HMD is leaning into tech versatility with a new pair of earbuds that double as a charging bank for your phone.
Announced on Monday at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, the HMD Amped Buds are relatively simple earbuds — but inside the battery case, they have a 1,600mAh battery that can wirelessly charge a compatible smartphone.
As well as other features you would expect from modern earbuds like active noise cancellation and EQ controls, the Amped Buds support the magnetic Qi2 wireless charging standard — which means that the earbuds can attach magnetically to your Qi2 compatible Android device, or any iPhone that supports MagSafe (so, not the iPhone 16e). Phones that don’t have the Qi2 or MagSafe magnets can still charge wirelessly using the earbuds, but they won’t attach to each other magnetically, so you’ll have to hold them together or stack them on a table. And, there’s a USB port that you can use to charge devices with a wired connection.
These weren’t the only launches from HMD at MWC 2025. The company also took the wraps off of a few unique smartphone models, including the HMD Fusion X1, which is a budget device that’s built specifically for teenagers. The device is built to give full control to parents, through deeper integration with the Xplora monitoring platform, which costs €4.99 per month. Xplora includes GPS tracking every 20 seconds, low battery alerts, and even remote device access.
Credit: HMD
The phone has a Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 and expandable storage. Even better is the fact that it supports the HMD Fusion accessories, through six pins on the back of the phone. These include things like ring lights, batteries, and gaming controllers.
Perhaps cooler than the HMD Fusion X1 is the also-new HMD 2660 Flip, which is built for those who want a little less connectivity in their lives. The has a display, but it’s not a touch display, and it has an old-school 0.3-megapixel camera and FM radio. Basically, its tech is reminiscent of the kinds of phones you might have had 20 years ago (something HMD does a lot), but the fact is that these days some people want a bit of a digital detox every now and then.
Mashable’s on the ground at MWC 2025 covering the best tech products that have Barcelona abuzz.
