HMD has put out a sequel to the Arc without much fanfare, which is understandable once you look at what changed. New name, two new colours, and almost everything else carried over from a phone that launched in December 2024.
The screen is the same 6.52-inch IPS panel at HD+ and 60Hz. Same 13MP camera round the back, same 5MP selfie camera sitting in a waterdrop notch. The 5,000mAh battery and its 10W charging haven’t moved either, though you do still get a USB-C port, a headphone jack and a microSD slot, which is more than several phones three times the price will give you.
What’s supposedly new is the processor. HMD is said to have moved from the Unisoc SC9863A to a T603, trading a 28nm chip for a 12nm one clocked up to 1.8GHz, alongside 4GB of RAM and either 64GB or 128GB of storage. Take the chip claim with some caution, though. HMD hasn’t posted the Arc 2 to its own site yet, the upgrade is being sourced from a leaker rather than an official spec sheet, and earlier leaks on this device pointed at it keeping the old SC9863A entirely. A separate rumour had it on a T606. Until HMD publishes the page, the headline feature is the part nobody has confirmed.
The stranger detail is the software. Arc 2 ships on Android 14 Go, in the middle of 2026, which puts it two full Android releases behind before anyone has taken it out of the box. Budget phones get old software. They don’t usually start there.
It goes on sale on 20 July in Thailand in Dark Blue and Golden Beige, priced at THB 2,990, roughly $90 or €78.
