Review: CMF Phone 1

I'm coming up on 10 years of covering mobile phones, and after some time with the CMF Phone 1, I don't think I have used a more perfect phone for the money. CMF is a sub-brand by Nothing, founded by Carl Pei of OnePlus fame. It's been dabbling in ultralow-cost devices, like smartwatches and earbuds, but the CMF Phone 1 is its first Android phone. And it costs $199.

I make it a point to review cheap smartphones—I remember the days when I scrounged every penny I earned to buy my first smartphone, the $200 Samsung Galaxy Captivate in 2010. It's important to help steer people on a limited budget to good devices. This year alone, I've tried the $150 Moto G Play and the $199 Galaxy A15—the latter of which I found to be a disappointing successor to the excellent Galaxy A14 from 2023. But none of these phones hold a candle to the CMF Phone 1, which blows its peers away.

Phenomenal Value

CMF's design language for the Phone 1 is its first win. This device is far more visually interesting than any other $199 handset in the US. The industrial look comes alive when you embrace the $35 swappable back covers. Use the included screwdriver to pop off the screws and you can change the back to a different color. My choice was orange.

The screwdriver is a bit short, and so it's a little hard to remove the screws—I can't imagine changing the back often. This also doesn't mean you'll be able to start repairing stuff yourself or swap out the battery—CMF urges customers not to remove the battery without authorization (there's a warning label on the battery). There's disappointingly not much here to make repairs easier, unlike HMD's new Skyline.

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

Part of the fun is the Accessory Point, the little wheel at the right corner of the phone. Remove this thumbscrew and you can affix other accessories, like a lanyard, kickstand, or wallet. My favorite of the lot is the kickstand, and I dare say it doubles as a fidget spinner of sorts. Functional, fun, and nifty! CMF is even encouraging customers to 3D print accessories for it.

But all of these design tricks, while unique, aren't what makes the CMF Phone 1 special. No, that's the actual hardware, build, and specs. Instantly, my first impression after booting it up was its speed. In the time I spent with it, I don't think I noticed any lag or stutters, which is rare on a $199 smartphone. That's thanks to the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 inside with 8 gigs of RAM, but it also has a lot to do with the optimizations between the hardware and software, which is Nothing OS. (It's still Android, but Nothing's layer on the top offers a specific aesthetic with some tweaks, like the completely monochromatic theme on the home screen.)

OK, so no lag. Next, the battery life impressed. I made this my primary device as I traveled to Paris to cover Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event, and I went to bed some nights indifferent about plugging my phone in after seeing it had 50 percent left. That's with navigation, music streaming via Bluetooth, messaging, and snapping pics. I've managed to push the 5,000-mAh battery with heavy usage and bring it down to 30 percent at the end of a day, but with average use, I was regularly getting two days out of it. (I cannot say the same about the $1,100 Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6.)

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

CMF is selling this phone in the US under a beta program, so you need to sign up and be accepted before you can buy it. Even then, band support is limited. It works best on T-Mobile, though not all 5G bands are supported, meaning you may see spotty service. I used it on AT&T, and while CMF says 5G isn't supported, I happily saw 5G on my status bar. I was able to text and make calls with zero problems. You can try using it on Verizon, but CMF doesn't recommend it due to limited bands and no CDMA support. I swapped to an international SIM in Paris and enjoyed a mix of 4G and 5G, with no network problems or speed issues.

Did I mention the thing you'll be staring at the entire time? The Full HD 6.67-inch AMOLED screen is fantastic. It's sharp, gets up to 2,000 nits in brightness, and is super smooth with a 120-Hz screen refresh rate. On the sunniest days, I squinted a bit to see the screen, but it's far and away the best display I've ever seen on a cheap phone.

You can expand the storage up to 2 terabytes via the microSD card slot, but you get 128 GB by default. Even the under-display fingerprint sensor is quick to register and reliable. Juicing up the phone is quick, but there's no wireless charging support. There's also no near-field communication sensor (NFC), meaning you can't tap your phone to a terminal to pay. This is the only gripe I have with this phone as someone who taps to pay in New York City's subway system and at my local deli. Then again, I bring my wallet everywhere most of the time, so I got used to it. The phone has an IP52 rating, so it'll be OK in the rain, but keep it away from the pool.

It doesn't match Samsung's lengthy software update policy, but CMF promises two OS upgrades and three years of security updates. That's still better than most devices under $400.

A Nice Camera

I wasn't expecting much from the CMF Phone 1's 50-megapixel rear camera, but I've been pleasantly surprised by the results. It's impressive that there's not a lot of delay when you launch the camera app and tap the shutter button—it's all quite smooth and responsive. The photos can sometimes lack in detail and struggle in low light, but I sent my wife dozens of pics of Paris, and she enjoyed them just as much as I'm sure she would if I was using a $1,000 phone.

The close-up picture of my lazy dog is quite sharp with colors that don't look weird. The low-light pic of the statue in Paris is almost exactly what the scene looked like in real life, and there's decent detail even when you zoom in to see all the graffiti. I really don't have many complaints here; it's easily the best camera on a phone for $199.

Ultimately, it's the sheer fact that I used this phone for more than a week with no problems in the US and then traveled with it to another country and managed to cover an event, Slacking people, taking pictures, and navigating, without so much as a stutter that makes the CMF Phone 1 unrivaled in its segment. The US is starved for good, cheap phones, and CMF is paving the way for that to change. If it was super easy to repair and had NFC, this would be a perfect 10/10.