HMD Arc

The HMD Arc has a conventional, non-folding form factor measuring 166.4 mm tall, 76.9 mm wide, and 9 mm thick, with a total volume of 115.16544 cm³ and a weight of 185.4 g. It carries an IP54 rating, meaning it can handle dust ingress and splashing water from any direction, though it is not built to rugged standards. The device does not feature a reinforced or ruggedized construction, so while the water resistance offers a practical degree of everyday protection, it is not intended for harsh or demanding environments.

The HMD Arc uses a 6.52-inch IPS LCD touchscreen with a resolution of 576 x 1280 px and a pixel density of 215 ppi, paired with a standard 60 Hz refresh rate and a typical brightness of 460 nits. The panel does not feature branded damage-resistant glass, an Always-On Display mode, or a secondary screen. On the content side, HDR10, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision are all absent, meaning the display handles standard dynamic range content only.

The HMD Arc is powered by the Unisoc SC9863A system-on-chip, built on a 28 nm process with an octa-core CPU arranged in a big.LITTLE configuration running at 4 x 1.6 GHz and 4 x 1.2 GHz across 8 threads, and a thermal design power of 3W. It is paired with 4 GB of DDR4 RAM running at 933 MHz across 2 memory channels, delivering a maximum memory bandwidth of 7.464 GB/s, while the chip supports a maximum memory amount of 6 GB. The 64 GB of eMMC 5.1 internal storage handles data, and the SoC integrates LTE connectivity alongside a PowerVR GE8322 GPU clocked at 550 MHz with a turbo frequency of 800 MHz, 4 execution units, and 128 shading units, supporting DirectX 11, OpenGL ES 3.2, and OpenCL 2. The chip is 64-bit capable and includes a 0.512 MB L3 cache. In benchmarks, the device scores 725 in Geekbench 6 multi-core and 164 single-core, 2956 and 901 respectively in Geekbench 5, and records a PassMark score of 1327 overall with a single-core result of 478.

The HMD Arc features a single-lens 13 MP rear camera built around a CMOS sensor, without a back-illuminated sensor or optical image stabilization. Autofocus options include phase-detection autofocus for photos and continuous autofocus during video recording, as well as touch autofocus, though laser autofocus is not present. The rear camera supports a range of manual controls — exposure, ISO, focus, and white balance — along with HDR mode, burst shooting, panorama, timelapse, and slow-motion video recording, while optical zoom, manual shutter speed, RAW capture, HDR10 recording, Dolby Vision recording, and 3D video are not available. Flash is handled by a single LED unit without dual-tone or RGB capability. On the front, a 5 MP single-lens camera is present in a conventional position above the display, with no front-facing flash and no under-display placement.

The HMD Arc runs Android 14, a free and open-source platform that supports multiple user accounts, device tracking, offline voice recognition, voice commands, and on-device machine learning. Privacy provisions include clipboard warnings, location privacy options, camera and microphone access controls, and the ability to block app tracking, though Mail Privacy Protection and cross-site tracking blocking are not included. On the customization side, the OS offers dark mode, dynamic theming, theme customization, widgets, customizable notifications, and an extra dim mode, while focus modes are absent. Productivity features cover split-screen multitasking, Picture-in-Picture, full-page screenshots, a media picker, sharing intents, Live Text, and the ability to play games while they are still downloading, though app offloading, Wi-Fi password sharing, PC mode, and Quick Start are not supported. A child lock, battery health check, and direct access to these Android features round out the software experience, though OS updates do not come directly from the vendor.

The HMD Arc houses a 5000 mAh rechargeable battery that is not removable. It supports fast charging at 10W, though wireless charging is not available, so replenishment is handled exclusively via cable. A battery level indicator is present to keep the user informed of remaining charge.

The HMD Arc includes a 3.5 mm headphone jack for wired audio and a built-in radio, though it lacks stereo speakers, meaning audio output is limited to a single speaker. On the wireless audio side, none of the higher-quality Bluetooth codecs are supported — aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, aptX Lossless, and LDAC are all absent.

The HMD Arc supports cellular connectivity with a dual SIM configuration, reaching download speeds of up to 300 Mbit/s and upload speeds of up to 150 Mbit/s, though 5G is not available. Wireless connectivity is handled by Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n) and Bluetooth 5.2, while NFC is absent. The device includes a USB Type-C port and an external memory slot for storage expansion, but there is no HDMI output. Location is covered by GPS with Galileo support, and an accelerometer is present, whereas a gyroscope, compass, barometer, and any form of motion or optical tracking are not included. Biometric security is provided via a fingerprint scanner, while 3D facial recognition and an iris scanner are not supported. Features such as ANT+, a heart rate monitor, infrared sensor, satellite SOS, crash detection, DLNA certification, a built-in projector, and a stylus are all absent.

The HMD Arc includes a video light for recording in low-light conditions. The display is flat rather than curved and uses neither sapphire glass nor an e-paper panel.