CMF Phone 1 by Nothing
It’s a little bit late, but we finally got our hands on this CMF Phone 1. As the name says, the highlight of the CMF Phone 1 is the design. You can even remove the back cover and knob to customize the look yourself. I’m sure you guys already know about it from other places, so we won’t talk about that today. Instead, let’s add something others may not have mentioned. So what else does it have?
Functionality
Being a budget phone, the CMF Phone 1 does come with some trade-offs on features. As you probably already know, the lack of NFC and IR emitter is probably one of its few regrets. Other than that, the rest of the specs are pretty much the same as any other phone in its price range. Even the SIM tray can support a 2TB TF card expansion, a feature that’s usually only found on entry-level phones, which is undoubtedly a highlight.
Display
Flip it over and let’s focus on that display, I would not say the display is superior, but hey, all budget phones are the same. As long as this OLED screen is bright enough to help me fight the sun outside, that’s all it matters. If you ask me what room for improvement, I’d say a screen with a better viewing angle would be nice.
Processor
The CMF Phone 1 uses a Dimensity 7300 processor, which is slightly weaker than that Dimensity 7200 in the Nothing Phone (2a). Yes, you heard it right, 7300 is weaker than 7200, that’s what MediaTek’s math teacher taught him. By the way, Qualcomm’s English teacher did the same thing, The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 is weaker than the 8 Gen 3. Am I crazy, or is the world crazy?
Surprisingly, the CMF Phone actually outperformed its big brother, the Nothing Phone (2a), in the gaming test session. Perhaps thanks to a more aggressive strategy, the CMF Phone’s average frame rate was much higher. It still has overheating issues at the end, but it’s pretty awesome for a budget phone to be able to do that. What we need to do is lower the graphics or limit the frame rate to 30, the gaming experience will be a bit better. For example, by lowering the graphics on the Zenless Zero to medium, the smoothness is already similar to many flagships.
Camera
Unlike other budget phones, the CMF Phone replaces that 8 MP Ultra Wide Camera with a Depth of Field Camera. Although it can’t take photos on its own, it can support the main camera to get more professional camera-like photos. If you block this lens, the background bokeh is gone, so you can see that it does have a role to play. Having a nice background bokeh is pretty important for a photo, at least for portraits, it will make the photo look more professional.
As for the main camera, I would say it performs well most of the time. The colors are bright and vibrant, and the resolution is good, both at 1x and 2x. At night, with the help of the night mode, the clarity is also a bit better than the auto mode. Only if you take photos on a cloudy day, the night mode can easily be turned on automatically, that’s when the photos will be overexposed. You need to manually turn off the night mode to make the exposure accurate enough, not a big deal.
Video recording tops out at 4K30 with electronic image stabilization. Can’t really pick any faults other than a bit more noise in the darker areas. I think the CMF Phone 1’s main camera performance is good enough for most people, after all, it’s not that expensive.
Disassemble
Removing the back cover of the CMF Phone 1, you can see that it’s so different from others. To prevent you from removing parts, the motherboard is covered with a plate or tape. There’s also a warning not to remove the battery and related protective components by yourself.
Once you remove the sticker or unscrew the bolts, you’ll lose the warranty. But to put it in another way, you can repair or upgrade this phone yourself once it’s out of warranty. Or you can do things like this, remove the back cover to play games, that way you won’t have overheating issues. This is something that only CMF Phone can do.
Battery & Charging
The CMF Phone has a 5000mAh battery, wired charging power up to 33W, and no wireless charging. It’s acceptable at the $250 price point, the power is not too big or small, charging speed will not be too fast or too slow. The battery life is even a little better compared to its brother 2a.
There’s not much to say about the wired charging, it can be charged to 51% in half an hour and over an hour to have it fully charged. Roughly, the maximum input power during charging can be 27W. 5W of reverse wired charging is also useful for charging a lot of gadgets.
Verdict
Once upon a time, in the phone market, there were a lot of phones with modular design. But without any exception, they didn’t live long, or even never be launched. Although the CMF Phone 1’s swappable accessories are not as radical as those modular phones, I still hope that it will be a big seller. I’m hoping the next CMF Phone will be more and more modular until a truly modular phone comes out.
Comments