CMF Phone 2 Pro Review: Keeping it Modular and Minimal

Seldom does a phone launched under Rs 20,000 generate such buzz. The CMF Phone 2 Pro adheres to Nothing’s disruptive tendencies by continuing with the modular design approach. Under the hood, it brings a number of upgrades over its predecessor, although I’m not sure why the makers chose to add a ‘Pro’ to its moniker. Its processor is a modest update on paper, and its camera cluster, although tripartite, looks like a standard affair. But let’s go beyond first impressions and give it the good old review treatment.

Design

That Nothing does rear surfaces differently is no secret. While devices from its main brand ship with transparent backs and glowing LEDs, its CMF phones are now known for their swappable back covers and additional accessories that give them a modular feel. The CMF Phone 2 Pro toes the same line, though it’s kinda disappointing that not all accessories of the previous device are compatible with this one. Screwing a universal cover onto the back enables users to add its new accessoeries like interchangable lenses and a phone stand. Our review unit, unfortunately, didn’t ship with any of this year’s accessories, so we can’t really judge their usefulness much.

On its own, the phone’s back looks pretty stripped off, with the camera cluster grabbing all the attention. Its metal frame gives it a considerable amount of grip, and the button placement is also pretty satisfactory. New to the CMF line is the Essential Key that we saw on the Nothing Phone 3a range earlier this year. Over at the front, the CMF Phone 2 Pro has a 6.77-inch panel that’s slightly larger than the one on its predecessor. Similar to that device, the display is surrounded by thick-ish bezels on all four sides, and the hole-punch cutout stands out at the top. The phone also has an in-display fingerprint scanner that’s extremely quick and responsive.

Display and sound

Despite the budget nature of the phone, it adopts a rather impressive AMOLED panel with a 1080 x 2392-pixel resolution. Its 120Hz max refresh rate can shuffle between 30Hz, 60Hz, 90Hz and 120Hz when the Dynamic option is selected. If you want it to be 120Hz at all times, the High option lets you do that, while the Standard option lets you save battery by keeping it locked at 60Hz. An always-on system is in place as well, allowing you to glance at the time, date, battery percentage, and notification icons without touching the device.

But it’s while watching videos and streaming content that this display’s real power is visible. Coupled with its sharp resolution, its peak brightness of 3000 nits brings remarkable quality to your TV shows and movies. Using it under sunlight is also quite easy thanks to its HBM capability of 1300 nits. This phone comes with a screen protector affixed, and that’s perhaps because of its use of the inferior Panda Glass. Furthermore, the lack of a stereo speaker hurts this phone’s entertainment quotient greatly. Its bottom-firing mono speaker leaves a bad impression no matter what you’re playing on it. If you’re buying this phone, owning a pair of earbuds is a must, because it doesn’t even have a 3.5mm jack.

Camera

The CMF Phone 2 Pro is home to dual 50MP f/1.9 sensors that get paired with a wide and a telephoto lens each. This gives the device 2x optical zooming capabilities and also adds a lot of leeway for the digital zoom to work its magic. When it comes to image quality, the camera delivers solid daylight performance with natural-looking colours and a commendable dynamic range. Thanks to pixel binning, you get a 12.5MP output that balances detail and sharpness well. But these are not cameras that will excel in low light. There’s a considerable loss in sharpness levels during night-time shots. However, the auto night mode does help minimise noise to an extent. That said, the phone’s low-light performance can only be described as satisfactory. As for its 8MP ultra-wide camera, it does its job satisfactorily.

On the front, the 16MP selfie camera captures good detail in daylight, delivering the full resolution output. Portrait selfies have accurate edge detection, though low-light performance is, again, average. Video recording is possible at 4K 30fps from the rear camera, while the front tops out at 1080p 30fps. However, there’s no OIS, and enabling EIS drops the rear video resolution to 1080p. The front camera also struggles with exposure control, especially against bright backgrounds where highlights often get blown out. Overall, the phone is great for daytime photography and videos, but its low-light performance leaves a lot to be desired.

Performance and battery life

The CMF Phone 2 Pro’s interior setup is helmed by a MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Pro SoC. Its octa-core setup with four Cortex-A78 cores clocked up to 2.5GHz and four Cortex-A55 cores is accompanied by a Mali-G615 GPU. Compared to the standard Dimensity 7300 chip found in the CMF Phone 1, the 7300 Pro offers a modest uplift; around 10% better CPU performance and 5% better GPU output. Everyday performance is remarkable with this chip. All your daily tasks are guaranteed to run blissfully smooth on this device. When it comes to gaming, too, the performance is smooth. It can handle heavy titles like COD Mobile, BGMI, and Genshin Impact, though sustained performance at high graphics settings may be limited.

For thermal management, the device includes vapour chamber liquid cooling, though the exact size hasn’t been disclosed, along with graphite layers on both the front and back for added heat dissipation. Overall, the performance marks a notable improvement over the CMF Phone 1, although Snapdragon 6 Gen 4-powered competitors still hold a slight edge. There’s 8GB of RAM onboard, which provides enough room for the phone to multitask with ease. In terms of space, you can choose between 128GB or 256GB of UFS 2.2 storage, which is pretty common in phones in the price range.

The 5000mAh battery inside the CMG Phone 2 Pro easily lasts a full day on 5G and up to two days with light use. You can expect around 6 hours of screen-on time during everyday usage, which is commendable. The 33W fast charger juices up the phone to 50% in about 25 minutes and 100% in just over an hour. There’s no wireless charging, which is understandable for the price.

Software

The CMF Phone 2 Pro ships with Android 15 and Nothing OS 3.2 layered on top. The main differentiator here is the trademark Nothing skin that totally transforms the user experience of the device. It’s the kind that you’ll either be a fan of or completely hate. If you’re a first-time user of this interface, you will need some time getting used to its monochrome look, especially identifying the icons of some default apps. Thankfully, there’s an option to opt out of this look. Apart from these few visual tweaks, the software experience closely mirrors stock Android, with minimal custom fonts and UI changes and absolutely no bloatware.

Nothing OS 3.2 introduces a host of visual and functional upgrades. You get refined UI animations, improved performance, and AI-driven personalisation tools. Key highlights include the new Smart Drawer, a private space for sensitive apps, and deep integration with Google Photos’ Gen-AI editing tools inside the Nothing Gallery app. A standout hardware feature is the Essential Key, positioned below the power button. This multifunctional button accesses “Essential Space,” an AI-based hub designed for capturing quick thoughts, images, or voice notes. Tap to share content, long-press to start a voice memo, or double-tap to review saved items.