The CMF Phone 2 Pro provides astonishing value for its price, making it an easy mid-range phone recommendation, especially for those on tight budgets.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Affordable, especially for the lower storage model | Water resistance on the low side |
| Wide+Ultrawide+Telephoto is rare at this price | Camera quality is still that of a mid-range phone |
| Striking design | Looks like we miss out on fun accessories down under |
Score: 4/5
 |
Buy The CMF Phone 2 Pro! | Buy On Amazon |
In this review
Specifications
Design
Camera
Performance
Battery
Conclusion
Ethical disclaimer: The CMF Phone 2 Pro used in this review was sent to me by Nothing for the purposes of review, and I don’t believe they’re asking for it back.
That changes nothing about this review; it simply gets it reviewed, nothing more (pun not intended). Far too many sites and reviewers are shy about disclosure, but that’s not my style.
For more on ART’s ethics policy, see here.
A very quick note before I start.
Officially speaking the phone I’m reviewing here is the “CMF Phone 2 Pro By Nothing ”, but that’s one heck of a long title, so I’m just going to refer to it as the CMF Phone 2 Pro for simplicity’s sake. Now, on with the review…
Design
In Australia, Nothing sells the CMF Phone 2 Pro in white, black or a highly vivid orange hue, which is the model Nothing sent me for review. That does leave a light green finish not making its way to our shores, however. Down under, they’re exclusive to JB Hi-Fi officially.
The most striking aspect of the design, outside that bright orange hue is the presence of exposed screws on the back as well as a circular panel at the bottom right.
Is this just an industrial aesthetic at play?
Not quite – or at least, not quite for the circular panel. While the original CMF Phone (which I never reviewed) offered replaceable full back panel plates, that’s not the story to my understanding for the CMF Phone 2 Pro, where the back panel visible screws are part of the structure and not intended to be unscrewed by consumers.
What you can do is spin the circular disk around at the bottom left to reveal an accessory screw mount point.
That’s about all you can do in Australia, however, as there’s seemingly no official sign of any of the accessories being available here.
It does appear that Nothing isn’t offering quite the same quantity of accessory choices for this model, so there’s perhaps less being missed here – but it’s still missed.
In terms of durability, the CMF Phone 2 Pro is rated at IP54, so essentially it should be able to survive a few rainshowers, but taking it into the pool with you would be a very bad idea indeed.
Camera
The CMF Phone 2 Pro packs in a primary 50MP wide lens, 8MP Ultra-Wide lens and 50MP 2x telephoto lens to cover its primary camera duties, while at the front selfies are handled by a 16MP sensor.
It wasn’t that long ago that I was surprised that Nothing managed to get a proper optical telephoto lens into the Nothing Phone 3a at its price point, because typically in the lower mid-range (or upper budget, depending on your perspective) price range, it’s a real rarity.
As such, seeing it also on the CMF Phone 2 Pro specifications was a genuinely pleasant surprise, as long as it held up in day to day usage.
Here you do have to temper your expectations somewhat. While Nothing is providing a nice range of photographic tools for you to capture images with, an approach I always appreciate, this is still a mid-range phone when it comes to actual image capture.
The predictable targets of fast motion and low light are a challenge, but that’s very much in line with what I’d expect at this price range.
As with most phones, you’ll get the most pleasing results out of the primary 50MP lens.
Actual optical zoom tops out at 2x, but you can stretch that up to 20x with hybrid digital zoom, though predictably the results you get when doing so lose clarity quite quickly.
This 2x zoom shot of the harbour bridge works well enough.
This 20x zoom shot does not.
If you’re fussy about getting the best possible camera results while not breaking the bank on a premium smartphone, you’re still going to have to spend more than the asking price of the CMF Phone 2 Pro.
That being said, for the asking price there’s a lot to like here in basic photography terms, and for many users the combination of wide, ultra-wide and actual zoom will be a compelling proposition.
CMF Phone 2 Pro Sample Photos
Performance
The CMF Phone 2 Pro is built around a Dimensity 7300 Pro 5G CPU with 8GB of RAM or either 128GB ($449 AUD) or 256GB ($509 AUD) of onboard storage. Unlike so many phones right now, it does support microSD expansion if you do need extra storage capacity.
Mediatek’s Dimensity processors in the mid-range often trail behind their comparable Qualcomm counterparts, so I was keen to see where the CMF Phone 2 Pro would sit in its price bracket, especially as the still relatively fresh Nothing Phone 3a starts not that far north of the CMF Phone 2 Pro’s top tier asking price.
Here’s how it stacks up at a CPU level using Geekbench 6 against phones that sit in its price range.
As with all things Android, prices do tend to drop over time, but all of these devices could be found at online retail in Australia at around the CMF Phone 2 Pro’s price at the time of writing this review.
There’s very little between any of these phones, though the Nothing Phone 3a does have a slight edge here thanks to its Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 processor.
It totally should, given it’s the most expensive phone in this comparison. Within the price context the CMF Phone 2 Pro compares well, as it’s easily the lowest cost smartphone in that table.
That’s a comparison that still makes it look better when comparing GPU power. Here’s how it compares using 3DMark’s suite of graphics benchmarks:
The pricier Nothing Phone 3a and Galaxy A36 are more capable performers at this price, but the Nothing Phone 3a is substantially cheaper while still delivering decent, albeit not stunning graphics performance. Throwing heavier duty Android games at it did see some longer loading times and not unexpectedly, a host of graphical updates that simply wouldn’t activate on it.
In day to day usage, it’s a fine performer within this price space. I’ve commented before that I’m not a huge fan of Nothing’s monochrome, label-free “NothingOS” approach to Android, though it’s not too tricky to get colour and context back if you need it.
Underneath NothingOS, this is an Android 15 device. At the sub-$500 price point, it’s common to see Android updates – security and OS – often fall by the wayside.
Nothing’s taken an interesting path here promising 3 years of OS updates and six years of security updates, which is decent, albeit not quite up there with what Samsung’s offering on the Galaxy A36 or cheaper Galaxy A26.
The CMF Phone 2 Pro also borrows a trick from the Nothing Phone 3a, incorporating an extra button on the right hand side of the phone.
This is the “Essential” Key, a smart launcher for a quick notes/memo recording app in most contexts, though it can also act as a camera shutter button if you’re taking a photo.
As with the Nothing Phone 3a, there’s potential here for an iOS-style customisable button, though right now I’d shy away from actually calling it “Essential”. Quick notes are fun, but as a shutter it’s rather oddly placed on the body of the phone if you’re taking any kind of landscape shot.
Battery
The 5,000mAh battery that powers the CMF Phone 2 Pro isn’t particularly special, because that’s the standard I’d expect for every non-folding Android phone right now. As always, it depends more on how economically a phone can sip on its power pack than anything else.
To give that some comparative weight – because everyone’s battery usage differs – I put it through my standard YouTube battery test against that same crop of similarly priced phones at the time of review.
While it is bested by Motorola’s Fusion phones for that first hour – and I don’t have 2-3 hour figures for those devices – it performs well even against the more expensive Galaxy A36 or its own sibling, the Nothing Phone 3a, especially over longer term usage.
That’s backed up with my more anecdotal testing, which has seen it easily last out a day; if you were a very light user getting into a serious length of usage on a second day wouldn’t be out of the question.
Like so many phones these days, you don’t get a charger in the box with the CMF Phone 2 Pro, though it does support wired USB-C charging at up to 33W.
While it can provide “reverse charging” to other devices, that’s also wired, using its 5,000mAh battery as an ad-hoc battery pack, not the reverse wireless charging you sometimes find on more premium devices. Why? Because the CMF Phone 2 Pro doesn’t support wireless charging, not that I’d expect it to at this price.
For more on how ART tests phone batteries, see here
CMF Phone 2 Pro: Alex’s Verdict
The CMF Phone 2 Pro is a surprising phone, but it’s surprising in the best possible way. Most manufacturers making a device like the Nothing Phone 3a would rest on their laurels and call it a day in terms of providing value.
With the CMF Phone 2 Pro, Nothing has gone that little bit further, and not that long after releasing the Nothing Phone 3a! While I’d still advocate for the 3a over the 2 Pro, the line is slender and there’s little doubting that in the current crop of sub-$500 phones, the CMF Phone 2 Pro is the best value offering you can get right now.
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CMF Phone 2 Pro: Pricing and availability
The CMF Phone 2 Pro retails in Australia for $449 (128GB) and $509 (256GB).
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