Nothing CMF Phone 1 Review: Budget-friendly Phone with Innovative Modular Design

Dhaka
August 24, 2024, 11:30 AM
by Shahriar Rabab

UNB News
Dhaka
Publish- August 24, 2024, 11:30 AM
Shahriar Rabab
Update- August 24, 2024, 11:43 AM

Nothing CMF Phone 1

Last year Nothing launched CMF, a sub-brand aimed at catering to a wider range of consumers. While Nothing in itself was innovating consumer tech with glyph-interfaced smartphones and transparent headphones, the CMF line brought a more minimalist and affordable design to Nothing’s arsenal. CMF launched its first budget-friendly smartphone, the Phone 1 on 9th July 2024. Let’s take a detailed look at the key features, pros, cons, and price of the CMF Phone 1.

Key Specifications of Nothing CMF Phone 1

Design and Build Quality

Ever since Carl Pei left OnePlus and started Nothing, he has been on a quest for innovation. Arguably, the glyph interface on the Nothing Phones is either a gimmick or actually useful depending on users. But with the CMF Phone 1, there’s this modular design that opens a host of possibilities along with ensuring ease of reparability.

The smartphone has a removable case back bolted in place by screws. The accessory point at the bottom can be interchanged with either a stand, lanyard, or even a card case.

The device itself comes in at 164 mm by 77 mm by 8.2 mm (standard vs vegan leather back). It’s also pretty lightweight at around 197 or 202 g. Ports and buttons are all as usual with extendable storage, an optical fingerprint sensor, and a secondary noise-cancellation mic. However, there is no headphone jack even at this price.

The device is also IP52 dust and water-resistant. In terms of design innovation in the budget-friendly segment, the CMF Phone 1 easily surpasses any of its competitors by miles.

The Display

The display on the Nothing CMF Phone 1 is a 6.67 inches Super AMOLED LTPS panel with a 120 Hz high refresh rate, Ultra HDR+, and 8-bit color. The high refresh rate is complemented by a 240 Hz touch sampling rate and 960 Hz of PWM dimming for ease of use. The panel comes in a 1080 by 2400 resolution which is good enough for 395 ppi density and 85.1% screen-to-body ratio.

Additional features include a 1000000:1 contrast ratio, 700 nits typical, and 2000 nits of peak brightness.

But the Phone 1 stands out from its peers because of its near-uniform front bezel. Nothing has managed to shrink the bottom chin to the point that it almost feels like a uniform display at first glance. The performance of the panel was also pretty great with good viewing angles and constant high refresh rate.

The Camera

There’s a dual camera setup on the Phone 1 with the main camera being a 50 MP f/1.8 shooter with PDAF. The secondary camera is a 2 MP f/2.4 depth shooter. The front camera is a 16 MP f/2.0 wide-angle shooter.

While the Sony IMX882 and the 2 MP SmartSens SC202 sensors are modest at best. What’s impressive about the Phone 1 is the True Lens Engine 2.0. It’s a set of software features like Ultra XDR, AI vivid mode, night mode, and motion capture.

In terms of performance, the Phone 1 performs well in daylight conditions. We saw natural colors with good contrast and dynamic range. However, the details on the pictures weren’t as prominent. The portrait mode is also a hit or a miss at times as the camera stutters to separate the subject from the background. The nighttime photography was also decent thanks to the Ultra HDR rendering which did a pretty good job at exposure and details. The front camera was able to shoot decent social media-ready selfies each time.

The True Lens Engine slightly bumps up the quality of the images but it's nothing that would stand out in comparison with a flagship or even a mid-range smartphone.

The videography on the Phone 1 is rated at 4K@30fps and 1080p@30/60fps. But the footage isn’t all that great as there are no stabilization options other than the gyro-EIS.

Processor and Performance

The CMF Phone 1 is running on Mediatek Dimensity 7300 based on a 4 Nm architecture. The octa-core processor has a 4x2.5 GHz Cortex-A78 & 4x2.0 GHz Cortex-A55 chip design with Mali-G615 MC2 GPU.

The Dimensity 7300 performs slightly better than the Snapdragon 782G in terms of raw performance. Day-to-day use on the Phone 1 was a breeze with no lags or stutters anywhere. Gaming was also decent as PUBG showed a stable frame rate at Smooth/Ultra settings. COD and Asphalt 9 ran at max settings without any issues.

Its RAM power ranges from 6GB to 8GB. While the internal storage reaches up to 256GB starting from 128GB. CMF Phone 1 is available in three variants: 128GB by 6GB RAM, 128GB by 8GB RAM, and 256GB by 8GB RAM.

We also didn’t notice any strong heating issues as the Phone 1 has an elaborate liquid and graphite cooling system.

Benchmark

GeekBench 6: 1028 (single core); 2920 (multi-core)

Antutu 10: 646635

3DMark Wild Life: 3142

Software

The software on the CMF Phone 1 is Nothing OS 2.6 based on Android 14. The Nothing OS is unique with its dot-matrix layout and material design. There’s virtually no bloatware on the OS and everything runs smoothly with integrated essential features. This might be the best stock like Android skin out in the market if you prefer material aesthetics.

Nothing has committed to 2 years of software updates and 3 years of security patches for the CMF Phone 1.

Battery and Charge Time

The battery on the CMF Phone 1 is 5000 mAh. The device supports up to 33W wired fast charging and 5W reverse wired charging. The Phone 1 easily lasts a day of heavy use on a single charge.

Pros and Cons of Nothing CMF Phone 1

Pros:

- 6.7 inches LTPS AMOLED panel
- 120 Hz refresh rate
- Modular design with attachment options
- Interchangeable back
- IP52 rating
- Impressive performance
- True Lens Engine 2.0 on the cameras

Cons:

- No video stabilization features other than gyro-EIS
- No NFC
- Single loudspeaker.

Price of Nothing CMF Phone 1

The CMF Phone 1 is available in 6/128 GB and 8/128 GB variants in India. The prices are 15,999 and 17,999 INR respectively (with offers). It roughly translates to around 22,795 and 25,645 BDT respectively (1 INR = 1.42 BDT).

Verdict

The Nothing CMF Phone 1 is an impressive device for its price. The modular back and the attachment options open a door to possible accessories in the future. It's great to see some degree of innovation even in the budget-friendly segment.

The Phone 1 stands out in its display, processor, and design. The camera could have been better, but at an affordable price, the room to complain is much less. You can definitely pick this one up or alternatively go for Samsung Galaxy A35 or Xiaomi Redmi Note 13.