Nothing’s CMF Phone 2 is coming — and here’s your first tease

Nothing already makes some of the best cheap phones that are a lot more affordable than your iPhones or Pixels. But the budget CMF brand has shown that Nothing can still offer quality at much lower price points — and there’s another model on the way.

Nothing has started teasing the CMF Phone 2 on social media and its own community forums. The teaser doesn’t give us very much to go on right now, but it does feature a quick look at the back of the phone — and the rear camera lens.

I say lens rather than lenses, because it looks as though this design only features one camera sensor. That’s in contrast to the CMF Phone 1, which had a 50MP main camera and a 2MP depth sensor.

I could be wrong though. There’s clearly space on the camera bump for another lens, and the rendering definitely isn’t supposed to be the final design. So we may end up seeing something else on the back of CMF Phone 2, but what it might be isn’t exactly clear right now.

Frankly, I feel like the random 2-5MP sensors added to cheap cameras are a waste of space and money. So if Nothing scraps the CMF Phone 2’s depth sensor and sticks with a solo 50MP camera, you won’t hear any complaints from me.

CMF Phone 2: What we’d like to see

The CMF Phone 1 absolutely wowed us last year, on account of just how much of a good deal the phone is. Easily one of the best phones under $300, Nothing’s budget device offered long battery life, a large colorful display, fast charging and a semi-modular design that can be adapted to suit your own tastes.

Of course, no budget phone can compete with the premium flagships in every category. The CMF Phone is made from plastic, rather than a more premium material, and the camera performance is pretty disappointing — even when you consider the price.

You’re also going to get only 2 years of Android software updates, and 3 years of security updates. Which is not a lot when you consider Pixel and Galaxy phones can have up to 7 years of both, and means your time with the CMF Phone might be limited.

Naturally, it falls to the CMF Phone 2 to improve on all these issues, while also maintaining everything the CMF Phone 1 got right.

I don’t expect the phone to come made out of brushed stainless steel, or with a 200MP camera lens. But it would still be nice to be able to take better photos, and ensure that the phone doesn’t look as cheap — even if the price tag stays below that $300 mark.

This being Nothing, we should start seeing a bunch more teasers in the coming weeks and months. We'll keep you posted here at Tom's Guide.

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