Nothing Appeals to Budget Shoppers With $199 CMF Phone 1

Gadget maker Nothing is targeting budget shoppers with its latest Android smartphone, which will cost only $199. But on the downside, the phone doesn't offer wide support of 5G network bands for US carriers.

The CMF Phone 1 starts shipping on Friday, July 12, under the tagline “the best phone everyone can afford.” It's the first phone from Nothing’s CMF brand, which is focused on delivering quality electronics at low prices. 

The CMF Phone 1 sports a 6.67-inch AMOLED screen with a high 120Hz refresh rate and a camera system that contains a 50-megapixel sensor from Sony.

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The phone also packs a fairly sizable 5,000mAh battery and supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3. However, to bring the price down, the CMF Phone 1 settles for a midrange MediaTek Dimensity 7300 5G chip and a two-lens camera system. The memory is also capped at 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.

The other major limitation is that the CMF Phone 1 fails to support 5G bands from AT&T, with only "limited" 5G support for Verizon's and T-Mobile's network, according to an FAQ for the phone. Instead, users will have to settle mainly for the carrier's 4G and 3G bands, suggesting Nothing was too "cheap" to spend on the phone's modem, as former PCMag analyst Sascha Segan noted.

On the plus side, Nothing says it’s fitted a microSD card slot on the phone, enabling users to add another 2TB of storage. 

For design, Nothing took inspiration from a Lamborghini sports car. “A sort of matte finish and shiny rims," Nothing says in a video introducing the phone. To further set it apart from other products, the CMF Phone 1 has a removable case, which can be easily unscrewed, allowing users to swap in different colored casings and perhaps even change out the battery.

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The other nifty feature is a knob on the rear, which can also fit several different accessories, including a stand, a lanyard, or a case to hold your credit cards. 

Interested customers can preorder a new CMF Phone 1 starting today. However, the company is selling the device to US customers through its Beta program, suggesting it's still a work in progress. Nothing adds that the CMF Phone 1 runs the Nothing OS 2.6, which is based on Android 14. Expect two years of feature updates and three years of security updates.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to mention the carrier limitations about the phone.