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Carl Pei’s "game-changing" CMF Phone 1 is full of red flags (and designed to sell accessories)

By Martin Filipov

Updated: Jul 21, 2024, 11:35 AM

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This article may contain personal views and opinion from the author.

Carl Pei’s "game-changing" CMF Phone 1 is full of red flags (and designed to sell accessories)

If you’re one of the people who thinks smartphones don’t look fun anymore, the CMF Phone 1 (by Nothing) might catch your eye.

Shockingly, we’re talking about a phone with a removable back, which is a miracle in 2024, and lets you customize the look of the device.

The customization options don’t stop there - the CMF Phone 1 also has an attachment point in the bottom right corner, so you can (literally) screw on accessories like a stand, a lanyard, or a magnetic wallet to the back of your phone - like a budget version of Apple’s MagSafe.

The cherry on top is that Nothing is asking only $200 for the base variant of the CMF Phone 1, which makes it one of the most intriguing budget phones on the market.

Accidentally, this is also what I find to be the biggest red flag with this very orange (or green, or blue, or black) phone.

CMF Phone 1: Paying a small price for a phone with a big personality, or paying a big price for buying into a gimmick?

Too much color! For iPhone users, looking at the first picture must be like being high on mushrooms. Image courtesy of MrMobile.

See, with budget phones like the CMF Phone 1, the question you should be asking isn’t: “How does this awesome looking phone cost only $200?”, but “how did the company manage to get the price of this awesome looking phone down to $200?”.

Of course, the answer always is “by cutting corners” to reduce the cost - and that’s perfectly normal.

However, while the swappable back and the ability to attach accessories might make the CMF Phone 1 the most fun phone of the year, it’s a bit of the same story as the Nothing Phone 2a - only exaggerated.

Nothing missed a huge chance to make CMF Phone 1 even more unique: Where is the user-replaceable battery?

Warning! Do not disassemble the battery and related protective parts without authorization… said Carl Pei.

The big missed opportunity with the CMF Phone 1 is the fact that the battery isn’t user-replaceable. This would’ve given the CMF Phone 1 a unique selling point that doesn’t fall into the “gimmick” category, and make the phone more sustainable.

Although design is supposed to be the biggest selling point of the CMF Phone 1, I actually find this aesthetic to be polarizing. It’s certainly not gonna be everyone’s cup of tea.

What’s not so debatable is that there’s a level of utility to a modular design like the one we have here:

The removable back covers might be far more useful than you think - they allow you to use the phone without a case, since you easily replace the back for 30 bucks (or less), and you don’t even need to make the trip to the phone shop

Third-party accessory makers should come up with even cooler, more creative back covers and accessories for the CMF Phone thanks to the fact that Nothing made the schematics of the phone public so you can 3D-print your own covers at home; what about a metal back cover!

Although Nothing doesn’t advise you to swap the battery by yourself, this one’s much more accessible than the battery in any other mainstream phone and should make battery service much easier (and hopefully, cheaper)

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

256GB CMF Phone 1 + Case + Stand + Lanyard = €355. Motorola Edge 50 Fusion = €350.

Unfortunately, that’s more or less all that makes the CMF Phone 1 compelling.

If you look past the bright orange back and the cute screwdriver you have to use to remove all the screws so you can replace the back, you’re left with a proper budget phone, which does nothing to make me recommend it over any other phone in this price category. In fact quite the opposite…

While in the US, the CMF Phone 1 is currently sold through an invite programme (which is hilarious), the 256GB model + one additional back cover and a CMF Stand (which Nothing makes you buy separately) will set you back €330.

Nothing’s decision not to include an extra back cover in the box of the CMF Phone 1 makes sense considering the price of the phone. However, the accessories are supposed to be what makes this phone interesting in the first place. But buying all of them can bring the price from $200 to $400, which puts the phone into a different category of devices.

Which brings me to the million dollar question in this story… Do you buy a budget phone and spend more money to get a bunch of accessories… Or do you spend the extra money to buy… a better phone?

It’s not like the Motorola Edge 50 Fusion doesn’t exist - it does! And matched for storage, it’s only €20 more than the CMF Phone 1 in Europe, while giving you:

Much lighter body
IP68 dust and water resistance
Flagship-grade display with super thin borders
Far 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

Apart from omitting the usual “extra” features for a budget phone like dust and water resistance and wireless charging, the CMF Phone 1 has only one usable camera (without 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 display borders.

The CMF Phone 1 will/should have the exact same faith as the Nothing Phone 1

Unlike the majority of the excited YouTube reviewers, I’ll have to disagree - CMF’s first phone doesn’t seem all that special.

The CMF Phone 1 seems to be the testing ground (a pilot study) meant to probe the budget market segment, and check if people buying affordable phones are interested in something different.

However, people looking to buy a $200-300 phone, in my view, are the least likely ones to care about how colorful their phone is and how many screws they can unscrew to attach a lanyard to it.

In fact, quite the opposite - those who buy refurbished iPhones and affordable Samsung phones have proven that design is the last thing they care about when, in fact, value is their top priority.

Therefore I see this (CMF Phone thing) going two ways - either Nothing will scrap the customizable design of the CMF phone altogether, or Carl Pei & Co will have to turn the CMF Phone 2 into a mid-range phone - just like the jump from the Nothing Phone 1 to the Nothing Phone 2.

Right now, there’s Nothing to it.

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Martin, a tech journalist at PhoneArena, brings a unique blend of humor and insight to his work. His fascination with smartphones began with a Galaxy Young and evolved through a series of trades and upgrades, making him a self-proclaimed smartphone nerd. Martin's content often combines current analysis of market trends with historical references and future predictions. Whether it's a deep dive into technical issues or a first-person commentary on industry events, Martin's articles are designed to inform and engage. His critical perspective is driven by genuine curiosity and a desire to keep readers informed, not by any corporate sponsorship.