Nothing Debuts CMF Phone 1 With Modular Design Starting at $199

[MacRumors]

CMF, a London-based sub-brand of Nothing, has officially announced the CMF Phone 1, boasting a highly customizable modular design and featuring some decent hardware specs for an Android smartphone that starts at just $199.

The CMF Phone (1) is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 7300 chipset and features a 6.67-inch FHD, 120Hz AMOLED display. There's a 50MP Sony camera on the back, accompanied by a second depth sensor for portraits, and a 16MP front-facing camera.

A 5,000 mAh battery offers up to two days of power on a single charge, and the base model comes with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. It also supports Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3 and 9-band Dual 5G. As it's a budget device, there are a few tradeoffs – there's no NFC, for example, and the device is only splash-resistant. There's also no wireless charging.

Look beyond the specs though, and the Android phone's big selling point is its unique screw-based system of interchangeable backplates and accessories. CMF Phone (1) users can switch out different colored shells (black, orange, blue, and light green, costing $35 each) using a supplied flathead screwdriver and screws, resulting in a completely different look, right down to a color-matched SIM tray.

One of the screw points includes a dial-style pop-out for mounting optional accessories, including a kickstand, a MagSafe-style wallet case, and lanyard, each costing $25. Accompanying the release of the phone are new CMF Buds Pro 2 wireless earbuds and a CMF Watch Pro 2 smartwatch.

Nothing's CMF Phone (1) is launching in the UK and the EU this week, with a launch in the US scheduled for later in July under a "Beta Program," so expect high demand and a possible waitlist. The device costs $199 in the US, £209 in the UK, and €239 in the EU.

Article Link: Nothing Debuts CMF Phone 1 With Modular Design Starting at $199

 

[JuicyGoomba]

£209 for a phone that has a 120hz 6.7" OLED display?

Why bother with that when you can have 60hz super retina ABCDXYZ extreme XDR edition for "only" £799 (iPhone 15 Plus).

In all seriousness though, while I prefer Pixel to Nothing, the Nothing devices are essentially Apple hardware design with some modern twists. They're excellent devices, and the highest end model is basically a £500 iPhone 15 Pro Max in all but name.

Ditching NFC for this CMF Phone though is ludicrous in the age of Apple/Google Pay, and means this device is dead in the water for a significant majority of people.

Nothing to see here.

 

[MilaM]

Don't know what it is, but I really like the design language of this budget phone. Reminds me of the Teenage Engineering gear. Have to agree though, no NFC is a bummer. Otherwise, decent specs.

 

[neuropsychguy]

Is it modular in the sense of only changing appearance, or can you actually replace or upgrade hardware components? Could you put in a better CPU or camera? Can the screen be easily replaced with something better? Or is this just surface modularity?

 

[Reverend Benny]

Its cheap for a reason, don't expect long support or fast releases when it comes to security and bugfixes.
Nothing is a cool brand with nice gadgets, but the are always behind Samsung and Pixel when it comes updates.

 

[BigTimEnergy]

Modular battery should be a must, you only need to look at everyone panicking about Battery Health on our forums to understand why..

 

[SanderEvers]

Modular battery should be a must, you only need to look at everyone panicking about Battery Health on our forums to understand why..

And the battery isn't replacible. Just the backplate. The battery is still glued.

 

[brofkand]

Is it modular in the sense of only changing appearance, or can you actually replace or upgrade hardware components? Could you put in a better CPU or camera? Can the screen be easily replaced with something better? Or is this just surface modularity?

I don't know if we'll ever see that level of modularity in smartphones - we are only just now seeing it with laptops with Framework.

 

[Six0Four]

I honestly can barely tell between 60hz and 120hz so I dont care, plus I think people whine about it way too much but I do care that apple can charge 1k CAD for a device with only a 60hz screen.

60hz or 8gb ram on a 1000 CAD device should be cRiminal.

 

[AppleTO]

Neat. I’d sure like to try out some other hardware. But, then I remember they all run Android…

 

[nfl46]

I mean for $200, it’s a no-brainer. I might pick one up just for the hell of it. It will be a nice backup phone if my 15PM breaks.

 

[dumastudetto]

Its cheap for a reason, don't expect long support or fast releases when it comes to security and bugfixes.
Nothing is a cool brand with nice gadgets, but the are always behind Samsung and Pixel when it comes updates.

3 years of major Android updates and 4 years of security updates

 

[jdclifford]

And the battery isn't replacible. Just the backplate. The battery is still glued.

The article states it has up to 2 days of power on a single charge. Compare that to the iPhone battery life measured in hours.

 

[SoldOnApple]

Modular phones don't work. A camera that can clip on magnetically might, but still no one wants to carry a bulky camera pick in their pockets. Kids seem fine paying thousand for a good phone still.

 

[dumastudetto]

£209 for a phone that has a 120hz 6.7" OLED display?

Why bother with that when you can have 60hz super retina ABCDXYZ extreme XDR edition for "only" £799 (iPhone 15 Plus).

In all seriousness though, while I prefer Pixel to Nothing, the Nothing devices are essentially Apple hardware design with some modern twists. They're excellent devices, and the highest end model is basically a £500 iPhone 15 Pro Max in all but name.

Ditching NFC for this CMF Phone though is ludicrous in the age of Apple/Google Pay, and means this device is dead in the water for a significant majority of people.

Nothing to see here.

£179.99 if you pre-order on Amazon UK right now.

 

[Marty80]

For shame the iPhone’s design language is aging badly, much like the previous gen iMac before Cook was bold enough to update it.

 

[nt5672]

Finally some innovation, low cost and modularity. Wonder how many years will it take for Cook to get on the band wagon.

 

[MilaM]

The article states it has up to 2 days of power on a single charge. Compare that to the iPhone battery life measured in hours.

iPhones also have excellent stand-by. Put it in a drawer, and it will last for up to week on one charge 😂.

 

[Reverend Benny]

3 years of major Android updates and 4 years of security updates

Quite impressive if its applies to the cmf phone, still it doesn't say how fast the updates will be pushed out and my experience is that Nothing is fairly slow pushing the monthly updates out compared to Samsung and Google.

Edit: Some of the cheaper Samsung A models isn't the best at pushing out updates if it has entered quarterly updates

 

[victorvictoria]

So what? Am we supposed to dump our Macs, Homepods, iPhones, Apple Watches, Apple TVs, and iPads and go with Android/Windows, so we can buy an Android phone for $200? That's going to cost a wee bit more than $200!

 

[dannyyankou]

I don't know if we'll ever see that level of modularity in smartphones - we are only just now seeing it with laptops with Framework.

It's funny because I'm old enough to remember when MacBooks had a removable battery. But the battery on MacBooks is so insane these days they it's unnecessary.

 

[dumastudetto]

Quite impressive if its applies to the cmf phone, still it doesn't say how fast the updates will be pushed out and my experience is that Nothing is fairly slow pushing the monthly updates out compared to Samsung and Google.

Edit: Some of the cheaper Samsung A models isn't the best at pushing out updates if it has entered quarterly updates

My wife has an A52s 5G and it's still getting monthly updates (mostly, somethings they can be a bit late). It was released back in September 2021. It's on its last major OS update now (released a few months ago), so I expect it'll move to quarterly updates later this year when Android 15 is released.

That said, I would absolutely expect updates from Nothing to lag behind by a month or two (or three).

 

[dumastudetto]

So what? Am we supposed to dump our Macs, Homepods, iPhones, Apple Watches, Apple TVs, and iPads and go with Android/Windows, so we can buy an Android phone for $200? That's going to cost a wee bit more than $200!

Of course not. For those of us fully immersed in the Apple ecosystem, we'll never switch. But it's interesting to see a decent spec handset at this price point.

 

[arkitect]

£209 for a phone that has a 120hz 6.7" OLED display?

Why bother with that when you can have 60hz super retina ABCDXYZ extreme XDR edition for "only" £799 (iPhone 15 Plus).

In all seriousness though, while I prefer Pixel to Nothing, the Nothing devices are essentially Apple hardware design with some modern twists. They're excellent devices, and the highest end model is basically a £500 iPhone 15 Pro Max in all but name.

Ditching NFC for this CMF Phone though is ludicrous in the age of Apple/Google Pay, and means this device is dead in the water for a significant majority of people.

Agree.

I was just about to nab one off Amazon when I noticed no NFC… pretty ridiculous.

 

[mystery hill]

A phone with a 6.7-inch FHD 120Hz OLED 2000 nits peak brightness for $199.

Apple charge $200 just to increase the RAM by 8GB on Macs.