It’s perhaps worse for someone who tests phones for a living, but I think you’d agree that the smartphone market has been pretty boring over the last few years.
Similar designs and minimal upgrades in hardware have meant AI is the big trend right now, but Nothing is doing something completely different, and I love it.
The firm is still relatively new on the scene and its sub-brand CMF is even more. However, its first smartphone is here to shake up the market, specifically the budget end which is typically the most boring of all.
And there’s really no reason for it to be that way as Nothing has proven with the CMF Phone 1.
It particularly stands out with its design and not just because it’s bright orange. It’s a throwback to much earlier days of mobile phones when they could be taken apart and customised – it hugely appeals to the tinkerer in me.
Those stainless steel screws aren’t just for show. Just like the old days, you can take them out (tiny screwdriver included) and remove the rear cover then attach a different one. There are four colours in total: orange, black, blue and light green – all for £29/$35.
The fun doesn’t stop there because the mysterious dial on the corner which we all wanted to know its purpose is to attach various accessories.
Unscrew it and you can then add things like a kickstand or lanyard. Simple but effective and fun. They are £19/$25 each and only come in orange, which is fine for me unless the light green back cover is equipped.
The final accessory – hopefully more are on the way – is a card holder which is a panel that attaches via the smaller screws and then a wallet part which attaches via magnets in an Apple MagSafe-esque way.
Again, it’s £19/$25 and is only in orange at launch.
All of this means the CMF Phone 1 offers something very different to rivals and starts at just £209 or $199.
It’s no slouch in the specs department either with a 120Hz 6.7-inch Super AMOLED display, 50Mp rear camera, a MediaTek Dimensity 7300 chipset, a 5000mAh battery, and 33W fast charging. It’s very similar to the Nothing Phone (2a).
A couple of things to note with the removable rear cover is that it means there’s no waterproofing (just splash resistance) and sadly the battery isn’t removable like a Nokia 3210 – though it should be much easier to replace than most modern smartphones.
There’s also no NFC but I think it could still be the best budget smartphone of 2024 and we’ll have a review soon to see if that’s the case (pun unintended).
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