HMD XploraOne: a €179 phone for kids with no social media and a 19-day battery

By: Anton Kratiuk | today, 16:00

If you've been putting off buying your child a smartphone because you don't want them on TikTok at age nine, HMD has an answer. The company — best known for its Nokia-branded Android phones — has co-developed the XploraOne with Norwegian kids-tech firm Xplora, and the result is a €179 phone that deliberately leaves out the browser, the app store, and social media. It's aimed squarely at the "first phone" moment that most parents dread.

What it actually is

The XploraOne runs RTOS Touch OS, not Android. That's a lightweight, real-time operating system that keeps things simple by design. Specs are minimal: a 3.2-inch QVGA (320×240) IPS display, a 2MP rear camera, 64MB of RAM, and 128MB of built-in storage — expandable to 32GB via microSD. These numbers look laughable compared to any modern smartphone, but that's the point. There's no YouTube to buffer, no apps to hog memory.

What it does have is more interesting: LTE, eSIM support, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, and GPS. The 1,950mAh battery is rated for up to 19 days on standby — realistic given how little the OS demands. It charges via USB-C and keeps a 3.5mm headphone jack.

The parental controls angle

The XploraOne is built around a set of safety features managed through the Xplora Guardian app. Parents can set a contact whitelist (the child can only call or message approved contacts), enable School Mode to lock the phone during lessons, and track the child's location. There's also a physical SOS button on the device that sends an alert to a parent's phone.

HMD says a survey of 25,000 families found half of parents are reconsidering giving their child a full smartphone. The XploraOne is a direct response to that anxiety — a device that keeps a child reachable without handing them the open internet.

UK and European availability

In the UK, XploraOne pre-registration is live at Xplora UK, with an eSIM plan starting at £9.99 per month. The European launch window is winter 2025 at €179. Exact UK retail channels and a firm release date haven't been confirmed yet. The Fusion X1, Xplora's teen-focused device, has been available in the UK since June 2025 — so the infrastructure is already in place.

The HMD Better Phone Project frames the XploraOne as part of a broader push toward intentional, less addictive devices. Whether parents find the price reasonable for what is essentially a very capable feature phone depends on how much they value the peace of mind it's designed to sell.