CMF Phone 1 Launched in India at ₹15,999: Is It Truly Worth the Hype?

Nothing has finally launched the much-hyped CMF Phone 1 in India along with the Watch Pro 2 and Buds Pro 2. In this article, you will get to know the specifications of these devices along with their price and availability.

Nothing’s founder has always been an expert in creating a buzz of his products and so is the case with the CMF Phone 1. It got a lot of hype before its launch because of its uniqueness. This smartphone has a replaceable back panel which makes it stand out among the other phones in its price range but does it have any other reason to recommend it? Let’s find out!

CMF Phone 1 Specifications

CMF Phone 1

Along with the ability to replace the back panel, this phone packs some good features for its price. Here are its specifications –

Design and Build

The design makes this phone stand out in front of other phones. It has an exciting design. It has real screws visible on the back panel and no! The screws are not just for design! You can open the back panel of this phone by opening these screws. You can buy the back panels of different colours and enjoy the single phone in multiple colour options.

Talking about the build, it has a completely plastic build. The camera covering is made of metal. It has a normal matte finish in the black and green colour variant whereas there is vegan leather in the orange and blue colour variant. One thing that many reviewers are pointing out is that the camera lens of this phone is attracting too many scratches and some reviewers have also reported that the quality of plastic used in the back panel is very cheap.

Display

The CMF Phone 1 features a 6.67-inch FHD+ Flat AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate. The display reaches a peak brightness of 2000 nits in HDR mode and 500-700 nits in HBM mode.

Talking about the bezels, Nothing has always given symmetrical bezels in its previous phones but this smartphone has a slightly bigger chin and the bezels are also not symmetrical.

Performance: Dimensity 7300 < 7200

You might be confused why I said that Dimensity 7300 is an inferior chip when compared to the 7200 whereas the naming indicates that the 7300 should be more powerful. All the credit for this confusion goes to MediaTek. This chip is a successor of the Dimensity 7050 which we have seen in many devices. It is based on 4nm whereas 7050 was based on 6nm. This means that this chip will be more efficient.

Dimensity 7300 is an octa-core chipset based on 4nm architecture and it has 4 cores Cortex-A78 clocked at 2.5 GHz and 4 cores Cortex-A55 clocked at 2.0 GHz. The GPU is Mali-G615 MC2.

Dimensity 7300 is a good chipset for this price but it’s slightly less powerful than the 7200.

Cameras

Rear Camera

The CMF Phone 1 has a dual rear camera setup of 50MP Sony IMX882 main sensor + 2MP portrait lens. It feels ironic seeing Nothing providing a 2MP sensor which they criticised in the past.

The main camera captures some good shots in daylight as well as night and can record videos in a maximum of 4K30fps resolution. However, the portrait mode needs to be improved. It has poor edge detection.

Front Camera

The front camera is a 16MP sensor which isn’t very impressive for the price. The details are smooth most of the time and human subjects have a pinkish tone. The front camera can record videos in a maximum of 1080p resolution.

Battery and Charging

The CMF Phone 1 has a 5000mAh battery which supports 33W fast charging but the charger does not come inside the box and you will have to buy it separately. The Nothing’s official 33W charger costs Rs 799. If you already have a PD charger, you can charge this phone using your PD charger.

Software: The Best Part?

Software has always been a plus point of Nothing phones and this phone is no different. It comes with Nothing OS 2.6 based on Android 14.

Nothing OS is clean and has no bloatware and Ads. It is known for its unique look. This smartphone will provide you the best software experience in this price range. Brand has promised to provide 2 years of Android updates and 3 years of security updates to this phone.

Audio and Haptics

This smartphone has a single bottom-firing speaker which is not very loud. You will miss the lack of dual speakers which are nowadays very common in this price range.

RAM and Storage

It has LPDDR4X RAM and UFS 2.2 storage.

Additional Features

The CMF Phone 1 has IP52 dust and splash-resistant rating, Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3 but lacks NFC.

CMF Phone 1 Accessories

Nothing has launched many accessories for this phone. You can buy back panels of this phone separately and you can experience different colours on a single phone. These back panels cost Rs 1499.

The other accessories include a Card Case, a Stand and a Lanyard. The price for each of these is Rs 799.

CMF Phone 1

CMF Watch Pro 2 and Buds Pro 2

CMF Watch 2 Pro
CMF Watch Pro 2

Nothing also launched the CMF Watch Pro 2 and CMF Buds Pro 2 in the same launch event.

The CMF Watch Pro 2 is the successor of the CMF Watch Pro. This watch features a 1.32” AMOLED display and has an interchangeable bezel design. It also has Heart rate, sleep, stress and SpO2 tracking.

The watch supports 100+ watch faces and you can do calling with the help of Bluetooth. You can control the music and the camera of your phone from the watch itself.

CMF Buds Pro 2

Talking about the Buds Pro 2, these are the successor of the CMF Buds Pro. These earbuds have dual audio drivers, an 11mm bass driver and a 6mm tweeter. These earbuds support LDAC and have ANC up to 50 dB.

For calling purposes, these have a 6 microphones setup. Nothing claims that these buds can provide you 43 hours of total battery backup and 7 hours of backup on a 10-minute charge. The buds also have a rotatable dial on the case and you can control the volume with that dial.

Price and Availability

CMF Phone 1

The CMF Phone 1 will be available in four colours – Black, Blue (India exclusive), Light Green and Orange and it will be sold in two variants in India – 6GB + 128GB for Rs 15,999 and 8GB + 128GB for Rs 17,999. It also has an 8GB + 256GB variant but it won’t be available to buy in India. You will have to buy the accessories separately.

1K discount will be available on ICICI and HDFC bank credit cards.

cmf phone 1

Watch Pro 2

The CMF Watch Pro 2 will be sold in four different colours – Dark Grey, Ash Grey, Orange and Blue. The price for the Dark Grey and Ash Grey colours is Rs 4,999 and for the Orange and the Blue colours, the price will be 5,499. The Bezel and Strap set will be sold separately for Rs 749.

CMF Watch Pro 2

Buds Pro 2

The Buds Pro 2 will be sold in four different colours – Black, Grey, Blue and Orange. It will be sold for Rs 4,299 on Flipkart.

CMF Buds Pro 2

My Opinion

The CMF Phone 1 feels like fresh air in the world of boring designs and has some good features for the price but I won’t say that this is the best phone in every aspect. The 6GB RAM variant is the best value in my opinion and spending 2K just for an extra 2GB RAM isn’t worth paying. This phone is a balance of a decent camera, very good software and customisability although, you will have to buy the accessories separately.

Things that I like about this phone are the software and uniqueness.

Things that I don’t like are – the lack of an ultra-wide camera and no charger in the box which increases the price of the phone by 799 and the charging speeds are also slow.

Go for this phone if you want the best software experience at this price and if you want a better camera, you should go with the Narzo 70 Pro which has a better main camera and selfie camera and it also has a charger inside the box and it costs the same as this phone for the 8GB + 128GB variant. We will soon compare this phone with the other phones in this price range, wait for that. Till then, keep reading GizmoGeek Hub.

Read More: How To Record Calls Without Announcement on Any Android Phone in 2024 – A Few Easy Steps

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Aaditya Sahu
Aaditya Sahu
Aaditya Sahu is a contributing writer at GizmoGeek Hub. He loves to explore about new gadgets and shares his views in form of articles. When he is not writing, you can find him on his X (formerly known as twitter) handle @techyaaditya or studying. Contact him on techyaaditya@gizmogeekhub.com.

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