How did I miss this yesterday??? The brand’s first phone, called Phone 1, was launched with the CMF by Nothing Buds Pro 2 and Watch Pro 2. The CMF by Nothing Phone 1 has much to shout about, IMHO. Why? Because it has a super cool industrial-style look offered by the exposed screws around the back and oh yeah, it has a user-replaceable back cover. Like when was the last time we had that on a modern smartphone?
The new Phone 1 further touts an Accessory Point that allows attachment of accessories like a card holder, and phone stand. It’s a twist to Apple’s MagSafe. Unlike MagSafe accessories which have the risk of dislodging from the device, the accessories once installed are not going anywhere. Now, that is breaking the design convention!
While this device is clearly a mid-ranger with a crazy affordable sticker (more on that in a bit), the specs are not slouch. It is powered by a 4 nm TSMC process MediaTek Dimensity 7300 5G chip featuring an 8-core processor with clock speed up to 2.5 GHz. It is paired with 8 GB + 8 GB RAM booster, up to 256 GB storage—expandable up to 2 TB via expandable storage. Though it is not clear what type of RAM and storage it is using.
On the minimal camera bump is a 50 MP Sony main camera plus a portrait sensor, and around the front, on the adaptive 120 Hz 6.67” Super AMOLED display is a 16 MP front camera.
Imaging is powered by TrueLens Engine 2.0, featuring advanced computational photography algorithms that promise to bring to life intricate details in every shot, and Ultra XDR co-developed with Google enhances photography lighting in compromising conditions. Plus, it is also rocking AI Vivid Mode, Motion Capture, 4K recording at 30 fps, slo-mo at 120 fps, EIS, and more.
Back to the display, it is a FHD+ (2,400 by 1,080 resolution) screen with 2000 nits peak brightness, HDR10+, and 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio. The display is also home to an under-display optical fingerprint sensor.
Other notables include ChatGPT integration, AI voice control, 13-band dual 5G, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, a 5,000 mAh battery with 33 W fast charging, IP52 water and dust resistance, dual nano SIM, and positioning [GPS (L1), GLONASS (G1), BDS (B1I), GALILEO (E1), QZSS (L1)].
The device runs on Nothing OS 2.6 and will have 2 years of major Android updates and 3 years of security updates. And the price? 199 USD for the 8+128 GB model. Strangely, we did not find the 256 GB version available on the pre-order page.
Images: CMF by Nothing.