CMF is back with a new smartphone dubbed the CMF Phone 2 Pro, which is not exactly a successor to the CMF Phone 1, considering this one’s a Pro model, and a vanilla model could be coming soon. Whatever the case may be, the new CMF device starts at Rs 18,999 which is a competitive price tag but is it worth spending on? We’ll help you with that question by the end of our CMF Phone 2 Pro review.
Design and Display
With the CMF Phone 2 Pro, the company sealed the back panel shut to improve the in-hand feel over the Phone 1. That seems to have worked, considering the model we got didn’t have a dual-tone finish but still feels much more premium in the hand than the iPhone 1.
Even though it’s all plastic, the matte finish of the back panel is premium to look at and feels premium in the hand. The device is also considerably slimmer, which adds to its already excellent feel.
There’s also a new Essential Key at the right, which works the exact same way as the Nothing Phone (3a) series. You press it twice to open Essential Space and hold to record a voice note. A single press takes a screenshot, and the second press saves it for analysis by the feature.
The buttons could have been more tactile, as the current implementation feels nimble and doesn’t give much feedback when pressed.
So, how does CMF give the device a look that underlines its design language and makes it look more modern? The screws. These screws are in the same position as the CMF Phone 1 and make it look like a CMF Phone, but they serve a different purpose this time.
Instead of keeping the back panel in place, they are used to keep a new universal cover in place, which has to be bought separately. That universal cover can be used to attach other accessories to the device, like the wallet stand.
The triple cameras on the back look decent, and thankfully, unlike an iPhone. They have a glossy ring around them with a matte finish on top. Such attention to detail shows what went into designing the phone.
CMF has also included a cover and charger in the box with the Phone 2 Pro, addressing criticism for not providing the two with the CMF Phone 1.
The handset has an IP54 rating for dust and splash resistance, so splashes of water shouldn’t be an issue for it to handle.
CMF has also used a better Haptics motor this time which is stronger and tighter than before, even if it still doesn’t match the Phone (3a) series haptics.
The single speaker at the bottom is a big letdown, though. It’s not loud, it lacks bass, and at high volume, only the vocals are present while the background music fades away. Even the CMF Phone 1 speaker was better than this, especially in terms of loudness. I did miss a few calls due to how bad this speaker sounds. Brands generally give stereo speakers at this price point, let alone using a single speaker that sounds terrible.
As for the display, the CMF Phone 2 Pro has a 6.77-inch full-HD+ (1,080×2,392 pixels) AMOLED Display with up to 120Hz adaptive refresh rate, 2160 Hz PWM frequency, 387 ppi Pixel density, 480Hz touch sampling rate, 10-bit colours, and 3,000 nits peak brightness. The display has HDR10+ support and Panda Glass protection.
When I began the CMF Phone 2 Pro review, at the first boot up, I could tell that it had a better panel than CMF Phone 1’s. The colours looked better, and the viewing angles were also much better.
The display is sharp and feels more responsive than the CMF Phone 1’s, which should be because of the higher touch sampling rate. Another improvement is the implementation of even bezels, which is a unique design choice at this price point. Brightness is also quite impressive in outdoor conditions. I could hardly find a flaw with this panel at this price point.
The in-display fingerprint sensor is also more accurate than the one used in the CMF Phone 1, while the speed of unlocking is more or less the same.
Read More: These Three CMF Phone 2 Pro Competitors Are Worth Checking Out
Performance and Software
The CMF Phone 2 Pro has an octa-core MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Pro Chipset under the hood, coupled with 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB of storage, which is expandable up to 2 TB. It runs on Android 15 with Nothing OS 3.2 and will receive 3 major OS updates and 6 years of security patches.
The CMF Phone 1 was brilliantly optimised and had one of the best software experiences at its price, and the CMF Phone 2 Pro is no different. During my CMF Phone 2 Pro review period, I hardly encountered any instances where it lagged or gave up on me. Even though Nothing claims there’s some improvement in performance over the Phone 1 in terms of numbers, I couldn’t notice it anywhere in real-world performance.
Yes, some bugs persist, such as animation stutters while quitting Instagram or an opaque background while closing other apps and going to the home screen, but these can easily be fixed with an update. Speaking of updates, CMF’s software update policy for the Phone 2 Pro is quite generous, it offers three years of Android OS upgrades and six years of security updates.
The Phone 2 Pro has higher RAM and more storage than the Phone 1, and thanks to the former feature, multitasking is a breeze on the device. As for gaming, you can expect decent and consistent performance in titles like BGMI and Call of Duty at medium graphics with no major lag. However, the phone does warm up a little when you push it further to its limits.
Nothing OS 3.2 once again proved itself as one of the better Android software skins, especially under Rs 20,000. It offers the right amount of customisation, useful features, and smooth animations.
Most importantly, the CMF Phone 2 Pro supports full Always-on display integration, which the CMF Phone 1 lacked, likely due to the use of a superior panel in the Phone 2 Pro. Lock screen customisation, clock styles, AI wallpaper generation, charging assistant, custom charging limit, App locker, cloned apps, gestures, Essential space, and more, are all a part of the software which is great to see as Nothing didn’t cut out any features in its cheaper phone.
There’s also no bloatware on the phone, which is another plus point for the device. The only pre-installed apps you get are Google’s apps and Nothing’s own utility apps like its Recorder app, Weather app, and Essential Space.
Connectivity performance of the handset remained optimal. The device does lack NFC in the Indian variant which is a bummer considering the device’s international counterpart has it.
Battery
The CMF Phone 2 Pro packs the same 5000mAh battery and 33W fast wired charging as the Phone 1. The battery backup I got during my CMF Phone 2 Pro review was excellent. I could consistently get 9 hours of screen-on time with about a day worth of use which included casual gaming, mostly on Wi-Fi, heavy calling, scrolling through Instagram, listening to music via Bluetooth, watching YouTube, browsing Chrome, etc. Without gaming, you could even get a 2-day backup easily.
The charging experience was a bit confusing for me. The 33W charger that came with the device (in its box) took more than 2 hours to charge the device from 2% to 70%, which seemed off to me. Once I connected the CMF 65W PD charger, the device charged at full speeds and much quicker, going from 70% to 80% within a matter of minutes.
With the CMF GaN charger, the device took about 1h 25m to go from 5% to 100% in the second cycle which is decent but again, not the best. However, for some reason, the device couldn’t charge at full speeds with the supplied CMF 33W charger.
Cameras
The CMF Phone 2 Pro’s back features three cameras: a 50-megapixel 1/1.57-inch sensor with f/1.88 Aperture and EIS, a 50-megapixel telephoto sensor with f/1.85 aperture, 2x optical zoom, and 20x digital zoom, and an 8-megapixel ultra-wide angle sensor with f/2.2 aperture and a 119.5-degree field of view. On the front, it features a 16-megapixel selfie camera with an f/2.45 aperture.
The device shoots average-looking photos from the primary sensor with a slight pink hue. The detailing could have been better, and so could the colours. The contrast in the photos seems to be missing, and the dynamic range isn’t the best.
The detail in the ultra-wide-angle photos also needs improvement, but they shoot much better with much better colours than the primary sensor, which looks more lifelike. The EDGE distortion is also well contained.
Coming to the third telephoto sensor, the quality of the shots from this sensor is decent in terms of detailing but again the colours look washed out. Portrait photos from this sensor look good due to accurate edge detection and a natural-looking blur. Even at 3x crop, there’s not much loss in detail.
However, the colour shift from 1x to 2x is quite noticeable and makes the photos look odd because at 1x, the primary sensor shoots pink-ish photos but the colours turn natural when you use the 2x telephoto sensor.
Starting at 4x zoom, the detailing starts to fade away, and noise appears in the shot. At 10x and 20x, the farthest Digital Zoom the device supports, things just get worse as the photos turn blurry.
Selfies from the front sensor have good detailing while the skin could be handled better.
Under artificial lighting, the CMF Phone 2 Pro clicks detailed shots with good-looking colours and nicely handled white balance. In low lighting conditions, the cameras begin to struggle as they lose focus on the subject and have difficulty locking it back on. The shots do gather some amount of detailing if the device does lock focus. Turning on Night mode doesn’t help dramatically with the sharpness or detailing.
