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.  Read more: 7 Best Smartphones in Tk 35000-45000 Range in July 2024 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. Read more: Honor 200 Pro Review: A Flagship Camera Experience 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.  Read more: vivo iQOO Z9x 5G Review: Budget Meets Substance 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.  Read more: Motorola Razr 50 Ultra Flip Phone Review: A Trip to Nostalgia 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.  Read more: Top 8 Smartphones Launching in August 2024: Features, Specs, and Release Dates 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 Read more: Oppo Reno 12 Pro 5G Review: Midrange Phone with AI Features 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.  Read more: Apple iPhone 16 Series: Everything We Know So Far 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. Read more: Price Ranges of Wi-Fi Internet Routers for Home Use in Bangladesh  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.  Read more: Motorola Moto G85 5G Review: A Flagship Grade Display on a Lower Mid-Range Smartphone.

Back in the day, Carl Pei challenged the status quo of flagship smartphones with his revolutionary OnePlus One. Fast forward 9 years and Carl has moved on from OnePlus and founded Nothing, no pun intended. With Nothing too, Carl wanted to disrupt the existing smartphone ideas. To that end, the company just announced the Nothing Phone 2, a successor to their Nothing Phone 1 released last year. So how is it as a device? What new features does it bring? Or is it just “nothing”? Let’s find out.  Key Specifications of Nothing Phone 2   Design and Build Quality  Those who are familiar with the Nothing Phone 1 would feel comfortable with the Phone 2. For a brand that brought a completely fresh design element with the Nothing Phone 1 has remarkably stayed true to the original design language.  Experts claim that this could be due to brand establishment needs. Nothing is a completely new player in the smartphone industry. So going for a drastically different design in just the second iteration would negate the brand establishment prospects.  Read more: Oppo Reno10 Pro+ 5G: Premium mid-ranger on the go Regardless, there are a few new things on the Phone 2. The most striking change is in the colour. The black variant of the Phone 1 has been replaced with a light grey colour which pops the clear back design more prominently. The clear back design has also been subtly tweaked to give a more polished and minimal look.  Dimension-wise, the Phone 2 is a tad bigger and heavier at 162.1mm by 76.4mm by 8.6mm and 201.2 gm respectively. The front and back of the device are glass with Corning Gorilla Glass protection with an aluminium frame in between.  The front camera has been moved from the side to the centre now. The uniform front bezel has also been reduced a bit to allow for an 87.2% screen-to-body ratio. It's not the best in the market, but the uniform distribution makes it look much slicker than most other smartphones at this price point. The usual ports and buttons are all in the same place as Phone 1 with no headphone or card slot, unfortunately.  Read more: Samsung Galaxy A54 vs realme 11 Pro+: Who wins the battle? Nothing has also upgraded the dust and water resistance from IP53 to IP54. Overall, the design element of the Phone 2 has slightly changed from the Phone 1. This has split the opinion of many. But as a brand, the choice of Nothing to stay with a similar design will only help to solidify their brand.   The Glyph Interface  The glyph interface has been one of the highlights of Phone 1. Simply because no phone before has incorporated such design elements. You can read more about the glyph interface in our original Phone 1 review. Not much has changed since then except for a few additional tweaks here and there.  The two most noticeable changes are in the red LED indicator and the centre strip. The video recording indicator has now been stretched to the edge instead of being a blinking dot. The centre strip has also been broken down into six separate pieces.  Read more: Infinix Note 30 Pro 5G Review: Powerful camera at an affordable price Nothing has brought some new functionalities to the glyph interface. The glyph on the top left will work as a priority notification indicator. It can also work as an indicator for car or food delivery ETA (available for Uber and Zomato on an experimental basis).  Users can now compose their own notification sound complete with glyph animations which is like another gimmick. In essence, barring a few useful additions, the glyph interface still remains a novelty trinket to have on a smartphone.  The Display  The display on the Phone 2 is a 6.7 inches LTPO OLED display with an 1080 by 2412 Pixels of resolution, 1 B colours, HDR10+ support, and a bumped-up 120 Hz refresh rate. The display has a 394 ppi density because of the uniform panel alignment. It was expected that the Phone 1 would feature a higher resolution panel but that didn’t turn out to be the case.  Read more: Walton NEXG N70 Review: Unlocking the Budget-Friendly Phone Regardless, the FHD+ panel still looks excellent as ever with 1600 nits HBM and a higher refresh rate. The uniform flat display alleviates the overall design aesthetic of the Phone 2. It almost feels like using an iPhone with Android OS.  The panel has excellent viewing angles and good color calibration. Overall, the display is easily one of the key strong points of the Phone 2.