After Using The CMF Phone 2 Pro, I Can’t Believe It Costs Just $279

Nothing CMF Phone 2 Pro

The CMF Phone 2 Pro is only $279 in the US, but don’t let that fool you: it feels like it’s worth twice that price. It has more innovation than most flagships these days, a big, beautiful display, a triple-camera setup on the back that includes a telephoto lens (!!), and has a longer update pledge than some $1,000+ phones receive. Granted, this isn’t the phone for you if you live in the US, thanks to its missing band support and lack of access to accessories, but for everyone else, this is pretty stellar.

If I only had $300 to spend on a budget smartphone, I would need to get something fairly disappointing. It would likely look (and feel) dated, have abysmal specs, and have few options for accessories — if any at all. That’s why last year’s CMF Phone 1 — a sub-$250 budget phone from Nothing — was such a sensation. It was a phone that pretty much anyone could afford, but it didn’t come with the usual trappings of a budget device.

Now, Nothing is back with the 2025 CMF Phone 2 Pro. It’s got multiple spec upgrades, a new “Pro” name, and some cool accessories for its unique modular system. It also has a slightly higher price, but I think most people will be OK with that once they see what they’re getting. At least, most people outside the United States, anyway.

More innovation than 99% of flagships

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Before I get too deep into what I liked and didn’t like about the CMF Phone 2 Pro, I want to call out what sets this device apart from other Android phones. Most of the time, phones that cost less than $300 are bare-bones affairs, but that’s not the case with the CMF Phone 2 Pro. In fact, there’s more going on here than we see in most flagships.

First, this phone’s camera system is unlike any other in this price category. In most cases, a $300 phone will have a decent primary sensor on the back and one or two other semi-useless lenses (macro, depth, etc.). The ultrawide and telephoto lenses you find on $700+ flagships are typically nowhere to be found.

Nothing somehow put in 50MP primary, 8MP ultrawide, and 50MP telephoto lenses into a sub-$300 phone.

The CMF Phone 2 Pro, though, bucks that trend by including both an 8MP ultrawide lens and a 50MP telephoto lens with 2x optical zoom next to its 50MP primary sensor. This is, quite frankly, unheard of for any sub-$300 smartphone. It puts this product in a league of its own, as I don’t think any other phone in this price bracket has ever done this before, at least not at this level.

As if that wasn’t cool enough, this phone also has the modular features we first saw on the CMF Phone 1. Along the back of the device, you’ll find some screws that can be removed using a small flat-head screwdriver (which is not included, unfortunately). You can then screw other things onto the back of the phone. This year, that includes a back panel with a wallet/stand combo and, most notably, swappable smartphone lenses. With the back cover and these lenses, you can hot-swap in a macro or fisheye lens whenever needed (and pocket the lens when you’re done). This is so, so cool.

Nothing also pushed even further with its modular accessory system, introducing swappable camera lenses.

Continuing with the modularity aspect, the corner dial on the back of the CMF Phone 1 is also returning this year. You can unscrew this using just your fingers and then attach other accessories. Nothing sent me a lanyard with my review unit, and it was easy to attach (and unattach). Having a lanyard strap on my phone without needing a specialized case is terrific.

With that all out of the way, let me start the proper review by telling you what I loved about this phone.

What I love about the CMF Phone 2 Pro

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I hate to sound like a broken record, because I say this about every phone Nothing makes, but the CMF Phone 2 Pro’s display is unbelievable for what you’ll pay. The 6.77-inch flexible AMOLED panel has an FHD+ resolution (2,392 x 1,080), a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate, 1,300 nits of outdoor brightness (3,000 nits peak), and a whopping 1,000Hz instant touch sampling rate. Oh, it also has symmetrical bezels. For the sake of comparison, the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE — a phone with an MSRP of $649 — offers similar specs, but with a much lower touch sampling rate (240Hz!) and asymmetrical bezels.

Once again, Nothing has made a phone that looks and feels like it costs twice as much as it really does.

The design of the CMF Phone 2 Pro is also astounding. It’s very thin (just 7.8mm without factoring in the camera bump) and lighter than you’d expect for a phone this size. The flat aluminum sides and flat display feel great, and the buttons are clicky and tactile. The weight is also distributed pretty well, which is something that can’t be said about the Nothing Phone 3a Pro and its ginormous camera module that I found absurdly heavy and awkward.

The phone also just looks cool. I know “cool” is subjective, but it objectively doesn’t look like any other phone on the market, which works in its favor. It has a unique identity, which is more than I can say about most cookie-cutter flagships these days. I also love the modular features, although I’m disappointed Nothing did not send me many accessories to play with. I’d love to tell you all about the swappable lenses, for example, but I didn’t get to try them (I’ll touch on this more in the next section).

As far as specs go, Nothing did a great job of keeping what worked with the original CMF Phone 1 while still addressing some pain points of that model.

Nothing also did a fabulous job bringing in new specs. It focused on fixing the pain points of the previous model, left the good stuff alone, and still brought in the usual performance tweaks. Let me start with what stayed the same. The phone still has a huge 5,000mAh battery, and it still charges at a speed of 33W with a cable (the cable is in the box, but you’ll need to supply your own 33W charging brick). Remember the Galaxy S24 FE I mentioned earlier? That charges at 25W with a cable and is, once again, more than twice as expensive as this. Note that there is no wireless charging support on the CMF Phone 2 Pro, but that’s not expected with phones in the sub-$300 range.

There’s still a dual-SIM tray that doubles as a microSD card reader, supporting up to 2TB cards. To be clear, just like with the CMF Phone 1, you need to choose: one physical SIM and a microSD card, or two physical SIMs. Unfortunately, because of the tray’s design, you can’t have two SIMs and a microSD card. eSIM is not supported.

As far as upgrades go, let’s start with the processor, which is the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Pro. This is only a mild upgrade, as last year’s phone had the Dimensity 7300, so all we see here is a slightly upgraded “Pro” model entering the fold. Nothing says this processor results in “10% quicker processing and a 5% improvement in graphics,” but that probably won’t translate to real-world gains for you. Still, a bump is a bump.

Thankfully, the CMF Phone 2 Pro has an NFC chip this year, fixing one of the few outright blunders of the previous model.

One of my biggest complaints about the CMF Phone 1 was also rectified this year. Last year’s model lacked an NFC chip, but the CMF Phone 2 Pro has one. I realize Nothing is heavily focused on the Indian market with this phone, and NFC support is not necessary there, but other people worldwide are excited about these phones, and the lack of NFC is a deal-breaker in many areas. I love that Nothing heard that feedback and put NFC in here.

C. Scott Brown / Android Authority

I’m also pleased with the upgraded IP rating. The CMF Phone 1 had an IP52 rating, but the sequel kicks that up to IP54. That means it’s slightly more water resistant, which is good to know.

The upgraded software commitment for this phone is also incredible. Every manufacturer should be offering this for all phones.

One of the things I am most pleased about, though, is the upgraded software commitment. Nothing promises three Android upgrades and six years of security patches for the CMF Phone 2 Pro. That’s one more upgrade and an extra three years of security patches compared to the CMF Phone 1. Remember that the CMF Phone 1 shipped with Android 14, and this phone ships with Android 15, so the CMF Phone 2 Pro is good for the long haul.

Finally, I can’t say enough positive things about the cameras here. Granted, the camera system won’t match a Google Pixel 9 Pro, Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, or even an Apple iPhone 16 Pro. The hardware just isn’t as good here. However, those phones are over three times as expensive as this one. The camera here is more than adequate for the low price you’ll pay.

The three lenses on the CMF Phone 2 Pro produce great photos in good lighting. Color accuracy is good on each one, and coloring matches well enough across all three. The camera app is straightforward to use, and I appreciate that it comes with a selection of filters you can apply to your photos, including soft portrait, black and white, lenticular, and more. Just be warned that adding a filter is permanent — there’s no way to remove the filter from the photo later.

Even shots in semi-tough lighting came out more than adequate. These photos below were shot in a restaurant with low lighting, and they look pretty good — certainly good enough for a phone that costs less than $300.

Check out our public Drive folder to see all our camera samples in full quality.

What I don’t love about the CMF Phone 2 Pro

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The worst part about the CMF Phone 2 Pro is the same thing that’s wrong with nearly every other Nothing-produced phone: it is not worth using in the United States. Outside of just one phone — the Nothing Phone 2 — every other phone in the company’s roster must be purchased through its US beta program, and the CMF Phone 2 Pro is no exception.

This would be bad enough for the same reason it’s bad for every other Nothing phone in the US beta program: band support. AT&T users won’t get 5G, Verizon users will barely get much of a connection at all, and even T-Mobile users won’t see nearly as good connectivity as they would from a phone designed to work fully in the US. However, Nothing takes things a step further with the CMF Phone 2 Pro by also not allowing accessory purchases in the US. That means US residents can buy the phone but can’t buy the modular back, swappable phone lenses, and wallet/stand combo. Come on, Nothing: that’s half the point of buying this thing!

US-based buyers can buy the phone, but band support will be weak. To make matters worse, though, US buyers can’t buy the cool modular accessories, which is dumb.

If you don’t live in the US, these issues don’t apply to you. However, there are still a few things about the CMF Phone 2 Pro that I wasn’t thrilled by, even without considering my location. First, the optical in-display fingerprint sensor is still too low on the phone’s screen (see photo above). I have no idea why Nothing has stuck with this over the years. Every other phone company puts the fingerprint sensor in relatively the same spot — a convenient spot that’s comfortable for everyone, about two inches up from the bottom. Why Nothing insists on putting it mere centimeters from the bottom bezel — a terribly awkward place — is beyond me.

Nothing OS 3.2 is on board here, and I like most things about it — it’s actually one of my favorite Android skins. The overall aesthetic is great, and I deeply respect the team’s attention to detail. However, there are a few oddball things, and one of them really stuck out for me this go around. The CMF Phone 2 Pro supports an always-on-display (AOD), which is excellent, but there’s no way to have the AOD be on all the time. You can either have it turn on when you tap the screen or schedule when it should be on, but there’s no option to just have it be on all the time — something all other major Android skins offer. Thankfully, you can work around this by scheduling it to be on from 12:00 AM to 11:59 PM, which gets you nearly the same result as it being on all the time, but for a company so obsessed with the little things, I can’t understand why there isn’t just an option to have it be on permanently.

Finally, my least favorite thing about this phone is the Essential Key. If you haven’t been keeping tabs on Nothing over the past few months, the Essential Key is a new physical button that lives on the right side of its new phones. It’s used as a shortcut to launch a new AI-powered app called Essential Space.

Nothing has included the controversial Essential Key on this phone, and it’s no better than what I’ve seen on the Nothing Phone 3a series.

The idea behind Essential Space is to keep you organized by allowing you to capture screenshots or photos and pin an audio recording to them. AI then parses through this data to create a checklist of things you want to accomplish. An example of how this works might be you see a poster for an upcoming concert, take a photo, pin a voice memo of you saying, “I want to see the San Francisco show,” and then Essential Space reminding you about that later.

C. Scott Brown / Android Authority

I’ve talked about my problems with Essential Space and its corresponding button a few times now. In my Nothing Phone 3a series hands-on, I discussed how the feature felt half-baked, which it still does on the CMF Phone 2 Pro. Later, in an opinion post, I pointed out how the button’s placement directly under the power button causes confusion (it’s in the same spot on the CMF Phone 2 Pro). And, most recently, I talked about a discovery we made that suggests Nothing is toying with charging money to use Essential Space. This concerning development has been quite displeasing to even the most hardcore Nothing supporters.

Nothing is certainly all-in on Essential Space, but I won’t get on board until the feature gets much better by integrating with other services and doing more than just making reminders. I don’t know if I would ever pay for it, though. In the meantime, I’ll just be irritated by it every time I use a Nothing phone and hit the Essential Key instead of the power button.

CMF Phone 2 Pro review verdict: Not good for the US, but great overall

C. Scott Brown / Android Authority

I won’t mince words here: if you live outside the United States and want an Android phone that costs less than $300, this is now the only thing I would recommend. You’ll get a fantastic display, a forward-thinking, beautiful design, and a camera system that literally has no equal at this price point. Frankly, you’d be throwing money away if you were to buy anything else.

Here in the United States, though, I can’t be so confident. The lack of adequate band support brings the phone down significantly, and the lack of access to its unique accessories drags it down even more. Even when you factor in its camera system and low price, it might be better to get something else instead.

If you do live in the US and are looking for something good at around this price, I’d start with the Samsung Galaxy A25 5G ($299.99 at Amazon). Samsung is a trusted brand, and this phone offers full US band support. It has a nice display and good battery life, although the camera system won’t be as versatile as the CMF Phone 2 Pro. If you’re OK spending a bit more, the Samsung Galaxy A36 5G ($399.99 at Amazon) is newer and more powerful than the A25 and even has a longer software update commitment than what we see on the CMF Phone 2 Pro. Of course, once again, the camera system will not be as good.

If you live outside the US and want an Android phone that costs less than $300, this is the only one I would recommend.

If all you want is the cheapest possible phone that isn’t hot garbage, take a look at the TCL 50 XL 5G ($159.99 at Metro by T-Mobile). It will get the job done and cost you about $100 less than even the already cheap CMF Phone 2 Pro.

It’s unfortunate that US residents can’t get something as good as the CMF Phone 2 Pro without accepting some significant compromises. However, the fact that this phone even exists at all is incredible. To get all that power and all those features for less than $280 is something I never would have expected.

If you’re a Nothing fan who is waiting for something a bit more in the flagship territory, be sure to read about everything we know so far about the Nothing Phone 3. That phone is coming this year, and could be quite the powerhouse.