HMD’s Touch 4G is a dumb-smart-phone

The new HMD Touch 4G — only available in India for now, and unlikely to ever come to the US — splits the difference between smartphones and feature phones, offering a touchscreen and video calling, but with the small size (and price) of feature phones. Announced yesterday, the Touch costs just ₹4,999 (about $55). It looks mostly like a smartphone, but oddly smushed down: its screen is just 3.2 inches, and the whole thing only weighs 100g. That might make it sound like the small phone savior we’ve all been waiting for, but there’s an awful lot this phone can’t do. It doesn’t run on Android, instead using a custom OS called RTOS Touch. That means no Android apps — instead, you can access Cloud Phone Service, essentially a platform for basic HMD browser apps. You do get smartphone messaging options like group chats and video calls, but only in a specific app called Express Chat — it’s available for Android and iOS too, but you’ll have to persuade smartphone-owning friends to download it. A headphone jack helps, and at least it charges over USB-C. But you might need to invest in a microSD card, because the whopping 128MB of internal storage might not last long. [Image: https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/HMD_Touch_4G-Phone_Evolution-GenericSection.avif?quality=90&strip=all] [Image: https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/HMD_Touch_4G-Express_Chat_App-GenericSection.avif?quality=90&strip=all] [Image: https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/HMD_Touch_4G-Cloud_Phone_Service-GenericSection.avif?quality=90&strip=all] [Image: https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/HMD_Touch_4G-Cyan-FrontBack-In.avif?quality=90&strip=all]