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.

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.