Hello everyone, hello Heyuppers, We meet today for my review of the Nothing CMF Phone 1. How this $200 smartphone has completely replaced my Google Pixel 7
Design of the CMF Phone 1:
We are looking at a smartphone measuring 164 × 77 × 8 mm, and for my part, it’s matte black. I really like the matte finish of the phone, which feels very pleasant to the touch.
We have several screws in each corner of the phone, and a removable knob in the bottom right corner.
At first, I wondered what all this was for, but after a little research, I understood its usefulness, and also why the phone is so affordable for this quality.
By unscrewing the screws, you have the option to change the back cover, so for my part, I can replace the black cover with an orange, light green, or blue one. These cases are sold at the price of €35 each.
By unscrewing the knob, we have a space where we can easily add various accessories like a cord, a card holder, and a phone holder, each sold for €25.
It is surely for this reason that the smartphone is so affordable despite its quality; accessories play a very important role in personalizing the smartphone and thus in the potential additional revenue for the brand.
CMF Phone 1 Screen:
We have a 6.67-inch Full HD+ Super AMOLED Screen with an under-display fingerprint sensor and an adaptive refresh rate of 120 Hz or 60 Hz, depending on your preference. (there’s no middle ground like some smartphones do with 90 Hz)
As for the performance of the screen, you won’t be disappointed; the colors are vibrant, sharp, and the brightness is good even for outdoor use.
Software and interfaces of the CMF Phone 1:
We are on Nothing OS 2.6 and Android version 14. Not being used to the interface, I had a bit of trouble at first with the dotted writing, but after a few hours of use, once I got used to it, it was very pleasant. By default, we have the Nothing icons that match really well with the interface, but some applications don’t have their icons, so if it bothers you not to have the same style of icon, you have the option to set them as default or even add an icon pack.
In addition to choosing your wallpaper, you have the option to create one with WallPaper Studio
Performance and features of the CMF Phone 1:
The CMF Phone 1 has a 5000 mAh battery, a MediaTek Dimensity 7300 processor, 8 GB of RAM, and 128 GB of storage under the hood. There is also a 256GB version, but 128GB is sufficient because you have the option to expand the storage up to 2TB with a compatible TF card.
For normal daily use, what it has under the hood is more than sufficient, the interface and app switching are smooth, and video playback is impeccable whether you’re watching movies, videos, live streams, or TikToks. In just over a week, I haven’t noticed any loss of fluidity or slowdown.
I also tried playing with this CMF Phone 1 and I was quite surprised, I didn’t expect Call of Duty Mobile to be smooth with very high graphic and frequency settings.
Regarding ventilation, it’s also a good point; I only noticed a slight increase in temperature of the phone during my 1-hour test of Call of Duty Mobile or during a very long viewing live stream (I’ll come back to the battery later).
CMF Phone 1 Cameras:
We have a rear Sony IMX882 sensor with 50 megapixels and an f/1.8 aperture + a 2-megapixel portrait sensor and a 16-megapixel front sensor with an f/2.0 aperture.
Given the smartphone’s budget, I expected a compromise on the camera side, but that’s not the case.
Using the 12-megapixel mode, the photos can be a bit blurry when zooming in, but it’s acceptable. However, using the 50-megapixel mode, the photos taken in broad daylight / with good lighting are natural, well-contrasted, and of good quality.
In low light but still adequate to see objects/environment, the photos remain of good quality, with good colors and without excessive noise.
On the other hand, if the brightness is really too low, it quickly becomes complicated with the software processing, which will really smooth out the photo and give a poor result.
Regarding the front sensor not liking to take my photo, I only used it briefly, but the result is correct and looks quite natural.
Speaker of the CMF Phone 1:
For me, this is the little weak point of this smartphone; the sound is decent, but we don’t have stereo speakers, and depending on how we hold the phone, we can sometimes have our finger in front of the speaker.
Battery of the CMF Phone 1:
As we saw earlier, it has a 5,000 mAh battery and charges at 33 W.
You should know that the box did not include a charger, only a USB-C to USB-C cable. It’s also a cost reduction in the attractive price of the CMF Phone 1.
To charge the phone from 0 to 100%, it took about 1 hour and 20 minutes. There are faster options in this price range, but it’s very decent, especially considering how long the battery lasts.
To test the time to completely discharge it, I opted to watch a Twitch live stream, with the brightness at maximum so that the device would always be active with a continuous video stream, and I was more than surprised. The CMF Phone 1 took exactly 16 hours to go from 100 to 0%.
With more realistic usage, so a few calls, texts, a bit of Twitter or watching TikTok without excess and a brightness of 80%, I managed to last two days, but that’s only without excess; otherwise, it still needs to be charged every night.
In the settings, we have a “battery health” tab where we can activate the smart charging mode to preserve the battery’s health in the long term, and also a custom charging mode that is recommended for daily charging to limit the maximum charge between 70% and 90%. This helps protect the battery’s lifespan.
Rating and conclusion of my test of the CMF Phone 1:
We have a smartphone that offers excellent value for money, which stands out in terms of design compared to others in its range thanks to the ability to change the back cover and easily add some accessories.
A smartphone with good performance, a beautiful AMOLED screen, and an under-display fingerprint sensor.
And finally, a very good camera for this price.
My rating for this CMF Phone 1 is an 8.5/10. It loses a few points for the speaker, the lack of a dedicated wide-angle or telephoto lens, and the absence of a charging dock in the box and the absence of the NFC
I hope you liked my review, i hope my English was correct because I am using a translation and I hope we will meet again soon for a new one.
