HMD Fusion X1: The first smartphone kids and parents can agree on?

I swung by HMD’s off-site MWC showcase today to get the full rundown on its latest budget smartphone, the HMD Fusion X1.

This is the first device from the brand’s The Better Phone Project initiative, which was announced last summer. The idea is to tackle the dangers faced by children and teens when exposed to the unfiltered dangers of the internet and social media, as well as the lasting impact that they can have on kids’ wellbeing.

Part of the initiative was canvassing around 36,000 children and parents to get a sense of how both parties feel about smartphones and all the problematic baggage that comes with them. The results, unsurprisingly, showed parents are increasingly concerned for their kids’ safety online, with 65% of the parents consulted expressing worry about the impact the internet has on their children’s mental health.

More troubling was that more than half of the children spoken to confessed having seen something online that they wished they hadn’t, with more than 40% stating that they had encountered sexual or violent content on the internet.

Understandably, most parents are hesitant to launch their children headfirst into the wild west of smartphone ownership, so the need for a compromise between what children want and what parents need has never been higher.

The HMD Fusion X1 is very much aiming to be that compromise, presenting as a nondescript smartphone that doesn’t embarrass the child with “baby’s first phone” designs while keeping a firm focus on strict security and extensive parental control.

This can be achieved either by using another HMD device or by downloading the Xplora app on any other brand of smartphone. Here, parents can customise their child’s access to the internet, social media, apps and general screentime, including a “School Mode” that cuts off distracting apps during school hours – although most schools don’t allow mobile phone use during the day anyway, so I’m not so sure how useful this particular feature will be.

There’s also low-battery alerts, SOS calling and whitelisting of contacts, meaning only people you approve can text or call your child, and location tracking. The latter also allows you to set safe zones – school or home, for instance – and the Xplora app will ping you when your child enters and leaves the zone.

All of these settings are customisable, allowing you to tailor the protection for yours and your child’s needs, as well as loosening restrictions as your child ages and you feel less need to keep as close an eye on them.

From the child’s perspective, the Fusion X1 is designed to offer everything that a teen would want in a smartphone – outside of the alluring Apple logo, of course, but that can’t be helped. There’s a decent 108-megapixel main camera, a 5,000mAh battery, which should see them through the day easily enough, IP54 splash resistance (admittedly less of a concern for the kids but good to know for the parents), fingerprint and face unlocking and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

As part of HMD’s Fusion range, the X1 is also customisable with several “outfits”. These modular components connect to the rear of the phone via pogo pins and add extra features to the phone. The Gaming Outfit speaks for itself, adding grips either side of the display and allowing mobile gaming. The Power Outfit adds a battery pack that extends the stamina and the Flashy Outfit adds a ring light for better selfies.

The latter in particular really impressed me during my hands-on time with the phone; clipping the module onto the back of the phone sees two new buttons pop up in the camera’s viewfinder; the first turns on the light and the second opens up controls for the brightness, colour and temperature. It was seamless in action and I can really see it being appealing to teens.

The dangers children face in the untamed wilds of the internet have long been a concern for parents and it’s only getting worse with each new social media trend that comes our way. As such, the idea of cutting that off at a device level and empowering parents with the control to keep their kids safe sounds like a smart move to me.

We don’t have a firm price or release date just yet but you can expect to hear more in the next few months. Check back in soon to see if the HMD Fusion X1 can prove to be the ultimate smartphone that children will want and parents can trust.