 2 MP depth module. The camera takes excellent photos for its class, but there are a few nuances that we’ll talk about.
First of all, it’s worth mentioning the selfie gestures for the 50 MP camera. HMD Pulse Pro automatically takes a photo if you show a heart, thumbs up, wave your hand, etc. The phone makes almost no mistakes and registers every gesture if you stand no further than three meters away.
The camera has several modes, including portrait, night, slow motion, 50 MP photo, interval shooting, and burst shooting. The tripod mode was particularly interesting, as HMD Pulse Pro produces good night photos.
The HMD Pulse Pro takes poor macro photos and records weak video without stabilization. There are only 30 frames per second, and the resolution is 1080p. You can still watch it more or less during the day, but it’s better not to shoot at night. The flash did not perform well. It takes photos slowly, the diode has too warm color a temperature (which makes photos appear yellow), and it doesn’t shine well.
Portrait mode works mediocrely. You often get incorrectly blurred pieces of the background. It’s easier to take a normal photo and then blur the background in the editor because it always works better. At night, you can take selfies thanks to the white backlighting of the screen around the edges, and the quality of the front camera is very good.
The HMD Pulse Pro is worth praising for its correct color reproduction and good work with HDR. Only a few photos are taken with a backlit sky, and the colors look roughly the same as a person sees in real life. There are no inherent acidic green hues, which are so common among Asian smartphone manufacturers.
At night, HMD Pulse Pro with a tripod produces really good photos, but they are too light. It was already dark outside, and the photos look like they were taken on a clear day. The night mode works fine, and with a tripod it’s great, but there’s a serious nuance. You don’t always have a tripod at hand, and taking pictures of people is not the best option because of the long shutter speed.
Despite the budget camera modules, we can’t say that the hero of the review disappointed. The developers have squeezed the most out of this hardware using good software. The camera in HMD Pulse Pro will definitely not appeal to owners of flagships, but in general, it takes more than adequate photos.
Another inconvenient thing is that HMD Pulse Pro always turns the screen brightness to maximum when taking a photo, even at night. I would like to see a corresponding item in the settings that can be turned off because apart from night selfies, it’s just annoying.
The Unisoc Tiger T606 processor cannot boast of good performance. This inexpensive chip is often used in set-top boxes and budget phones. The only advantage of the processor is almost zero trotting and complete independence from the power mode.
For example, the processor shows identical results under normal conditions, when the phone is placed in the scorching sun, with the power saving mode on, or with 5% battery power — the result is always the same, albeit weak.
The built-in 128 GB drive shows a good speed/write result, but these figures drop noticeably as the ROM fills up. If you do not fill the memory by 90+%, then the performance (up to 1 GB/s) of the HMD Pulse Pro drive is good 6 GB of RAM is enough for almost all basic programs to run simultaneously. Only large games and dozens of tabs on heavy websites can overload.
Demanding video games such as Call of Duty Warzone or Genshin Impact run, but in «slideshow» mode. It is impossible to play due to low FPS (no more than 15 frames per second) and low picture quality (like 144p on YouTube).
Optimized mobile video games run smoothly on low or medium settings. Call of Duty Mobile can be played online against other players, and on the smallest cards we have up to 90 FPS with low graphics settings.
Casual projects for «killing time» work well, which is what HMD Pulse Pro is designed for. For example, you can play some timeless classics ported over from old Nokia: Bounce, Space Impact, Snake, etc. This phone is definitely not about cool games, but there will be something to keep you busy, if only you had the desire.
The phone runs on Android 14 operating system. The manufacturer promises two years of system updates and three years of security updates. The shell is light, clean, in «pristine» condition. The system takes up only 10 GB of space (very little after 53 GB in the Galaxy S23 Ultra).
Motorola also produces its smartphones on pure Android, but by default, it uses branded square icons. HMD Pulse Pro doesn’t change anything, leaving the shape of the shortcuts as designed by Google, although there is one branded theme with black and white icons.
There are no ads in the firmware, as in Chinese phones, but there are several applications from partners (Booking, LinkedIn, etc.). It’s good that they can be removed. There were no affiliate games installed.
The smartphone holds a charge well, especially with the screen backlight at a minimum. If you save energy, you can get as much as 19 hours of autonomy. The PCMark 10 test shows eight hours with maximum brightness and 12 hours with average brightness (50%). In the most demanding games (which hang on this phone), the hero of the review lasts 5-6 hours.
HMD Pulse Pro has an extreme power saving mode, in which the user is allowed to work with only a limited list of programs. A similar technology was implemented a long time ago in Samsung smartphones, and it really helps to save battery power because it is less distracting. There is no point in using this mode regularly.
The back cover heats up to 40 °C in some places in the most severe stress tests in the summer heat. On average, the temperature reached 35-37 °C, no more. This is not a low figure, but the main thing is that the processor itself does not drop frequencies, working equally in different conditions. Nowadays, it is rare to come across completely «green» graphs in the CPU Throttling Test.
The smartphone left mixed impressions. On the one hand, it’s a nice budget phone with a nice back panel, but on the other hand, the quality of the case leaves much to be desired. But what do you expect from a budget phone?
HMD Pulse Pro is a typical budget smartphone. It has great software and a mediocre chip, convenient camera gestures and weak video, a bright screen, but the viewing angles could be better. It also has a well-realized tripod mode, which is rarely useful.
A nice bonus was the FM radio, which works well during power outages and slow or no 4G Internet. I also liked the battery life, especially in relation to my own Motorola Moto Z3 with a thickness of 6.8 mm.
Subjectively, I personally wouldn’t change the retired Z3 for the HMD Pulse Pro because of the quality of the case, materials, and dimensions, although in many aspects modern budget smartphones put the old flagships to shame.
HMD Pulse Pro is officially sold for 5500 UAH, which is 1500 UAH less than at release. At the beginning of sales, the hero of the review was really overpriced, but now it confidently competes with models from other manufacturers Version with 8/256 GB of memory is 1000 UAH pricier.
Nokia G42 has a much better Snapdragon 480+ processor, more modern wireless interfaces, and three camera modules. The price for the 6/128 GB version is UAH 6,500.
Nokia G22 boasts a high level of maintainability and runs on the same processor as the hero of the review. The 6/256 GB version costs 5000 hryvnias.
Motorola Moto G24 attracts with its price of 4800 hryvnias and a good charger included. In addition, there is an unofficial version with 8 GB of RAM in Ukraine.
Motorola Moto G24 Power is equipped with a large battery and a considerable amount of memory. The champion of autonomy is only slightly more expensive than the HMD Pulse Pro, so it looks like a very good deal. The official price is 6000 UAH.
There are also many Samsung, Remdi, Poco, Realme, Oppo, Nubia models on the market that run proprietary shells that are not based on pure Android. Many of them are more profitable and offer a slightly better performance-to-cost ratio, but within the limits of healthy competition.
One of dozens of examples, Poco C65 also has an HD screen, an identical processor, the same amount of memory, and generally similar hardware for 4700 hryvnias. To get something fundamentally better, you’ll have to go over the 6000-7000 UAH mark.
