HMD Crest, HMD Crest Max launched with Unisoc T760 5G SoC and a repairable design

HMD has officially launched its own branded smartphones in India. The first HMD-branded devices to make it to India are the HMD Crest and Crest Max. The major highlight of the Crest phones is that they are repairable, which means you can replace the battery and back panel, among other things. Some of the other highlights include a large OLED display, a new Unisoc chipset, and up to 50MP selfie camera.

HMD Crest price in India, offers, and availability

The HMD Crest costs Rs 14,499 for the 6GB RAM + 128GB storage, whereas, the HMD Crest Max is priced at Rs 16,499 for 8GB RAM + 256GB storage. Buyers can purchase the phones at an introductory price of Rs 12,999 and Rs 14,999 with offers.

The Crest comes in three colours – Midnight Blue, Royal Pink, and Lush Lilac. The Crest Max has Deep Purple, Royal Pink, and Aqua Green shades. Both models will be available for purchase in the upcoming Amazon Great Freedom Sale. However, initially, the Crest will be available in Midnight Blue the Max model will be up for sale in Deep Purple.

Other than Amazon, you can also purchase the device on HMD.com. The HMD Crest phones compete with the likes of CMF Phone 1, Realme Narzo 70 5G, Lava Blaze X 5G, and others.

HMD Crest specifications and features

The first HMD-branded phones in India are affordable handsets with modest specs. The Crest phones have similar specifications, however, they differ in a couple of aspects such as the camera and RAM/ storage.

With that said, the Crest series has a boxier design featuring a glass back. The series has a 6.67-inch 90Hz OLED display with an FHD+ resolution. The Crest Max has a 50MP selfie camera, however, the details about the vanilla Crest’s front camera are unknown. There’s a dual-rear camera system on the Crest that starts with a 50MP AI main lens and a 2MP macro lens. The Max model has a triple-rear camera setup with a 64MP main lens, a 5MP ultrawide lens, and a 2MP macro unit.

A UnisocT760 chipset powers it. Although it’s a Unisoc SoC, it’s 5G enabled, making both the Crests 5G handsets. It’s a 5nm octa-core SoC with an AnTuTu score of 5.1 lakh+. The vanilla model has 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, whereas, the Max model gets 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.

Both pack a 5,000mAh battery with 33W fast charging. As said above, the phones are repairable, so you can get the back panel off and replace the battery anytime. The duo boots on Android 14 OS out of the box and are said to get the latest features and security updates from Google. The exact years of software support aren’t confirmed yet.