Imagine a phone getting 6 years of security updates, a clean software like a Pixel, and a telephoto lens for under RM1,200. Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, it kind of is, but not for the reasons you think, because here’s what makes the CMF Phone 2 Pro one of the weirdest phones out there.
Unboxing
In the box, there is the TPU case, a USB-C to USB-C cable, and a very unique SIM ejector pin similar to last year’s model. Apparently, there is a 33W charging brick included, but only in India. So if you’re from India, good for you, my friend, and congratulations, because your box is heavier than ours. Here in Malaysia, there’s no charger in the box.
Design
What I did was to pick the best color out of all of the options. So yes, I went with this White color, which had a two-tone white and grey, or a cement-like color, at the bottom.
While I did prefer it to be all white, it is something that I got used to when I used it daily, and I kind of fell in love with this overall cement-like finish. But on top of that, the real saving grace for me is the fact that it has a very nice matte, textured-like finish.
The aluminum camera rings are something that I really like, but because of that, the phone did wobble when I type it on the surface, just like a table on a roadside mamak store.
Then, you know the spinning wheel thingy which is available at the bottom, similar to last year’s CMF Phone 1. This was like a virgin because it took me days in order for me to open it, where I had to use this older screwdriver from the CMF Phone 1 in order to pry it open, and only then it started becoming a bit loose, just like a virgin, I guess. But more on the accessories later on in this video.
On paper, the phone weighs about 185g, but to be honest, it felt even lighter than that, so much lighter than last year’s phone, which of course, is a very good thing. Because of the weight of the phone, the phone felt very nice in the hands, especially on the sides of the Phone too, surely different from any other smartphones that I’ve reviewed this year.
What’s Different?
Then the screws at the back, there’s no way for you to remove them, because if you don’t own last year’s CMF Phone 1 or even this year’s accessories, it doesn’t come in the box, so you’re just stuck with the screws at the back of the phone.
What’s different is that number one, this new CMF Phone 2 Pro doesn’t have an interchangeable back panel like how it was on this CMF Phone 1. According to Nothing or CMF, it was a very niche thing, where the majority of the people didn’t even buy the additional cases, so they ended up bundling it together with the phone for free. So, being upset with the huge loss of money, they said, “No, you all wanted customization but didn’t pay for it, so bye-bye, no more interchangeable covers.”
Number two, there’s the new accessory called the Universal Cover, which needs to be bought and applied separately, and only then you’ll be able to use the other accessories, including the MagSafe-like capabilities too, like the wallet, which also acts as a kickstand, and the interchangeable lenses too. So only the lanyard works without that particular Universal Cover.
To me, that was fine to a certain extent. I just thought to myself, “You know what, I’ll just get the Universal Cover, right?” But what’s worse is that Universal Cover is not available in Malaysia and in many other countries too, because Nothing only decided to include that to be on sale only in Europe and India. So the only way for us to get those is to travel in these countries. Fantastic decision, CMF! But hey, it is IP54 rated.
Display
Let’s turn around and look at the display of the CMF Phone 2 Pro. This comes with a 6.77-inch 120Hz adaptive refresh rate that goes from 60 to 120Hz, with a Full HD flexible AMOLED flat display that comes with a pre-applied screen protector, which reminded me of POCO’s F7 Ultra screen protector, not the best quality.
But like every other Nothing phone, what’s lovely is that this also has symmetrical bezels, although quite thick, like my eyebrows, just like the Google Pixel 9a. But as it was with that particular phone, it was something that you would get used to when you use the phone daily.
It also comes at 1,300 nits of HBM brightness, which is 50% higher than last year’s CMF Phone 1, and 3,000 nits of peak HDR brightness. But then CMF decides to slap on a Panda Glass on this, so durability wise, that is very questionable.
The display indeed is very beautiful, whether or not when it comes to watching videos with very nice colors and skin tones on the videos too, or just using the phone every single day.
However, the speakers suck. Just a single mono speaker at the bottom. So if you happen to watch videos while holding the phone on a landscape orientation on one hand like this, your finger will block the only speakers of the phone, so you are technically muting your videos.
Software
Nothing phones are always known for their best software experience. Just like the Pixel phones, the CMF Phone 2 Pro has a very clean and minimal software experience with absolutely no bloatware, and this is totally game-changing!
The reason why this is clean is because the custom widgets that you can nicely adjust within the UI itself, which number one, looks aesthetic, and number two, very useful, because the customization of the widget sizes for the menu was nice.
Then, the monochrome theme, while people might have different opinions about this, but I love it because this feels normal to the eyes rather than being bombarded by all those colorful icons around the homepage.
I also love how, while you’re downloading an app halfway, it will show the default app’s color, and once it’s done, it will turn the app icon into a monochrome theme again. A small but cool detail that I’ve done.
Essential Key
Then, typing and the haptic feedback on the phone was really nice. But it doesn’t end there, because it has the Essential Key right at the bottom of the power button, which is basically an AI button that allows you to take screenshots of a particular screen and then save it with a written note or even a voice note.
How useful is this daily? I don’t know. Who is this feature for? I don’t know. But is it something cool and new? Yes.
The reason why I said I don’t know is because when this feature was first introduced in the Nothing Phone (3a), I was excited at first, but I ended up not using it when I was using the phone daily. So do let me know if this is indeed helpful for you, my friend.
Speaking of screenshots, I don’t know who asked for that, but the idea of having the screenshot option at the bottom when you go through the recently opened apps was quite annoying, as I tend to hit that to close the apps, which other Android phones give that as an option. So do also let me know if this screenshot button at the bottom of the recently opened apps is more useful than having it to close your apps instead.
OS & Security Updates
CMF has promised 3 years of OS update with 6 years, yep, 6 years of security updates! Getting a mid-ranger to touch 6 years of security updates making this an amazingly reliable smartphone.
But then again, the question remains the same in my previous videos: how many people actually use their phone for more than 4 years? The answer is the majority, because don’t almost everyone changes their phone in 2 to 3 years, especially if you’re paying for a phone within this price range, because we kind of change our phones more often than we change our Wi-Fi passwords, right?
Also worth mentioning is the fact that this phone has NFC compared to the previous CMF Phone 1. There’s also an SD card slot up to 2TB, which was also really nice.
Performance
On top of all of that, CMF has embedded a new processor in this CMF Phone 2 Pro to make your experience even smoother. This has the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Pro chipset, which on paper is 10% more than last year’s MediaTek Dimensity 7300 chip on the CMF Phone 1.
This 10% might not sound like a huge difference because there isn’t a huge difference, but the software and the overall usage or the UI optimization did feel way more smoother when using the phone daily.
The gaming performance was also great as before, specifically on Genshin Impact. But it also felt really nice to game on due to how it feels really nice in the hands, as mentioned earlier.
But I did notice one huge difference compared to last year’s phone, which is the better and the faster image processing on this particular phone.
Camera
This phone comes with three rear lenses instead of just two last year: a 50MP main with no OIS and an 8MP ultrawide, and then there’s also a new 50MP 50mm telephoto lens with no OIS as well that gives up to 2x optical zoom and a 16MP front camera.
Ultrawide & Main Lens
The ultrawide lenses on the 15mm focal length did perform great with no distortion on the edges, and the balance of the highlights and the shadows for an indoor shot was also nicely balanced.
There is a color shift between the ultrawide and the main lenses, which tends to happen for more budget-friendly smartphones, where the main lenses are a bit more saturated, as seen side by side with the ultrawide lenses. But the main and the telephoto lens did not have any color shift, which was really great.
Telephoto Lens
Speaking of which, the new telephoto lens did perform well, where it can also zoom digitally up to 5x zoom or 120mm, but I would start to hold back beyond that 10x zoom or the 240mm focal length, because the 20x zoom images look as blurry as Arsenal’s chances of winning the Premier League.
Portrait Mode
The rear portrait mode for humans was best at 24mm focal length. Beyond that, you’ll see some level of color shift, and the edge detection was not one of the best at the edges of the hair. But what’s interesting is that it did a very good job for objects, as seen in this different focal length with a more challenging shape.
Selfie
As for selfie photos indoors, that was really excellent. But when you go outdoors, you’ll need to be aware of where the light is shining towards to get the best results.
Ultrawide & Main Lens (Night)
Then the nighttime photos on the ultrawide lenses were decent as long as your hands are super steady, since not only these ultrawide lenses but the main lenses also do not have OIS, as mentioned earlier.
And while you can get some decent shots outdoor, but if you’re taking photos at night in a restaurant with a mix of lighting, the color balance is very badly processed, and the image processing could be a bit confusing on which to make white, and the images weren’t as sharp as well, no matter which lenses that you choose.
Portrait Mode (Night)
And the color shift was also present for the portrait mode at night, similar to the daytime shots, as whether or not it’s for humans and for objects as well, so keep that in mind.
Selfie (Night)
Then as for selfie photos at night, it was decent, but only when you turn on the flash, you know, when it turns the whole screen to white and bright. Otherwise, you’ll get a more pasty image quality.
Video Recording
[Check out my YouTube video for sample video footage]
Rear Video
Then as for video, the rear lenses can record up to 4K 30fps, but only for the main and the telephoto 2x zoom, because the ultrawide lens can only record up to 1080p 30fps. But the 5x zoom video was still decent. However, the max 8x zoom video wasn’t as good.
So overall, the telephoto and the main lenses for videos were obviously better, indeed very comparable compared to the recently reviewed vivo V50 Lite when it comes to the overall video quality.
Front Video
Then as for the front video, it also maxes out at 1080p 60fps, but the image stabilization was really good.
Night Video
At night, the ultrawide video was not as great as the main lenses as expected. Even for the telephoto video, the quality was quite good, but you can expect a horrible front video recording at night.
Check out my YouTube video for a VLOG test!
Battery
Strangely, the battery specs remain the same as last year, but it’s still a huge 5,000mAh of battery with 33W of charging with 5W of reverse wired charging. In this so-called budget segment, the vivo V50 Lite, as mentioned earlier, kills the CMF Phone 2 Pro with a huge 6,500mAh of battery and 90W of fast charging. So in this particular department, that wins this phone altogether.
On top of that, I was only getting about 3 and a half to almost 4 hours of screen on time when I was at 17% battery life, which is plain sad because at first I thought it was a software update that I was missing, but nope, it was still updated to version 3.2.
So the only saving grace is the fact that it took me about 1 hour to reach from 0 to 100%. But as mentioned, compared to the likes of the vivo V50 Lite earlier, this phone gets an RKO from that.
Conclusion
So for a phone that cost only RM1,199 (~USD279), which by the way is only RM100 more compared to the CMF Phone 1 when it was first launched, where this 8GB of RAM and 256GB storage is the only variant available here in Malaysia.
Overall, the CMF Phone 2 Pro feels value for the money and recommendable with almost a 7 out of 10 on almost everything.
But there are still two questions that need to be answered by CMF:
(1) What is the reason behind naming this the Pro? Will there be a CMF Phone 2 also in the future? Will that be a cut-short version of this, and if yes, how will CMF place that phone?
(2) Why aren’t the Universal Cover and the other accessories available globally? Is it because the average smartphone buying price is lower in these regions, or is it because people like customization in those regions only, making their phone look like it’s theirs in those regions? Well, I guess we all have to wait and see.
Speaking of the vivo V50 Lite earlier, check out that video review over here if you haven’t done so.
🛒 Get the CMF Phone 2 Pro at the link below:-
Shopee (MY) – https://invl.me/clmpx15
Lazada (MY) – https://invl.me/clmpx16
