I have never owned an Android phone but wanted to have a sense of the world across the fence. So, when I saw tweets about this phone I thought I’d preorder it, it only costs £209, so why not give it a try, right?
The day of preorder, I had my apprehensions, but there was a further deduction on the price to £179 and it only made sense to get it, which I did.
I have been using this phone for the last few weeks, but it is in no way my main phone. Days have gone in between without me even touching this new phone. I haven’t given it enough time to call this a full review. However, there are a few things which are noticeable enough for someone like me, who has only owned and used iPhones throughout the years. Also, this isn’t going to be about Android operating system but the CMF Phone 1 instead.
The Price
I spend more than a grand on an iPhone every year, and the CMF Phone 1 cost me less than one-fifth the price of the iPhone. Does that mean I only get one-fifth of the value or the features compared to the Apple telephone? Of course not! The phone at this price is a steal for what it offers. I have always felt that the iPhones are expensive but the CMF Phone 1 makes it feels as if the iPhone prices are nothing but exorbitant. This phone is not going to stop me buying iPhones, but for someone looking for a phone, and price is a factor (as it always should be), this phone is a great deal. Yes, a lot of decisions were made to get the CMF Phone 1 to this price point, and it doesn’t have many of the features a flagship phone would. But for someone who wants a good enough phone for this price, the CMF Phone 1 is not just good, it’s great.
The Design
The Display
The CMF Phone 1 phone has a 6.67″ display with 2000 nits peak brightness, and this really impressive considering the price. The colour reproduction isn’t going to match any high end phone, but it is still a really good display.
The icing on the cake is the 120Hz adaptive refresh rate. If you are from the world of Android phones, this might not sound like a big deal, but for me in the Apple universe where only Pro phones get this feature, this is a big deal indeed. I don’t think the average customer cares about refresh rates, and I also think the issue of Apple still having 60Hz screens on their non-Pro phones is overblown. But kudos to Nothing for getting for getting a 120Hz screen in a phone that costs this little compared to an non-Pro iPhone which starts around three times the price of the CMF Phone 1.
What diminishes the greatness of the display is what’s around it – the bezels. They are a bit too thick for a 2024 phone, and the bezel on the bottom is bigger than the other three making it uneven. This is where Nothing has cut some corners to keep the price low, but again, only tech nerds care about these things. Most people won’t, but if you are reading this, you probably do.
Modular, but Plastic
The phone has a bit of whimsy, thanks to interchangeable back covers and accessories, which was the main marketing point for this phone, if you ask me. If you don’t know what I am talking about, this video should help.
I love that a phone in 2024 is doing this, especially that the most modification you can do on high-end devices from all manufacturers is that you can apply a skin or put on a different case. Nothing went in the way of helping you make your phone truly yours by making it easy to change the hardware, even though it might be limited to the back case, etc.
The drawback is that the back case is plastic, and it’s not the nice feeling plastic of an iPhone 5c, but a very cheap feeling one. Especially when you remove the back cover you notice how flimsy it is. However, this is only a factor when the back is removed. Think of it akin to a flimsy phone case – it does not really matter when it’s attached to the phone.
The Fingerprint Sensor
The phone has an in-display fingerprint sensor. The last time I used my fingerprint as a biometric security to get into my phone was on my iPhone 7 Plus in 2017. It has been all FaceID since then. The fingerprint sensor on the CMF Phone 1 is not a similar sensor to the one from the Apple iPhone, this one is in the display itself, which Apple has never done.
I can’t compare this to another in-display sensor, but having secure biometrics on a phone is great feature. From my experience, the sensor on the CMF Phone 1 is fast enough to recognise my finger and is much faster than entering a four-digit code to get into the phone.
All this said, I did felt uneasy setting my fingerprints on a device not made by Apple. I trust Apple with my data and biometrics; Google? Not so much. Not because they are nefarious, but because my relationship with Apple is built on trust.
On a side note, my work laptop is a Dell machine, which has a fingerprint scanner that almost all of my colleagues use. I don’t. I type in my password like I belong in the Flintstones. Again, trust.
The Camera
The reason I buy an iPhone every year is that I want the latest and greatest (arguably) camera in my pocket at all times. The CMF Phone 1 has two cameras, not two cameras on the back, but two cameras in total – one on the front for video calls and selfies, and one on the back.
But looking at the back of the phone, you see two “lenses”, except that only one of them is an actual lens, and the other is a depth sensor. The camera app does let you do a virtual 2x crop. And overall I found the camera adequate.
That is all I can and want to say about the camera. Comparing this agains’t my iPhone 15 Pro Max today isn’t fair against the CMF Phone 1. I’d even argue the iPhone XS Max from over half a decade ago took better photos and videos. This does not mean that the CMF Phone 1 has a bad camera, not at all. For the price it might be the best in class, but as someone who takes a lot of photos on my iPhone it will not be a fair comparison and I am obviously biased. I did make some comparisons between my iPhone 15 Pro Max and the CMF Phone 1, keep an eye on this site – i’ll post the comparisons.
No Wireless Charging
The only way to charge this phone is by plugging it in via USB-C. Personally I have been really onto Qi/MagSafe charging and have a few chargers lying around the house, so I rarely plug my phone in. I felt the difference using the CMF Phone 1, asI had to plug it in when I was charging.
The battery life was good; as I said in earlier I would sometimes not use the phone for days and the phone would not die – the standby time was great. I can’t comment on how good or bad the battery life is as I didn’t use this as my main phone, but I guess the 5000 mAh battery would have been up to the task. Except that when I had to charge the phone, I had to plug it in, and it felt a bit unusual.
I am not asking for Qi2, but at least Qi would have been good.
No NFC
This is the biggest drawback of this phone. It means you can’t use Google Pay or anything like that. I am aware that the CMF Phone 1 is predominantly targeted towards India where QR codes are used for payments more often than NFC. The lack of NFC might not be a big deal in India compared to the UK. In the UK, NFC is used everywhere, and Apple Pay on both my phone and watch is a delight. I feel like this is a missed opportunity for Nothing, having NFC would have made this phone more popular in the UK.
I wonder how many people purchased this phone only to find that NFC is not included and decided to return it. NFC is so common that everyone assumes it is available – unless it’s not, like in the case of the CMF Phone 1. It is obvious that this was to keep costs down, but I would have dropped 5G or Wi-Fi 6 to get NFC included.
Other tidbits
Physical Dual SIM/ Expandable Storage
Almost all high end Samsung and Google phones don’t give you expandable storage options, but the CMF Phone 1 has a slot for another additional physical SIM or expandable storage. The external storage is upgradable up to 2Tb. Want more space to store your media? this phone has options.
Preinstalled Screen Protector
I first put a screen protector on my iPhone 4S in 2011 as soon as I got the phone, and after a couple of months the edges started peeling and I took it off with the intention of replacing it. Only then did I notice the clarity of the Retina display and decided I am never putting screen protectors as they get in the way of the display’s clarity.
It’s 2024, and screen protectors have come a long way – they no longer distort the clarity of what you see on the screen. And I bet at least 95% of the population use a screen protector on their phone. I don’t, but I am the anomaly.
The CMF Phone 1 comes with one preinstalled, Nothing could have saved a few pennies here but they did not; the phone comes with it, but if you don’t want it, you are free to remove it. Nothing didn’t have to do this, as the price of the phone is really “cheap”, but they didn’t and I applaud the manufacturer for that. This is in no way an important factor in deciding a phone (unless you are getting one of those foldable phones), but it’s something I noticed. At a time where phone manufacturers try to get rid of accessories, this was a surprise.
Closing Thoughts
Good phones cost around £700, the best ones cost over £1000 – that’s what I thought before getting this phone. The CMF Phone 1 has made me rethink this. I am lucky and blessed to be able to afford a £1000 phone. But if I couldn’t and had “settle” for this £200 phone, I feel like I would have been extremely satisfied and would not even think of a £1000 phone. But then, if I only had around £200, I know there are other Android phones at that range. Does the CMF Phone 1 come up on the top at the price range? I don’t know.
For what Nothing wanted to achieve and for the price I think this is a 8/10 phone – if you are living in a country where NFC is not used everywhere, that is. The lack of NFC makes this a 6/10 phone, at least for me in the UK. I use Apple Pay almost every day on my phone and watch. If I was to make my CMF Phone 1 my main phone, the lack of NFC would drive me nuts.
I do not know neither care about sales numbers of this phone, but I hope it becomes profitable for Nothing to go ahead and make a CMF Phone 2 that includes NFC and wireless charging. Moore’s Law and Wright’s Law both tell suggest that technology will get cheaper. Hopefully, in a couple of years, we get a CMF Phone 2 phone that addresses these shortcomings but at the same price.
