CMF Phone 1 by Nothing review

A modest camera setup

If you were still wondering about the CFM Phone 1's stranding in the Nothing lineup, its camera setup might offer some clues. While the marketing materials say that the device has a "flagship-grade" main camera, there is essentially just one camera on the rear.

The main camera uses the fairly popular Sony IMX882 sensor, which is not exactly what we would call "flagship-grade", but we suppose that could be said through some metrics. It is a 1/1.95" sensor with 0.8µm individual pixels. It sits behind an f/1.8 lens with nothing too fancy like OIS or advanced autofocus.

The other camera on the rear of the phone is a complementary depth sensor meant to aid in portrait shots. It uses a 2MP SmartSens SC202 sensor with 1/5.1" size and 1.75µm pixels. We are kinda surprised to see a depth sensor here after hearing Nothing bashing the practice of other companies of equipping midrange phones with unneeded cameras like that just for the sake of marketing.

Around the front of the CMF Phone 1, there is a 16MP selfie cam. It is based on the GalaxyCore GC16B3 sensor with 1/3.1" size and 1.0µm pixels. There is nothing particularly fancy about this camera either. It comes with a fixed focus.

• Wide (main): 50 MP Sony IMX882 f/1.8, 1/1.95", 0.8µm, PDAF; 2160p@30fps
• Depth: 2 MP SmartSens SC202, f/2.4, 1/5.1", 1.75µm.
• Front camera: 16 MP GalaxyCore GC16B3, f/2.0, 1/3.1", 1.0µm; 1080p@30fps

Having said that, both the main and selfie cameras on the CMF Phone 1 have something called a "True Lens Engine". It includes Ultra XDR, AI Vivid Mode, Night More, Portrait Optimizer and Motion Capture.

The AI Vivid mode claims to create "a true-to-life image with extra vivid hues and high contrast". Ultra XDR is a Google-backed technology for HDR photography and a supported opt-in feature on the CMF Phone 1.

The default Camera app is close to what you'd find across the latest Realme and OnePlus smartphones. Swiping on the viewfinder or the scroller below switches between modes, while the additional ones can be found under the "More" sub-menu. Flash and timer are available on the opposite of the viewfinder side, but you can expand more settings like resolution (12MP/50MP), aspect, Ratio, Live Photo, and advanced settings.

Expert mode is available. It only works on the main camera, though. The shutter speed can go as low as 32 seconds. RAW capturing is available, too.

Daylight photo quality

Main camera

The main camera on the CMF Phone 1 captures solid daylight photos with its main camera. These come out with a 12.5MP binned resolution by default.

Colors look pretty nice and natural. The contrast looks good, and so does dynamic range. The detail rendition looks loks really good too. However, the photos are not very sharp upon close inspection.

Nothing CMF Phone 1: 12.5MP main camera samples

The main camera handles human subjects quite well. Skin tones look great, and some skin texture is coming through. Portrait shots are quite decent, too. For some reason the subject looks sharper than on the regular photos.

The subject detection and separation algorithm occasionally slips up, but nothing too dramatic. The quality of the background blur is excellent.

Nothing CMF Phone 1: 12.5MP main camera portrait samples

As we mentioned, the CMF Phone 1 also offers another color mode. It is called AI Vivid mode, and indeed, as advertised, it captures photos with a bit of extra contrast and slightly more color saturation. The difference isn't massive, but it is definitely noticeable.

Nothing CMF Phone 1: 12.5MP main camera AI Vivid mode samples

You can force the main camera to capture in its full 50MP resolution. However, we see no real reason to do so since the resulting photos don't offer any additional detail or other tangible benefits and honestly look like upscaled.

Nothing CMF Phone 1: 50MP main camera samples

There is no dedicated telephoto camera on the CMF Phone 1 but there is a 2x toggle in the camera UI. In 2x zoom mode, photos come out soft and fuzzy. The rendition of foliage in particular looks unnatural. Nevertheless, colors and contrast look just like at 1x so you could use this mode in pinch.

Nothing CMF Phone 1: 12.5MP main camera 2x zoom samples

Selfie camera

Selfie shots from the CMF Phone 1 are okay. Facial features and color look nice, even if we would have appreciated a bit more skin texture coming through. Dynamic range is a bit limited and again, these photos are not very sharp - they almost look upscaled.

Nothing CMF Phone 1: 16MP selfie camera samples

Low-light camera quality

The main camera holds up pretty well in low-light conditions. There is plenty of resolved detail, the noise is very low, and colors look nice and natural. Contrast is good, too. Plenty of HDR stacking is going on since both darker areas and highlights are well-developed. Light sources aren't blown out, either. Overall, a great showing.

Nothing CMF Phone 1: 12.5MP main camera Auto night mode samples

If you disable this night mode processing you would get cleaner images but light sources come out clipped.

Nothing CMF Phone 1: 12.5MP main camera low-light samples

Low-light selfies are decent, but nothing to phone home about. Very little skin texture comes through, and skin tones aren't particularly natural. Detail isn't bad, though.

Nothing CMF Phone 1: 16MP selfie camera night mode samples

Video capture quality

The main camera on the CMF Phone 1 can capture videos at up to 4K@30fps resolution. These clips get saved in a standard AVC/h.264 format with a bitrate of around 50 Mbps, with 48 kHz stereo AAC audio inside an MP4 container. There is also the option to switch to HEVC/h.265 and save on some storage.

You can check out the playlist below, which includes multiple video samples.

Videos from the main camera look pretty good. The colors are nice and natural, and the dynamic range is wide. There is some noise, but it's not dramatic in any major way. We do wish there were a bit more fine detail, but we can't complain about what we got. 2x zoom videos look a bit softer and noisier than 1x ones.

The CMF Phone 1 lacks OIS. However, there is some form of EIS for the main camera. It is called "Action mode," and it lowers the capture resolution to 1080p. That would honestly be acceptable if the stabilization was any good. Unfortunately, it isn't since a lot of focus hunting is introduced with each camera shake.

Selfie videos are nothing to phone home about. They are limited to 1080p, and the level of detail isn't particularly good. Faces come out looking soft and "painted-over" for the most part, with very little left in the way of skin texture. The dynamic range is fairly limited as well.

Low-light videos from the main camera actually look pretty decent. Sure, there is some noise and light sources can occasionally be blown out. However, there is also plenty of detail, even in darker areas of the frame. 2x videos are quite a bit softer and muddier, though still usable.

It is worth noting that for really dark environments, the CMF Phone 1 automatically toggles on a video night mode, which does help quite a bit. However, it also lowers the resolution to 1080p. You can opt out of using it, of course.