HMD's new school phone has no games — not even Snake
If you've ever wished your kid's phone could do less, HMD has an answer. The company just revealed the HMD 105 4G School Edition, a feature phone built around a single premise: remove everything that isn't a call or a text. No browser, no voice recorder, and no games — including Snake, the one app that's survived on dumbphones for decades.
The restrictions
The School Edition runs on the same hardware as the standard HMD 105 4G, so all the changes are software-side. What's gone: the web browser, games, and voice recorder. What stays: calls, SMS, and 4G connectivity. For parents who want to go further, a PIN-protected parental control menu lets you also block Bluetooth, MMS, and FM radio independently.
The hardware
The specs are minimal by design. The phone has a 2.4-inch QVGA display, 64MB of RAM, and 128MB of internal storage — enough for contacts and messages. There's a microSD slot for up to 32GB if more space is needed. Charging is via USB-C, there's a 3.5mm headphone jack, an LED torch, and a dedicated shortcut key for SMS. The removable 1,450 mAh battery is rated for 15 days of standby, so a forgotten charger won't become an excuse for a missed call home.
The market
The dumbphone-for-kids segment is growing. Devices like the Bark Phone and the Light Phone III already compete on parental controls, though they typically cost far more and lean on software monitoring rather than hardware lockdown. HMD's approach is blunt — strip the firmware — which means no geolocation tracking or usage reports that more expensive rivals offer. Per the WhistleOut dumbphones guide, parents increasingly want both simplicity and oversight; the School Edition delivers the former but skips the latter.
Price and availability
HMD hasn't confirmed pricing or a release date for the School Edition. The base HMD 105 4G retails for around $20–40 depending on region, so the School Edition is likely to land in the same ultra-budget range. No US or UK availability has been confirmed yet, so it may arrive first through European distributors before rolling out more widely.