Nothing CMF Phone 1 review: Fun, bold budget phone

Ever since choices like replaceable batteries disappeared from smartphones, we’ve been begging for anyone to ship them once more. Some have tried, identical to the LG G5 with its Buddies modules or the Fairphone 5 with its ten interchangeable elements, nevertheless neither made a long-lasting affect. Now, a model new machine has entered the modular market: Nothing’s budget-friendly CMF Cellphone 1.

On the ground, it seems like a no brainer — pack a budget Android phone with some respectable specs and make it stand out with interchangeable once more panels and gear like a kickstand. In observe, the CMF Cellphone 1 doesn’t make life very easy, as a minimum not for anyone like me throughout the US. It’s a phone I’d wish to advocate to fully anyone in the hunt for a unbelievable funds phone for decrease than $200, nevertheless there are some points it’s important to know sooner than selecting one up.

Correct out of the sphere, the CMF Cellphone 1 seems to be like and seems like one factor new — significantly throughout the Gentle Inexperienced or Orange finish. It has a positive industrial aptitude to it with 4 screws throughout the sides and Nothing’s conventional dot-based branding on the once more panel. In some strategies, I consider the CMF Cellphone 1 rings a bell in my memory of the ill-fated Rabbit R1, nevertheless in a far more wise, modular sense than that of the aforementioned sq., overcomplicated AI companion.

In distinction to some of Nothing’s totally different designs, the place the business inspiration is there for aesthetics, the CMF Cellphone 1’s screws have a perform. Certain, they unscrew so that you’ll be capable of take the budget-focused machine apart — successfully, partly apart. It’s not pretty as thrilling as a really replaceable battery, nevertheless the CMF Cellphone 1’s 4 removable screws help you to remove and alter the once more panel to change the color of your machine along with add an non-compulsory vegan leather-based case to it. You’ll, in reality, moreover ought to take away the button-shaped Accent Degree throughout the bottom correct nook and the SIM tray on the underside edge, nevertheless these extra objects help you to mix and match colors to make your Cellphone 1 rather more distinctive.

If nothing else, that’s what I actually like regarding the Cellphone 1 — I might make it fully totally different daily. Together with these totally different backs I mentioned, you possibly can too resolve up wise attachments like a kickstand, a lanyard, and even a card holder to interchange your pockets. All three of them join throughout the bottom correct nook of the Cellphone 1, which suggests you must use them — most likely even a few of them — together with irrespective of once more plate you’ve chosen for the day. It actually is a neat setup, and it gives Nothing’s most fairly priced phone a strategy to face out from most of its budget-minded rivals.

Nonetheless, there’s a problem with the CMF Cellphone 1 in case you’re not a world purchaser: It’s nearly not potential to get any of the gear proper right here throughout the US. Certain, technically, the phone is simply obtainable stateside as part of a beta program (which we’ll get once more to later), nevertheless that doesn’t suggest it must be obtainable the least bit in case you possibly can’t reap the advantages of one among its key selling elements. Oh, and the phone comes with out an NFC chip — one factor I on no account thought I’d ought to say as soon as extra after Motorola lastly added one to its Moto G lineup.

Correct now, the easiest anyone stateside like me can do is check out the splash internet web page for the CMF Cellphone 1 over at Nothing.tech, see that it has an interchangeable design, and, successfully, that’s it. You presumably can’t attain a product internet web page to grab a singular case, the cardboard holder, or the remaining and never utilizing a really quick 404 error. Prospects abroad might have a bit greater luck — I was able to view the entire variety of gear on Nothing’s UK web site — nevertheless it absolutely doesn’t give me a terrific feeling regarding the state of the beta program throughout the US.

In the event you might get your fingers on the gear, you’ll uncover they’re barely powerful to swap in and out. I perceive that Nothing’s number of flat-head screws for its CMF Cellphone 1 was most probably completed with sturdiness in ideas (I assume?), nevertheless I’ve however to swap a single screw with out the included screwdriver slipping out of the groove about half a dozen events. As quickly as I acquired all the screws out so I’d change the black plastic once more panel, I wanted to spend one different ten minutes or so trying to wrestle the piece itself off the phone — not greatest. Moreover, the cardboard holder attachment makes use of fully totally different screws altogether, shopping for and promoting the flat heads for small orange knobs that it’s essential tighten by hand.

After which, there’s Nothing’s number of provides. Unsurprisingly, given the fairly priced and replaceable nature of the Cellphone 1’s elements, nearly the whole thing about it’s product of plastic. Granted, the physique and the interchangeable gear are fairly stiff plastic, nevertheless it absolutely’s plastic nonetheless. Which implies in case you drop it onto a concrete sidewalk whereas cheering on the Philadelphia Marathon — even one lined in leaves — you’ll most probably give you some hurt. Ask me how I do know.

Often, I’d brush off that hurt, realizing that it happens, nevertheless it absolutely has additional of a snowball influence on the CMF Cellphone 1. I, sadly, dropped my phone at such an angle that the plastic defending the present and the physique itself pushed into each other a bit, making it more durable to remove the black backing I’ve connected and alter it with a singular color now that it doesn’t sit fully. Thankfully, though, the 6.67-inch Gorilla Glass 5 display escaped unscathed. And no, putting the CMF Cellphone 1 in a case most probably wouldn’t have helped, as any case I used would have blocked me from using the gear.

Whether or not or not you spring for the CMF Cellphone 1’s fulfilling gear or not, you’re nonetheless getting the sunshine, clear Nothing OS experience, which is unquestionably well worth the price of entry by itself. It’s merely as lots a piece of the design as a result of the gear themselves, offering the appropriate mixture of dot-based widgets and accents whereas skipping the bloatware that usually bogs down fairly priced telephones. In reality, the black and white dots might not be for everyone — they’re generally exhausting to differentiate at a glance — nevertheless I can’t help loving the persona. It’s nearly as lots fulfilling to swap the widgets and fonts in and out because it’s to cope with the CMF Cellphone 1 like a hi-tech Erector set, significantly when so many alternative flavors of Android actually really feel very comparable.

Whereas I’ve come away from my time with the CMF Cellphone 1 a bit a lot much less impressed by its gear (and their lack of availability), its {{hardware}} beneath the hood significantly gained me over. Like Nothing’s totally different launches, it packs a mid-level MediaTek Dimensity chipset inside its plastic shell, this time backed by 6GB of RAM and 128GB of expandable storage on the bottom configuration — but yet another perform that’s largely disappeared from fashionable flagship telephones.

In case you need barely additional punch, you’ll be capable of seize the Cellphone 1 with as a lot as 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, which is more likely to be adequate that you just don’t have to worry about talked about microSD slot. Each method, you’ll be backing the Dimensity 7300 chipset, which sounds close to the Dimensity 7200 Skilled that Nothing used for every variations of its Cellphone 2a. These telephones, in reality, provide a bit larger than the CMF Cellphone 1 in relation to clock tempo and non-compulsory RAM — to not level out price — so I was curious to see how Nothing’s new funds offering would maintain.

Additional realistically, though, I was curious to see how the Cellphone 1 would fare in opposition to equally priced rivals like Motorola’s Moto G 5G (2024) and Samsung’s Galaxy A15 5G, so I set it up for our regular gauntlet of CPU and GPU benchmarks. Unsurprisingly, the CMF Cellphone 1 had no points outpacing its funds foes, breezing earlier decisions from Motorola and Samsung with ease. It stayed ahead of the respective Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 and Dimensity 6100 Plus processors in our predominant CPU check out and put in an excellent shift in opposition to the Nothing Cellphone 2a, coming out on prime with elevated multi-core effectivity even when it didn’t maintain on the single-core entrance.

The CMF Cellphone 1 moreover thumped its fairly priced Android rivals after I fired up the graphically intensive 3DMark stress checks, virtually tripling the output of every the Moto G 5G (2024) and Galaxy A15 5G. Greater however, it stayed rock-solid all through all 20 runs of the check out, suggesting that even when the CMF Cellphone 1 doesn’t stack up like a top-end gaming phone, it must nonetheless ship respectable effectivity in lighter titles and can have the flexibility to protect its diploma for a while comparatively than tailing off after a few minutes.

In precise life, though, the CMF Cellphone 1 feels even greater in opposition to plenty of the budget-focused Android market. Its punchy (for the worth tag) chipset is paired with an infinite 6.67-inch, 120Hz AMOLED present that’s brighter and sharper than Motorola’s LCD and Samsung’s private 90Hz AMOLED selection. Whereas I couldn’t use the CMF Cellphone 1 away from Wi-Fi (for causes I’ll get to), it handled my desires as a lightweight gaming phone for Pokemon TCG Pocket and Royal Match merely high-quality. I moreover used it as my transportable soccer studio over Thanksgiving, establishing Paramount Plus to take care of up with the Europa League video video games whereas the rest of my family caught to American soccer, glad to have the Full HD choice whereas selecting out players all through Roma’s last-minute attract opposition to Tottenham.

For most likely essentially the most half, that lightweight reliance on Wi-Fi meant that the CMF Cellphone 1’s 5,000mAh battery may remaining me quite a few days between prices. It wasn’t constantly looking for reliable mobile service (on account of it wasn’t going to get it), so the passive battery drain was minimal. In reality, to study the way in which the Cellphone 1 would cope with sustained utilization, I put it by our trusty drain check out and situated that it’d as quickly as as soon as extra maintain with the Nothing Cellphone 2a. Actually, the CMF Cellphone 1 beat its light-up sibling in pretty quite a few of our use situations, from the simulated Zoom title to repeated digital digital camera snaps, and every Nothing devices lasted hours longer than the Galaxy A15 5G and Moto G 5G all through most use situations.

Now that it’s crushed equally priced decisions from Motorola and Samsung in quite a few areas, it’s time to see how the CMF Cellphone 1 performs on a charger. On paper, the reply must be straightforward — Nothing’s funds selection claims that it helps as a lot as 33W wired charging to get you once more in your toes. That must be adequate to beat the Moto G 5G by virtually 15W and the Galaxy A15 by about 8W at prime speeds.

In observe, though, the effectivity isn’t virtually as shut as a result of the numbers counsel. I set the CMF Cellphone 1 up on my trusty Ugreen Nexode Skilled — one among many best chargers I’ve used — and situated that even supposing it spent most of its time at spherical 27W, it was able to finish charging a full 20 minutes before the Galaxy A15 5G and thumped the Moto G 5G by about 40 minutes. Based mostly totally on the graph, it seems to be like identical to the CMF Cellphone 1 was able to protect its peak charging tempo for for much longer than its opponents, holding tempo for about 40 minutes sooner than tailing off.

Sadly, it’s time to talk regarding the interchangeable elephant throughout the room — Nothing’s poor US band help. Much like with the Cellphone 2a and 2a Plus, Nothing is upfront concerning the reality that the CMF Cellphone 1 is primarily obtainable as part of a beta program. What which means, though, is that it has nearly not one of many bands needed for purchasers on Verizon and AT&T to utilize the phone efficiently. T-Mobile prospects are barely luckier, as a result of the Cellphone 1 covers elements of the 3G, 4G, and 5G spectrum, nevertheless as quickly as as soon as extra doesn’t help the entire set of bands needed.

As a Verizon purchaser, that restricted help turned my CMF Cellphone 1 right into a elaborate, customizable iPod Contact. I’d use it whereas associated to Wi-Fi and stream downloaded music to a pair of CMF Buds Skilled 2 that Nothing moreover despatched over (which can be pretty good — strive our review from sister site SoundGuys on the hyperlink), nevertheless it absolutely meant that the Cellphone 1 couldn’t bail me out if my Pixel 9 Skilled died whereas away from a charger. So, till you’re a T-Mobile purchaser in a well-supported area of the US, you must have a tough time with this one.

In case you’re outside of the US, though, the CMF Cellphone 1 has the effectivity chops (and band help) to compete with Android telephones every at and barely above its price stage.

Transferring on to but yet another area the place cheaper telephones are more likely to battle, it’s time to talk regarding the CMF Cellphone 1’s budget cameras — er, digital digital camera. Certain, I do know that there are technically two sensors on the once more of this plastic beast, nevertheless we solely really ought to dig into one on account of the alternative is a lowly 2MP depth sensor with a most aperture of f/2.4. It solely provides additional data and lightweight for its additional succesful confederate, so let’s flip our focus (pun supposed) to that hardly additional useful sensor.

Talked about main sensor is a 50MP that comes from Sony and packs the CMF Cellphone 1 with a portrait-ready most aperture of f/1.8. Nothing is barely delicate on the alternative particulars about its main digital digital camera, as a minimum regarding sensor dimension and specific branding, though it does tout Extraordinarily XDR help and AI Vivid modes on account of its Truelens Engine 2.0. Unsurprisingly, there could also be not lots else to say regarding the Cellphone 1’s elementary digital digital camera setup, so let’s get to a few sample footage.

Often, after I put collectively a gallery of sample footage for a phone, I’m solely in the hunt for the easiest ones. I usually snap away for the entire time I’ve a instrument and can be found away with a great deal of images I like. This time, though, I missed additional images than I hit — significantly in low delicate. As lots as I’m proud of the check out the rainforest a part of the Baltimore Aquarium after darkish, I’m completely disenchanted by the shot of the musician throughout the bottom row, which was taken no more than 5 minutes earlier. I assumed I held pretty nonetheless whereas snapping it, however the textual content material on the wall behind him is blurred, as is a bit of little bit of his hair.

For most likely essentially the most half, though, these misses are balanced out by the neat colors throughout the wider view of the precept aquarium tank and the view of Independence Hall. Every current respectable particulars all by way of, with the shot of Independence Hall attempting considerably crisp. The portrait mode shot of Ben Franklin isn’t unhealthy each, as a result of it exactly identifies the edges of his colonial go nicely with and hair. In reality, the lesson proper right here is that you could be get some pretty good views out of the CMF Cellphone 1 as long as you’re eager to be barely bit affected particular person — one factor that’s true of most funds telephones.

Sadly, the CMF Cellphone 1’s larger digital digital camera struggles come everytime you try and zoom. The scarcity of an ultrawide digital digital camera or a telephoto sensor signifies that the usual drops off shortly as quickly as you progress away from 1x zoom. Nothing’s lone sensor tops out at 10x zoom, which seems a bit too far, given the way in which by which that the shot of the sailboat and the seagull above turned out. Each little factor regarding the shot of the boat is a bit blurry, making it troublesome to tell the place the very best of the ship ends and the dock begins. Granted, the seagull is barely greater — you’ll be capable of as a minimum choose the bricks throughout the background —nevertheless the hen itself seems to be like nearer to gray than principally white. In case you’re eager to remain between about 1x and 4x zoom, though, Nothing’s lone sensor can preserve its private in good lighting.

Surprisingly, the easiest digital digital camera on the CMF Cellphone 1 is more likely to be its 16MP selfie shooter. It’s not going to supply the sensors on the Pixel 9 or iPhone 16 a run for his or her money, nevertheless it absolutely handled the colors and textures in my sweatshirt correctly, with solely slight ghosting throughout the white lettering. I’m decently impressed by the way in which it picked out the edges of my hair, too, as some low-cost Android telephones tend to cut curls off both aspect of my head.

For video recording, the CMF Cellphone 1 helps top quality as a lot as 4K choice at 30 frames per second or 1080p at as a lot as 60fps, every of which can be high-quality for this price tier. Nothing’s digital image stabilization is respectable, though you’ll have to stay at 1x zoom, as one thing extra has the an identical top quality battle as a result of the nonetheless footage above.

On the end of the day, I really, really just like the thought behind the CMF Cellphone 1, significantly at its very aggressive price stage. I have the benefit of swapping the gear in and out and realizing that the {{hardware}} screws will protect them locked securely in place. I moreover acknowledge the ability the Dimensity 7300 brings to the desk, significantly in opposition to totally different funds telephones. Nothing’s 33W wired charging setup is good, too, getting the CMF Cellphone 1 once more on its toes shortly as compared with fairly priced Android phones from Samsung and Motorola. Nothing OS could be a particularly trendy, lean pores and pores and skin, too, which is a breath of latest air when so many cheaper telephones are stacked with bloatware.

There are some funds phone concessions it’s essential maintain, though. Its lone 50MP digital digital camera has the potential to be really good, nevertheless it’s essential protect it extraordinarily safe in low delicate. While you get cozy with quite a few the digital digital camera quirks like that, though, you may uncover that one digital digital camera is all you need. I’ve nicked Nothing’s plastic physique by dropping the Cellphone 1 on a mattress of leaves, and the plastic once more is hard adequate to swap out that I’m having hassle hiding my unhappy accident. Two years of Android updates and a third yr of security patches doesn’t pretty match the Galaxy A15 5G in relation to long-term support, nevertheless it’s acceptable for a phone at this price tier throughout the US.

That, in reality, brings me once more to the kicker for the CMF Cellphone 1 — it’s merely a non-starter proper right here throughout the US. You can purchase it as part of the an identical beta program that covers Nothing’s Phone 2a (£319.99 at Amazon) and Nothing 2a Plus ($417.5 at Amazon), nevertheless it absolutely’s exhausting to hunt out right help. The restricted band setup means you’ll solely have entry to part of T-Mobile’s group, with radio silence coming from every Verizon and AT&T. Oh, and because you’ll be capable of’t buy Nothing’s vibrant gear stateside, you’re mainly searching for a funds phone with half of its supposed experience.

The rest of the world is getting a fulfilling little phone for a beautiful price, nevertheless as lots as I just like the considered the CMF Cellphone 1, in case you’re throughout the US like me, I consider I’ll ought to steer you in a single different course. Thankfully, the current state of the funds Android market stateside signifies that’s pretty easy to do anyway, which hasn’t on a regular basis been the case. Relying in your funds, there are lots of fairly priced Samsung Galaxy A devices to take a look at or Motorola Moto G decisions to consider, you’ll merely ought to resolve what points to you.

Personally, though, I consider the Galaxy A15 5G ($174.8 at Amazon) could be the easiest totally different, every for its longer software program program help and far more versatile triple digital digital camera setup. Certain, the CMF Cellphone 1 beats it from prime to bottom in relation to effectivity, battery life, and charging, nevertheless usually, the easiest phone is the one you must use most readily. Samsung’s offering moreover has NFC help, not just like the Cellphone 1.

Should you resolve to go Motorola, the Moto G 5G (2024) ($179.99 at Amazon) is the closest totally different. It’s organize someplace between the alternative two, pairing a reasonably good 50MP main digital digital camera with a 2MP macro sensor that constantly leaves me scratching my head. It’s correctly dressed up with a vegan leather-based once more panel in an eye fixed catching Sage finish, though, which is good. Motorola’s selection could be the one one among many three to rock an LCD panel, nevertheless it absolutely’s merely most likely essentially the most fairly priced of the bunch in case you’re trying to remain on a superb funds.

In some unspecified time in the future, when Nothing lastly presents wider US distribution, I’ll thankfully advocate the CMF Cellphone 1 (and the Cellphone 2a or 2a Plus) for funds Android followers over proper right here, nevertheless we’re merely not pretty there however. For everyone else, this one is a steal.