Nothing’s CMF Cellphone 1 provides you a modular Android expertise on a funds

Till 2024, CMF, Nothing’s budget tech brand, has largely been a curiosity, producing plastic-y, distinctive earbuds and different equipment which are primarily focused on the areas Nothing’s present mid-range telephones and wireless earbuds do not attain. The CMF Phone 1 adjustments that.

Nothing’s new funds telephone brings customization and an attention-grabbing design to the funds smartphone house, in some ways reinventing what it means to be a “function telephone.” The Cellphone 1 isn’t any Fairphone 5 when it comes to repairability, however it does have probably the most character of any telephone I’ve held, and on prime of that, it is a stable Android machine in its personal proper. Whether or not or not you are taken with its gimmick, the CMF Cellphone 1 exhibits the standard of Nothing’s first two telephones weren’t a fluke.

CMF Cellphone 1

Nothing’s first funds, the CMF Cellphone 1, is a stable Android telephone with a novel system for attaching and detaching equipment like a kickstand, lanyard, and pockets.

Execs

• Accent system is cool and helpful
• The most effective wanting funds telephone on the market
• Offers you every little thing you want from smartphone

Cons

• Efficiency leaves one thing to be desired
• Digicam does poorly in low mild

See our course of

How we test and review products at Pocket-lint

We do not do arm-chair analysis. We purchase and take a look at our personal merchandise, and we solely publish purchaser’s guides with merchandise we have really reviewed.

Value, availability, and specs

The CMF Cellphone 1 was introduced on July twelfth, 2024 alongside a brand new pair of wi-fi earbuds and a smartwatch. The Cellphone 1 is attention-grabbing as a result of it is Nothing’s first funds smartphone at a beginning value of $199, and a little bit of a departure from what made its extra premium Cellphone 1, Cellphone 2, and Cellphone 2(a) stand out. The Cellphone 1 continues to be design-forward (CMF stands for “colours, supplies, and end”), however the place Nothing’s early merchandise turned the technical particulars of how a telephone works right into a luxurious by way of a translucent again, the CMF Cellphone 1 appears like you would have 3D printed a few of its parts and built-it your self.

That is as a result of Nothing has designed the machine to be customizable, with a detachable again and an “Accent Level” with a round cowl you possibly can unscrew together with your fingers. You may connect quite a lot of equipment to the again of the Cellphone 1, together with a kickstand, lanyard, and pockets attachment, on prime of fixing its again cowl from the default black, to a brilliant orange, mild inexperienced, or navy blue.

Whatever the equipment you select, you may get a 6.67-inch AMOLED show with a clean 120Hz refresh fee and a pair of,000 nits of peak brightness, a USB-C port, and an under-display fingerprint reader. Inside, the CMF Cellphone 1 has a MediaTek Dimensity 7300 5G chip, 8GB of RAM, and both 128GB or 256GB of storage for storing your entire apps and photographs. The one wrinkle to the CMF Cellphone 1 is that in the event you dwell in the USA and outdoors the European and Asian markets Nothing is concentrating on, you may have to make use of the corporate’s beta program, which limits you to T-Cell’s community if you wish to use 5G and 4G, or AT&T and Verizon in the event you’re comfy with solely having the ability to use 4G. For the remainder of the Cellphone 1’s specs, evaluation the desk under.

What I favored concerning the CMF Cellphone 1

The CMF Cellphone 1’s battery life lasts all day after which some

One of the crucial necessary options of a funds telephone is battery life. Whenever you’re budget-conscious, how your telephone works issues much more than the way it appears, and the way lengthy the battery lasts determines whether or not you can use it in any respect. Regardless of the CMF Cellphone 1’s value, Nothing would not compromise on the battery.

The 5,000mAh battery within the Cellphone 1 provides you a variety of wiggle room to make use of your telephone and never have to fret about charging it. I used to be in a position to get almost per week of standby time after a single cost of the Cellphone 1, and round three days with informal smartphone use. That may clearly fluctuate relying on what you are making an attempt to do in your telephone, however in the event you’re totally on Wi-Fi many of the day (like I used to be) and are not spending hours enjoying demanding video games in your telephone, you need to have extra battery life than you recognize what to do with.

Nothing OS makes the correct quantity of tweaks

An excellent Android pores and skin could make an inexpensive telephone really feel premium even when its {hardware} is decidedly low-end, and the CMF Cellphone 1 is a wonderful instance of the suitable method of doing this. Nothing OS, Nothing’s pores and skin of Android is simply the correct mix of stylized streamlining and genuinely new software program. If the 2010s had been characterised by heavy-handed Android skins like TouchWiz or HTC Sense that made your smartphone prettier however more durable to make use of, Nothing OS strikes the suitable steadiness.

Nothing’s made customized icons for almost all of fashionable apps you would possibly wish to carry on your private home display, thrown in a few of its personal customized widgets, and added new residence display customization choices, like having the ability to enlarge a person app icon dramatically. Nothing OS additionally defaults to darkish mode, that means any app that helps the function shall be simple on the eyes as quickly as you boot up your Cellphone 1 for the primary time.

Exterior these fundamentals, Nothing OS additionally consists of new apps, like a Climate app in Nothing’s signature dot matrix fashion, Nothing X, which helps you to handle the corporate’s Bluetooth equipment, and Recorder, which is Nothing’s reply to the Pixel Recorder app, simply with much more fashion. If it is necessary to you that your telephone appears distinctive among the many sea of Apple and Samsung telephones, the CMF Cellphone 1 positively stands out.

The CMF Cellphone 1’s modularity is refreshing, and a variety of enjoyable

An apparent draw of the CMF Cellphone is design, and the telephone has the DIY, engineer-y look it does as a result of it is meant to be taken aside. Not in a method that makes it essentially extra repairable or longer-lasting, however much more suitable with the sorts of equipment and customizations you’ll usually should make on the level of buy. I used to be optimistic about what the CMF Cellphone 1’s modularity would provide earlier than I received to make use of it, and really getting my arms on the telephone hasn’t modified that. It is unbelievably cool that Nothing permits you to do that.

It is value noting that it is a lot simpler to connect equipment to the Accent Level than change the again cowl of the CMF Cellphone 1. Moreover eradicating the SIM card slot, 4 again screws, and the Accent Level cowl, you must use a regarding quantity of drive to pry off the again cowl — a lot drive that it hurmy fingerst. On one hand, this speaks to the sturdy construction of the CMF Phone 1. On the opposite, it instantly discouraged me from considering that customizing the CMF Cellphone 1 was one thing I might do repeatedly.Total, although, I feel the advantages of equipment outweigh the problem of customization — I used to be most taken with the magnetic pockets attachment — and the CMF Cellphone 1 has a function principally no different smartphones presently have.

What I did not like concerning the CMF Cellphone 1

Low mild pictures is an actual blended bag

You do not pay lower than $500 for a smartphone and anticipate a tremendous digicam expertise, and that holds true for the CMF Cellphone 1. Whereas the machine makes for an appropriate daytime shooter, at evening, issues are much more hit and miss. My largest criticism is the great lack of element you get if you attempt to take any form of photograph at evening or at the hours of darkness with no direct mild supply. The Cellphone 1’s effort to salvage photographs dramatically smooths faces and ditches superb traces to be able to ensure that persons are recognizably individuals.

You may even be hard-pressed to seize any form of movement that is recognizably movement with out some form of blur. Taking photographs of a live performance in a room solely lit by stage lights and no matter streetlights had been seeping in from outdoors, I did not really feel like something I captured was actually able to be shared on-line.

That is to not say that Nothing would not pack in software program options to attempt to make up for the digicam’s shortcomings (there is a Portrait mode for added bokeh, and an Skilled mode that offers you extra management over settings, for instance), they only cannot make up for the CMF Cellphone 1’s single 50-megapixel sensor. When you’re confused by the again of the Cellphone 1, which seems to have two lenses, that appears partially intentional. Solely a kind of cutouts is a digicam; the opposite is a sensor for taking higher portrait photographs. I wasn’t in a position to inform if it made a distinction whereas I examined the digicam.

Associated

Halide has made me a smartphone photography convert

Your iPhone is already digicam, Halide is an app that makes you wish to use it as one.

Do not anticipate miracles from a funds smartphone chip

Whereas the MediaTek chip contained in the CMF Cellphone 1 is sweet sufficient for many day-to-day smartphone use (Slack, Gmail, Messages, Chrome, and Pocket for studying) it is lower than ideally suited if you wish to use your telephone to play video games. Diablo Immortal runs on the Cellphone 1, however under no circumstances with the identical smoothness or constancy that it does on the iPhone 16, Pixel 9, or Samsung Galaxy S24.

This is not a serious downside within the grand scheme of issues, however it may have long-term impacts in the event you plan on holding on to the CMF Cellphone 1 for longer than just a few years. When you can already discover a distinction in efficiency if you first begin utilizing your telephone, there is not any telling how a lot it’ll decelerate by the point you are able to improve it.

Do you have to purchase the CMF Cellphone 1?

It is exhausting to go improper if it is out there in your service

The time period “function telephone” was a method of differentiating telephones that went past the texting and calling options that outlined early cellphones. A function telephone may need entry to e mail, or an MP3 participant, or have a built-in radio. They did extra, and had been dearer, however did not attain the full-blown premium pc costs of contemporary smartphones. The CMF Cellphone 1’s “function” is its accent system and skill to be personalized greater than the common telephone, and so they’re value paying for in my e-book. Even in the event you by no means connect a kickstand to the Cellphone 1, you may in all probability be completely happy how lengthy you possibly can go earlier than you must cost it.

CMF Cellphone 1

The CMF Cellphone 1 is not the one inexpensive smartphone that Nothing affords. Pocket-lint has reviewed the Nothing Phone 2a Plus, Nothing Phone 2a, and Nothing Phone 2, and are available away tremendously proud of what the {hardware} maker is placing out. For different funds and mid-range telephone choices, each Samsung and OnePlus have wonderful fashions to think about, too.