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Carl Pei’s “game-changing” CMF Phone 1 is riddled with red flags (and designed to sell accessories)

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Carl Pei’s “game-changing” CMF Phone 1 is riddled with red flags (and designed to sell accessories)

If you’re one of those people who thinks smartphones aren’t pretty anymore, then the CMF Phone 1 (by Nothing) might be for you.

Surprisingly, we are talking about a phone with a detachable back, which is a miracle in 2024, and it allows you to customize the look of the device.

The customization options don’t stop there: the CMF Phone 1 also has a mounting point in the bottom right corner, so you can (literally) bolt accessories like a kickstand, lanyard, or magnetic wallet case to the back of your phone — sort of a cheaper version of Apple’s MagSafe.

The icing on the cake is that Nothing is asking just $200 for the base variant of the CMF Phone 1, making it one of the most intriguing handsets budget phones on the market.

Coincidentally, this is also the biggest warning sign with this orange (or green, or blue, or black) phone.

CMF Phone 1: Pay a small price for a phone with a big character, or pay a high price for a gimmick?

See, with budget phones Just like with the CMF Phone 1, the question you should be asking yourself isn’t, “How can this great phone cost only $200?”, but “How did the company manage to drop the price of this great phone to $200?”

The answer is of course always: “by cutting back” to reduce costs. And that is perfectly normal.

But while the interchangeable back and the ability to attach accessories may make the CMF Phone 1 the most fun phone of the year, it’s a bit of a similar story to the Nothing Phone 2a – only exaggerated.

Nothing was left untouched by a great opportunity to make the CMF Phone 1 even more unique: where is the user-replaceable battery?

The big missed opportunity with the CMF Phone 1 is the fact that the battery is not user replaceable. This would have given the CMF Phone 1 a unique selling point that doesn’t fall into the ‘gimmick’ category, and would have made the phone more durable.

While design should be the biggest selling point of the CMF Phone 1, I actually find this aesthetic polarizing. It certainly won’t be everyone’s cup of tea.

What is not so much in dispute is that there is some utility in a modular design as we see here:

  • The removable backs may be a lot more convenient than you think: you can use the phone without a case, because you can easily replace the back for $30 (or less), and you don’t even have to go to the phone store.

  • Third-party accessory makers should come up with even cooler, more creative backs and accessories for the CMF Phone, since Nothing has made the phone’s schematics public. For example, you can 3D print your own back at home. How about a metal back?

  • While Nothing doesn’t recommend replacing the battery yourself, it is much more accessible than the battery in other common phones and should make replacing the battery much easier (and hopefully cheaper).

I see you, Carl Pei! Is the CMF Phone 1 a budget phone designed to sell accessories?

Unfortunately, that’s pretty much the only thing that makes the CMF Phone 1 so appealing.

If you look past the bright orange back and the cute screwdriver you need to use to remove all the screws so you can replace the back, you’re left with a real budget phone, which doesn’t make me recommend it over any other phone in this price range. In fact, quite the opposite…

In the US, the CMF Phone 1 is currently being sold via an invite program (which is hilarious). The 256GB model + an extra back and a CMF stand (which you have to buy separately at Nothing) costs €330.

Nothing’s decision not to include an extra back cover in the box of the CMF Phone 1 makes sense considering the phone’s price. The accessories, however, are what should make this phone interesting in the first place. But if you buy all of them, the price can jump from $200 to $400, which puts the phone in a different category of devices altogether.

And that brings me to the million dollar question of this story… Do you buy a budget phone and spend the extra money on a bunch of accessories… Or do you spend the extra money on… a better phone?

It’s not that the Motorola Edge 50 Fusion doesn’t exist – it does! And in terms of storage, it’s only €20 more expensive than the CMF Phone 1 in Europe, while giving you:

  • Much lighter body
  • IP68 dust and water resistance
  • Flagship-quality display with ultra-thin bezels
  • Much better camera system with a larger primary sensor with OIS, an ultra-wide camera with macro capabilities, 4K selfie video
  • Stereo speakers (duh!)
  • NFC support for using digital keys and making contactless payments
  • 2x faster wired charging
  • Longer software support

Aside from omitting the usual budget phone “extra” features like dust and water resistance and wireless charging, the CMF Phone 1 only has a single usable camera (with no OIS), a single mono speaker, no NFC, slow charging, and only 2 years of major Android updates. Carl Pei broke his promise and the CMF Phone 1 also doesn’t have symmetrical bezels.

The CMF Phone 1 will/should have exactly the same trust as the Nothing Phone 1

Unlike most enthusiastic YouTube reviewers, I disagree: CMF’s first phone doesn’t seem all that special.

The CMF Phone 1 appears to be a pilot study designed to explore the budget market segment and see if people who buy affordable phones are interested in something different.

In my opinion, people looking to buy a $200-300 phone are the least likely to pay attention to the color of their phone and how many screws they can unscrew to attach a lanyard to it.

In fact, the opposite is true: people who buy refurbished iPhones and affordable Samsung phones have proven that design is the last thing on their minds, while the value of their product is their highest priority.

That’s why I think this (the CMF Phone issue) could go two ways: either Nothing scraps the customizable design of the CMF Phone altogether, or Carl Pei & Co. should revamp the CMF Phone 2 into a mid-range phone, much like the move from the Nothing Phone 1 to the Nothing Phone 2.

At the moment there is nothing wrong.

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