Don’t be surprised if you’ve never heard of CMF smartphones, especially if you’re in the United States. You may know its owner: nothing. Launched by OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei in 2020, London-based Nothing quickly made a name for itself as a forward-thinking brand selling phones, headphones and earphones, with its handsets attracting particular attention for their striking transparent backs and customizable Glyph LED lighting system. Its latest handset available in the US is the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro, launching in March 2026 starting at $499.
CMF, meanwhile, arrived in 2023 as a sub-brand of Nothing, focusing on the budget market while keeping distinctive design at the forefront of its approach. Its two CMF phones to date – the CMF Phone 1 and the positively reviewed CMF Phone 2 Pro – have not been released completely in the US, with CMF instead prioritizing the UK, some EU countries and various markets in Asia. While the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro currently starts at $449, the budget-friendly CMF Phone 2 Pro launched with an even more affordable $279.
The lower price is due to the phone’s use of cheaper, less premium components than those used by Nothing-branded handsets. CMF stands for “color, material and finish,” and those elements remain at the forefront of its phones, even as the company has cut back on the high-end components that give high-end Nothing phones higher prices.
The compromises that made it possible to reduce costs
To keep costs down on the Android-powered CMF Phone 2 Pro, for example, CMF opted for a plastic back panel and frame rather than the glass and metal ones found on more expensive phones. The display uses Panda Glass, a less premium form of screen protection than the Gorilla Glass commonly found on flagship phones. CMF also used a mid-range MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Pro chip, which keeps chip and cooling costs down. The processor can comfortably handle everyday tasks and even some games, but it fails to perform more intensive tasks like advanced camera processing and demanding games.
As expected, camera compromises are also a major part of CMF’s strategy. While the CMF Phone 2 Pro’s camera system looks impressive on paper with its 50-megapixel main and telephoto cameras as well as an 8-megapixel ultra-wide, the sensors and image processing can’t keep up with flagship devices that cost significantly more. This means poorer low-light results and electronic image stabilization instead of the better optical alternative, as well as lower overall image quality than more expensive handsets.
The Phone 2 Pro uses older LPDDR4X memory and UFS 2.2 storage standards in an effort to reduce costs, while its microSD slot gives users an affordable way to add more storage. Such an approach makes sense given how high the cost of memory is for budget phones, and the price hike hasn’t done the brand any favors.
Nothing’s CMF faces challenges
The CMF Phone 1 and CMF Phone 2 Pro were launched in July 2024 and May 2025 respectively, but there has been no CMF release since. In fact, you can no longer find any of the CMF phones on the Nothing site. A new CMF phone was expected to launch in 2026, but in June, Nothing co-founder Akis Evangelidis revealed (via Notably, there is no promise of a new phone in 2027.
The cancellation came at an interesting time for the CMF. Eight months earlier, Nothing had decided to reposition the brand as an independent subsidiary based in India, with its own R&D and manufacturing facilities. However, the newly formed company is already facing broader challenges in the budget smartphone market. U.S. sales of sub-$100 Android phones fell 64% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2026, while the $200-$299 segment grew nearly 200% year-over-year as brands like Motorola raised their prices, according to Counterpoint Research.
CMF’s phones fall into that $200-$299 range, although its remaining phone inventory has been gradually disappearing, with some markets already sold out. CMF isn’t necessarily dead, but without a new phone guaranteed to launch in 2027 and without memory price increases, the biggest question is whether there will be another CMF phone.
