Nothing CMF Phone 2 Pro review: Unbeatable at its price

CMF Phone 2 Pro

Rating: 4.5 Stars

The Nothing CMF Phone 2 Pro is an incredible device for the price, beating the competition in performance, cameras, and more.

Skip To Our Expert ReviewRating: 4.5 StarsSkip To Our Expert Review

Pros

• Versatile camera
• Good performance
• Interesting design
• Solid battery life
• Great software

Cons

• No wireless charging
• Caveats to buying in the US

Nothing	$279	$279	See It
	$289	$289	See It

Nothing has been firing on all cylinders when it comes to mid-range phones, but perhaps just as interesting as those devices are the budget devices under the CMF brand. Last year’s CMF phones offered excellent value for money and included features like a removable battery. Now, the budget CMF brand is back in the form of the new CMF Phone 2 Pro.

The CMF Phone 2 Pro continues to offer an interesting design along with specifications that punch way above its weight class. But at the same time, the budget phone market is seriously heating up, and there’s more competition than ever. Can the CMF Phone 2 Pro do enough to be the go-to for budget phone buyers?

Nothing CMF Phone 2 Pro specs

Nothing CMF Phone 2 Pro review: Design

Mainline Nothing phones have their own signature look, and now so do CMF phones. The CMF Phone 2 Pro offers a similar style to previous-generation CMF phones with cool design touches like visible back panel screws and what looks like it should be a dial on the bottom right corner of the back, though it doesn’t actually do anything.

One big difference between this year’s phone and last year’s is the fact that the back cover is not removable now. That’s a bit disappointing, considering the fact that being able to remove the back cover meant that you could replace the phone’s battery. That said, the trade-off is that you’ll get IP54 water resistance, something that you did not get last year. I think this is a fair trade-off because most people are used to not being able to replace the battery in their phone, and having some level of water resistance is always a good idea.

While the back isn’t removable, those screws on the rear of the phone do still play a role. They can be unscrewed to allow you to attach the so-called universal cover, which in turn lets you attach interchangeable camera lenses and magnetic accessories like a wallet/kickstand combo. It’s kind of a neat touch, but it does remove some of the included functionality of the original phone, which had its removable back cover. Once you add that universal cover to the back, the phone will be just as thick or thicker than the last generation model. Still, I like that the phone has some modular features.

On top of offering a unique look overall, the phone is also very thin. It measures in at only 7.8mm thick and felt very lightweight and slim in the hand. That’s despite its relatively large screen size, which is edge-to-edge on the front of the phone, with decently slim bezels around it, especially for a phone in this price range.

The phone comes in a few different colors, including the basic black and white options, and more interesting orange and light green choices. I have the light green model, and while I haven’t seen the orange one in person, based on online images, I think it’s the coolest one.

Much of the rest of the design of the phone is to be expected. You get a power button on the right edge with a volume rocker on the left edge. There’s a USB-C port on the bottom. Like the new Nothing Phone (3a) devices, the CMF Phone 2 Pro has Nothing’s so-called Essential Key on the side. We’ll get into what that does later, but I still find that its positioning makes it easy to confuse the power button and the Essential Key.

Generally speaking, I love the design of the CMF Phone 2 Pro. It’s awesome that Nothing continues to create unique designs for its phones, even when it comes to the ultra-budget CMF models.

Nothing CMF Phone 2 Pro review: Display

The display on the CMF Phone 2 Pro is incredible for a phone in this price range. It seems as though it’s actually the same display as the one on the Nothing Phone (3a). It measures 6.77 inches and has a 1080p resolution. Unlike most other phones at this price point, it’s an AMOLED screen, so you get nice deep black levels and higher contrast. That contrast is heightened even further by the excellent 3000-nit peak brightness.

Also, unlike other phones at this price point, the refresh rate sits at 120Hz. That’s the same refresh rate as phones four times the price, and while you won’t get an LTPO panel that can range from 1Hz to 120Hz, the fact that you’ll get ultra-smooth animations through the higher refresh rate is pretty nice. And, the screen can still switch between 60Hz and 120Hz.

Nothing CMF Phone 2 Pro review: Performance

Under the hood, the Nothing CMF Phone 2 Pro is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Pro chipset, coupled with 8GB of RAM. This is again impressive for the price. The Dimensity 7300 Pro certainly isn’t a flagship chip, and you shouldn’t expect to get the same performance as more expensive phones. But it’ll still do the job for most of what you want it to do in 2025. It’s certainly not a high-performance gaming machine, but it will still handle mobile games decently well. Just expect it to load slower and offer a lower frame rate than higher-end phones.

All this comes together to offer what Nothing claims is 10% better CPU and 5% better GPU performance than last year’s model. That’s a modest upgrade, but an upgrade nonetheless. I wasn’t able to test those claims without the original, but regardless, I found that the phone performed well.

Nothing CMF Phone 2 Pro review: Battery and charging

Powering it all is a 5,000mAh battery, and I found the battery life to be very good. The battery easily got me through a full day of heavy use and well into a second day. Nothing claims that the battery offers a two-day battery life, and with light usage, I think that’s certainly doable. But heavier users will still want to charge before the second day is up.

When it does come time to charge, you’ll get 33W fast charging, which is perfectly fine. Don’t expect wireless charging here, though. It’s not on offer. Hopefully, cheaper phones will start getting support for wireless charging in the near future.

Nothing CMF Phone 2 Pro review: Camera

The design, display, and performance are all very good for a phone in this price range, but perhaps the star of the show is the camera. I was shocked when a phone as cheap as the Nothing Phone (3a) had a triple camera array, but now there’s one even cheaper that has all three of the cameras you would want. You’ll get a 50-megapixel main camera, a 50-megapixel 2x telephoto camera, and an 8-megapixel ultrawide camera.

Now, of course, despite having access to the three different camera types, the cameras aren’t necessarily as high-tech as on more expensive phones. The telephoto camera, for example, only offers 2x optical zoom, and there’s no optical image stabilization on any of the cameras.

Still, I found images captured by the device to be excellent. In well-lit environments, the phone captured vibrant and detailed shots. Colors were decently consistent across all three of the cameras too, something that I wouldn’t expect for a phone this cheap. Not only that, but images with digital zoom were still relatively sharp, and while you can definitely tell when a photo has zoomed in to 20x (the device’s maximum), images up to 5x or 6x look decently natural.

Seriously, the camera system on this device competes with phones twice its price, and even more. Images look great, and the camera is more versatile than the vast majority of phones under $500.

Nothing CMF Phone 2 Pro review: Software

The Nothing CMF Phone 2 Pro comes with Nothing OS 3.2, which is based on Android 15. I quite like Nothing’s approach to Android. It’s unique without being over the top and still scaled back enough to feel close to stock Android. Everything is more or less where you would expect it to be, and Nothing doesn’t go over the top with bloatware. I also really like the widgets that Nothing offers on the home screen.

One of the big software changes for this year’s phone is the inclusion of the Essential Space, which is where you’ll access all the information that you save by using the Essential Key on the side of the phone. It’s basically Nothing’s take on a dedicated AI feature. When you hit the essential key, you’ll be able to do things like save audio recordings, screenshots, and more to be organized by the phone in the Essential Space. It might come in handy for you, but I found that I didn’t really use it all that much.

The device will get decent software support too, at least for a phone in this price range. Nothing claims that it will get three years of Android OS updates along with six years of security updates. While that’s not quite as impressive as the six years of OS updates that higher-end phones are getting, it’s still far better than other devices at this price point.

Conclusions

The Nothing CMF Phone 2 Pro would be an excellent deal at a much higher price, but at $279, it’s an absolute steal. That’s not to say that you should buy it over an actual flagship phone if you have the budget for one. But if you’re looking for a phone at around $300 or so, this is easily the one to buy. It has an interesting design, an excellent camera, and good performance, not only for a phone in this price range but for one at twice its price point.

If you’re interested in the device and live in the US, you’ll have to join Nothing’s so-called beta program, which includes agreeing to potentially not getting full support for your carrier. Not only that, but modular accessories aren’t available in the US, which is a little disappointing. If you’re happy to deal with those caveats, you can check the phone out at the Nothing website.

The competition

There are lots of phones under $300, but almost none of them even come close to the value offered by the CMF Phone 2 Pro. The Motorola Moto G Power is a decent competitor, but its camera isn’t as good. It does have wireless charging, but that seems like a small victory considering all the other ways that the CMF Phone 2 Pro wins.

Should I buy the Nothing CMF Phone 2 Pro?

Yes. It’s easily the best-value phone at its price point.

The post Nothing CMF Phone 2 Pro review: Unbeatable at its price appeared first on BGR.