Editor
Jodee Tan chevron_right
CMF's latest brand new Phone 2 Pro is certainly a looker. That's because the design is modular just like its parent company Nothing brand. For just RM1,199, we believe this phone will shake up everything we know about budget smartphones.
CMF is a sub-brand of Nothing. Thus, it shares some similar vision and aspects of the already popular Nothing phones, all known for their aesthetics and quality, just that CMF Phones come at a more affordable price point. In fact, design is a huge factor of the brand, since CMF actually stands for Color, Material, and Finish.
Here's how our experience with the phone went.
CMF Phone 2 Pro: Full Specfications
- Dimensions: 164 x 78 x 7.8 mm
- Weight: 185g
- SIM: Nano-SIM + Nano-SIM
- Materials: Panda Glass, User-replaceable back cover
- Display: 6.7-inch, AMOLED, 1B colors, 120Hz, HDR10+, 3000 nits (peak)
- Rear Camera: 50 MP, f/1.9, 24mm (wide), 50 MP, f/1.9, 50mm (telephoto), 8 MP, f/2.2, 15mm (ultrawide)
- Front Camera: 16 MP, f/2.0, 22mm (wide)
- Processor: Mediatek Dimensity 7300 Pro, octa-core
- RAM and Storage: 128GB + 8GB RAM / 256GB + 8GB RAM
- Operating System:Android 15, up to 3 major Android upgrades, Nothing OS 3.2
- Water and Dust Resistance: IP54 dust protected and water resistant
- Battery: 5,000mAh + 33W wired charging, 5W reverse charging
Design, Built & Display
Starting with the most obvious, let's look at the design. It's slim, clean, and surprisingly premium. The first thing you notice is how sleek the phone is; it's only 7.8 mm thin and weighs 185 grams. This makes it the thinnest phone CMF (and Nothing) has ever made. The design language is exactly what you'd expect from Nothing: minimalist, with an industrial kind of look.
Just like the usual CMF phone, it has screws all across the side of the body. This time, they aren't for removing the back plate entirely, but for attaching the protective case on top, allowing you to attach all the accessories available (below for more information).
In terms of colors, you've got four main options. Notably, the most popular hero color is the orange colourway, which has a dual-tone sort of design.
Moving on to the display. Phone 2 has CMF's largest and brightest display to date, with a size coming in at 6.77 inches. It's an AMOLED display with 1.07 billion colors and up to 3,000 nits of peak brightness. That's 50% brighter than the Phone 1, and it's easily visible outdoors, even when we were shooting in bright sunlight.
Phone 2 supports HDR10+, ultra HDR capture, and a 120 Hz adapted refresh rate, which makes it feel super fluid. It also comes with 2,160 Hz of PWM dimming, so even if you're lying in bed at night, it's not going to sting your eyes.
Performance & Battery
Powering this phone is the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Pro so it should deliver strong mid-range performance. You'll get an 8-core CPU with 16 GB of RAM (via RAM booster) and a real focus on efficiency, thanks to the 4-nanometer processor. The performance mode is built for gaming and is optimized for up to 120 FPS when you're in gaming mode.
There's also cooling at the back of the phone which means it won't get too overheated even when you're exposed to long hours of gaming or multitasking. For some reference, when our video editor took photos and videos in 4K with the phone, in the streets of New Delhi at 42°C, it didn't have any issues whatsoever.
For battery, you'll get a 5,000 mAh battery capacity, which is well-achieved considering the phone's slim factor of just 7.8mm thin. Rest assured the battery is optimised to last you an entire day, even up to 2 days with some moderate to high usage.
If you're using the Phone 2 Pro for gaming and recording 4K videos, you might deplete the battery quicker, but you'll be able to charge it up pretty decently fast with a 33-watt charger. Speed-wise, it's not the fastest, but considering the price of this phone, I think that's pretty respectable.
Camera
The CMF Phone 2 Pro comes with a 50-megapixel main camera, which captures 64% more light than the previous model. This is especially useful in low-light situations to capture more light and give you better performance with lesser noise. The telephoto camera here is also a 50-megapixel camera that's capable of 2x optical zoom, but can go up to 20x in digital zoom.
For that, we were slightly surprised because we find our expectations of our telephoto shots to be underwhelming, especially considering its 50-megapixel sensor. But hey, given the price of the phone, we won't complain much.
There's also an 8-megapixel ultra-wide camera which is basic. This is probably why Phone 2 Pro comes with a lens kit to help you achieve more out of your shots. In terms of video, 4K at 30 fps is what you'll be shooting with, and it has HDR as well. Our video editor's take is that performance is standard considering the price.
OS & Essential Space
Now, let's talk about the software and one of the reasons why these phones are very appealing. You're getting Nothing OS 3.2 based on Android 15.
In terms of OS support that'll be 3 years. This is a number that's falling short of many other phones but considering how affordable the phone is, this number is acceptable at most.
Now, we can't forget the AI that you're getting built into this phone using Nothing OS. We're talking about the essential key for the phone's Essential Space.
Just like on the Nothing Phone, Essential Space is like a scrapbook where you can store all of your screenshots, voice notes, and everything. So it's a more organized, customized mind palace for you to go back to and refer to for tasks and notes, all automated using AI. It's extremely useful especially if you;re a very busy person and can be forgetful or have too many things on your mind. If you hoard a lot of screenshots on your phone and you aren't sure why, Essential Space will help you with that.
Accessories
Beyond the phone itself are also a slew of popular accessories you can get for the Phone 2 (customisation a big deal for this phones). Unfortunately in Malaysia, you can only get the lanyard, so this is the biggest bummer.
If you do have the chance, there's a lot of ways to customise the Phone 2 with.
To enjoy all of its accessories, you need the attachment case that allows all these accessories to be attached to on the phone, and how this works is that you'll be screwdriving this "attachment case" onto the CMF's back cover. From there, you can also attach the iconic fidget "knob" onto the case or go with the one for the lanyard attachment.
To install other accessories onto the cover is also easy, just snap them on (magnetically) and you're done!
There's also the wallet and stand attachments. They look very similar to Moft products, if you've used those before. Because the wallet-stand has a built-in magnet, it would technically work with any phone that has a MagSafe kind of magnet. The good thing about the CMF wallet-stand is that you can open it up to slot in your card or just use it as a stand.
A favourite accessory of ours is the interchangeable lens. This comes with both an ultra-wide and a macro lens. And to use? Just snap it onto the universal cover which has built-in grooves. The lenses do come with some good magnification, if you're wondering.
Watch all the accessories here on our YouTube channel!
What we liked
- Price (Value-for-money)
The Phone 2 Pro is only RM1,199. While it's not the cheapest, but for what it gives (and how it looks), the Phone 2 Pro delivers most essentials into an appealing packaging. Also, most of what everyone wants in a phone is decently acceptable and acrtually up to par with mid-range phones, especially in terms of performance, camera, thermal optimisation and so forth.
- UI & OS
Like Nothing phones, CMF Phone Pro 2's UI and OS looks stunning. Especially if you're a fan of a digital and timeless themes with some visual aesthetics, the UI and OS as well as the Essential Space feature will let you enjoy the phone to the fullest, as if your life depends on it. Everything was easy and straightforward to understand and navigate around.
What we disliked
- Limited Customisability
The biggest reason to get a Phone 2 Pro is the huge number of accessories it comes with. Thus we are disappointed when we learned that the phone accessories will not be available in Malaysia. We did try to look up third-party merchants for this but couldn't find any that were selling. While the phone itself is already quite handsome-looking, but to deprive fans of the Phone 2 Pro's essence (which are the accessories) seems self-defeating for the purpose to get the Phone 2 Pro in the first place.
Who's it for?
Pros
- Good value for money
- Above average performance
- Very aesthetically-pleasing UI and OS
Cons
- Full range of accessories are not easily available in Malaysia
For the price of RM1,199, if you're interested in a Nothing Phone and the Nothing OS for this budget, this is kind of a no-brainer because the CMF Phone 2 Pro is basically giving you everything you'd want from the Nothing Phone.
We've actually seen many designs for the phone that came in from creators who have like a 3D printer at home. They print out something, and then they can attach it by themselves to the phone, like the "croc shoe" design at the back. But of course, this is limited to someone who has a 3D printer, knows how to design or just simply know such a seller. Otherwise, customisability is still slightly limited.
Purchase the CMF Phone 2 Pro here. Stay updated with ProductNation on here, Instagram & TikTok.
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