Nothing CMF Phone 2 Pro review

Design, build quality, handling

The design of the CMF Phone 2 Pro is unique if we discount the original CMF Phone 1. Going around the GSMArena office, around half of us like the way it stands out while the other half finds it overdesigned and somewhat ugly. One thing is for sure, the exposed screws and the attachment point gather a lot of dirt and pocket lint. The plastic back surface of the phone is also a fingerprint magnet.

The screws are removable and used as anchor points for certain accessories. The same goes for the attachment point, which has a cap that you can unscrew without any tools. The most logical thing that goes on there after that would be a lanyard.

As we already mentioned, the bulk of the CMF Phone 2 Pro is made of plastic. That includes the pack panel and the frame. It is both lightweight and durable, and it doesn't easily scratch or dent and it won't shatter like glass. Plus, the phone feels solid with little to no flex and hollowness.

The front side of the CMF Phone 2 Pro is covered with protective Panda Glass, which is a nice little touch. Also, unlike the CMF Phone 1, which only had an IP52 ingress protection rating, the CMF Phone 2 Pro has a modest IP54 rating, which is still better than nothing. Plus, the manufacturer promises that it should withstand a dip for up to 20 minutes in up to 25cm of fresh water.

The CMF Phone 2 Pro can be purchased in a total of four colors: White, Black, Orange and Light Green. Ours is the latter, though it looks more light blue rather than green in person. It also changes depending on how the light hits it.

Beyond the aforementioned screws and attachment point the CMF Phone 2 Pro has a pretty standard setup. There is nothing but a secondary mic on the top of the phone. The bottom is quite busy with the main speaker, microphone, and the hybrid slots that takes two nano-SIMs or one plus a microSD card. The Type-C port is here as well. The volume rockers are on the left-hand side, while the power and Essential keys are on the right.

CMF Phone 2 Pro

The Essential key is carried forward from the original CMF Phone 1. Double-pressing the Essential key takes you to the Essential space, which we'll detail later on. A single press takes a screenshot that gets sent with an optional voice memo to the Essential space, while long-pressing the key takes a voice memo. Unfortunately, there is currently no way to remap the Essential key's actions to anything else.

The phone's front is pretty clean. The selfie punch hole is on the larger side, and so are the display bezels, but nothing too outrageous. There are no visible sensors. Everything is tucked away underneath the display.

The CMF Phone 2 Pro uses a standard optical under-display fingerprint reader. It is both snappy and accurate. We have no complaints with it.

We should talk about the accessory ecosystem that the CMF Phone 2 Pro comes with. Nothing plans to offer a Universal Cover, a Wallet and Stand, a Lanyard, and Interchangeable lenses.

The lanyard is the most straightforward of the bunch. It simply goes on to the Accessory attachment point on the bottom of the back. The rest of the accessories require the Universal Cover. It is an extra sheet that attaches to the back of the phone using the screws. Nothing is not selling it yet as of writing this review, and interestingly, the site only shows a single color version of it.

Anyway, the Universal cover is actually magnetic in the middle. That's what allows the Wallet and stand accessory to attach to it. It is a two-in-one accessory that can hold a single card and fold up like a kickstand.

The Universal Cover also adds a lens attachment point to the phone's rear cameras. Nothing plans on selling a fisheye lens as well as a macro lens, but those too are unavailable for now.