Backside line: Nothing’s budget-minded sub-brand, CMF, has launched its first cell phone. The CMF Telephone 1 is an entry-level handset that would lastly take the idea of a modular smartphone mainstream. The worth is correct at $199, however will it make a splash in a cutthroat market the place each earlier modular try has come up brief?
The CMF Phone 1 (CMF being brief for Shade, Materials, and End) contains a 6.67-inch Tremendous AMOLED show (1,080 x 2,400, 395 PPI) with a 120 Hz adaptive refresh price pushed by MediaTek’s Dimensity 7300 SoC, an octa-core chip constructed on a 4nm manufacturing course of. It is paired with 8 GB of RAM.
Different noteworthy options embody a 50-megapixel rear-facing digital camera from Sony, a 16-megapixel front-facing shooter, as much as 256 GB of native storage (expandable as much as 2 TB by way of microSD card slot), and a 5,000 mAh battery that is good for as much as 23 hours of steady video playback.
The CMF Phone 1 ships working Nothing OS 2.6 (powered by Android 14). It appears to be like to be a strong price range entry on paper, however its modular design might make it particular.
Not like earlier modular smartphone makes an attempt that centered on swappable hardware components, CMF is specializing in an adjunct ecosystem constructed round a user-replaceable rear backplate. Merely take away 4 screws on the rear of the telephone, pop off the inventory backplate, and exchange it with one in every of a handful of alternate options.
At launch, CMF can have three alternate backplates accessible to buy. One provides a pockets to the rear of the telephone, one other contains a flip-out kickstand, whereas a 3rd features a tethered lanyard. It sounds loads like Motorola’s Moto Mods from the mid-2010s.
Pricing begins at a really affordable $199, which features a pre-applied display protector. As a price range telephone, you’re giving up some luxuries discovered on dearer gadgets equivalent to wi-fi charging, assist for NFC, and strong safety in opposition to liquids.
Search for it to ship within the US as a part of the corporate’s beta program later this month.
