HMD Aura 2

The HMD Aura 2 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 115.17 cm³ and a weight of 185.4 g. It carries an IP54 rating, meaning it offers a degree of protection against dust ingress and water splashes, though it does not feature a fully rugged build.

The HMD Aura 2 uses a 6.52″ IPS LCD touchscreen with a resolution of 576 x 1280 px and a pixel density of 215 ppi, refreshing at a standard 60Hz. Typical brightness is rated at 460 nits, and the panel does not feature branded damage-resistant glass, an Always-On Display mode, or support for HDR10, HDR10+, or Dolby Vision. There is no secondary screen, and the device relies solely on its primary touch panel.

The HMD Aura 2 is powered by the Unisoc SC9863A, a 28 nm octa-core chipset using big.LITTLE architecture with four cores clocked at 1.6 GHz and four at 1.2 GHz across 8 threads, paired with 4GB of DDR4 RAM running at 933 MHz and a maximum supported memory amount of 6GB. Graphics are handled by the integrated PowerVR GE8322 GPU, which operates at 550 MHz with a turbo clock of 800 MHz, 4 execution units, and 128 shading units, supporting DirectX 11, OpenGL ES 3.2, and OpenCL 2. The chipset has a TDP of 3W and includes integrated LTE. Storage comes in at 256GB via eMMC 5.1 with a maximum memory bandwidth of 7.464 GB/s across 2 memory channels and 0.512 MB of L3 cache. Benchmark results include an AnTuTu score of 154,110, Geekbench 6 multi-core and single-core scores of 725 and 164 respectively, Geekbench 5 results of 2,956 multi and 901 single, and a PassMark score of 1,327 with a single-core result of 478.

The HMD Aura 2 features a single-lens 13 MP rear camera with a CMOS sensor, phase-detection autofocus, touch autofocus, and continuous autofocus during video recording, backed by a single LED flash. Manual controls extend to ISO, exposure, focus, and white balance, while shooting modes include HDR, burst, panorama, timelapse, and slow-motion video; however, there is no manual shutter speed control, no optical zoom, no optical image stabilization, no laser autofocus, and the camera cannot shoot in RAW format or record in HDR10 or Dolby Vision. The sensor is not back-illuminated, and the flash is single-tone rather than dual-tone or RGB. On the front, a 5 MP single-lens camera handles selfies without a dedicated flash or an under-display placement, and neither camera supports 3D or 360-degree panorama capture.

The HMD Aura 2 runs Android 14, an open-source platform that supports multi-user access, split-screen multitasking, Picture-in-Picture, widgets, dynamic theming, dark mode, and an extra dim mode. Privacy features include clipboard warnings, location privacy options, camera and microphone access controls, and the ability to block app tracking, though cross-site tracking blocking and Mail Privacy Protection are not present. The OS also offers customizable notifications with a media picker, full-page scrolling screenshots, Live Text, sharing intents, a child lock, phone tracking, on-device machine learning, offline voice recognition, and voice commands. Battery health checking and the ability to play games while they download are supported as well, while Wi-Fi password sharing, focus modes, app offloading, a Quick Start feature, direct OS vendor updates, and the ability to use the device as a PC are not available.

The HMD Aura 2 is equipped with a 5000 mAh rechargeable, non-removable battery that supports fast charging at up to 10W. A battery level indicator is included, while wireless charging is not supported.

The HMD Aura 2 includes a 3.5 mm headphone jack and a built-in radio, but relies on a single speaker rather than a stereo setup. On the wireless audio side, none of the advanced Bluetooth codecs are supported, meaning aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, aptX Lossless, and LDAC are all absent.

The HMD Aura 2 supports 4G cellular connectivity with download speeds of up to 300 Mbit/s and upload speeds of up to 150 Mbit/s, and accommodates two SIM cards alongside an external memory slot for expandable storage. Wireless connectivity is handled by Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n) and Bluetooth 5.2, while the device connects via USB Type-C; 5G, NFC, HDMI output, and DLNA certification are not included. Location is covered by GPS with Galileo support, and an accelerometer is present, though a gyroscope, compass, barometer, infrared sensor, and motion or optical tracking are all absent. Security relies on a fingerprint scanner, as 3D facial recognition and an iris scanner are not available, and there is no stylus, heart rate monitor, ANT+ support, crash detection, emergency SOS via satellite, or built-in projector.

The HMD Aura 2 includes a video light for recording in low-light conditions, while its display is flat and standard — there is no curved panel, sapphire glass, or e-paper screen.