HMD Global, the company best known for producing Nokia-branded smartphones, is all set to unveil its first HMD-branded smartphone in India. Ahead of the official launch, the Finnish brand has confirmed the device’s moniker. The brand has chosen the name through a contest on X. The upcoming HMD phone is speculated to debut as a rebrand of the HMD Pulse that has been available in Europe since last month. The HMD Pulse is expected to launch in the US as HMD Vibe.
Last week, HMD India announced the launch of its first smartphone in India and launched a #HMDNameOurSmartphone contest on X asking users to suggest names. This different marketing strategy seems to have gained attention as it received multiple entries from the audience, suggesting names like Indhumanoid, Manbha, Naruto, Brahmos and more. The brand now seems to have chosen the name Arrow, as revealed by the Rajasthan Royals IPL Team’s X handle. The brand has tied up with the IPL team as their official smartphone partner during this year’s T20 season. The handset is confirmed to debut in the country in a few weeks.
The HMD Arrow is expected to come as an entry-level handset. It could be a rebranded version of the HMD Pulse. The latter was previously introduced in Europe for EUR 140 (roughly Rs. 12,460). It is sold in Atmos Blue, Dreamy Pink, and Meteor Black colour options.
HMD appears to use different names for the same smartphone in different regions. It is expected to unveil the Pulse in the US with HMD Vibe moniker.
The HMD Arrow is anticipated to have identical specifications as that of the HMD Pulse. The Pulse runs on Android 14 and sports a 6.65-inch HD+ (720×1,612 pixels) LCD screen with 600 nits peak brightness and a 90Hz refresh rate. It runs on an octa-core 12nm Unisoc T606 chip. It has a 13-megapixel rear camera and an 8-megapixel front-facing camera.
HMD Pulse features up to 128GB of inbuilt storage and houses a 5,000mAh battery with support for 10W charging.