After a first smartphone with a surprising modular design, the CMF Phone 1, the Nothing sub-brand decided to surprise everyone. Rather than offering a CMF Phone 2 that adopted this philosophy, it preferred to launch the CMF Phone 2 Pro. Beyond gaining this suffix, this 5G terminal aims to be more classic in its design. However, as you will see in this review, this choice absolutely does not make it a smartphone to look down on, as it comes to tread on the toes of many entry-level terminals, but also mid-range ones. Redmi and other Oppo, or even the Nothing themselves, probably have something to worry about.
CMF Phone 2 Pro price and availability
The CMF Phone 2 Pro is available for €259 (or €289 with 256 GB of storage) in four colors: orange, green, black and white. Note that the finish rendering changes slightly depending on the chosen color.
Design: a striking proposition
As with everything, appreciation of design will depend on taste. But, at 01, we are absolutely charmed by the look of the CMF Phone 2 Pro. At least in its orange version that we were able to test. Dressed mainly in matte plastic, the terminal with truly appreciable proportions (only 7.8 mm thick for a reasonable 185 g in particular) nevertheless features a shiny metal-style square at the bottom of its back, for an overall result of the most beautiful effect and very pleasant under the fingers.
To enhance the whole, the manufacturer has added purely aesthetic screws to recall the design of its previous proposal. Metal surrounds the round sensors and the flash, for an atypical overall look that we probably won't want to hide under a case (a transparent one is included in the box, which is nice). Finally, on the back, at the bottom right, there is still an attachment point under a cover that can be removed to insert the brand's accessories (case, support, shoulder strap, etc.).
Regarding its edges, the CMF Phone 2 Pro also decides not to do completely like everyone else. While the USB-C port is at the bottom, alongside the single speaker and the SIM card tray (compatible with microSD), the volume button is on the left. This is normal, since on the right under the power button is the Essential Key button found on the excellent Nothing Phone (3a).
Unfortunately, beyond the limited possibilities of this button, which we will discuss further below, it is its positioning that is the most annoying. It will take time to get used to not pressing it by mistake when looking for the volume or the power button. Finally, the last point, a little regrettable, but ultimately quite logical given the price asked, the CMF Phone 2 Pro is "only" IP54 certified. It is therefore resistant to dust and splashes, but not perfectly waterproof, even if CMF announces that it has passed an immersion test in 25 cm of water for 20 minutes.
Screen: a screen that also impresses
Protected by Panda Glass, the screen of this new iteration aims to be better than that of the previous one. Still AMOLED, we move here to a size of 6.77 inches in FHD+, capable of going up to 120 Hz. To save battery, it is possible to set an automatic mode to automatically alternate between 60 and 120 Hz depending on the content displayed. Compatible with HDR 10+, this screen, which occupies a nice 86.7% of space, can go up to an impressive 3000 cd/m² according to CMF.
In practice, we did not exceed 1263 cd/m² of brightness, but it's already more than enough for most situations, and better than the vast majority of the competition at this price. In terms of colors, we measured an average Delta E 2000 of 4.16 with the active mode, which may seem a little high. But once switched to normal mode, we dropped to 2.2, but on a less rich color range, sRGB. So this is a fairly honest calibration that will fool few very attentive eyes.
Performance: why pay more?
As stated in the intro, the CMF Phone 2 Pro intends to challenge more expensive smartphones. This is especially true when it comes to performance. Equipped with a MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Pro SoC supported by 8 GB of RAM (+8 virtual GB), this entry-level smartphone is still comfortable on a daily basis when it comes to navigating its interface, even with several applications launched.
For playing video games, the vast majority of players will be able to take advantage of the perfectly adequate performance of this solution. With its game mode activated, and by being reasonable in the graphics settings of the most demanding titles, it is possible to have fun in good conditions. We will also appreciate the very contained heating, raised to a maximum of 38°.
In addition to its chip 5G, while many devices under €300 remain limited to 4G, this device benefits from a WiFi 6 chip, Bluetooth 5.3 and NFC. The fingerprint sensor under the screen (unlike the Samsung Galaxy A26 which offers it in a button on the edge...) is also responsive. In short, all good, which allows the CMF Phone 2 Pro to be a model in terms of performance/price ratio.
Audio: it was necessary to reduce costs somewhere
The audio part is one of the areas where CMF very clearly wanted to make savings. With a single speaker that saturates very quickly as soon as the music gets a little loud, the smartphone without a jack socket will only be used to listen to a series or a film in a quiet environment, without stereo. The maximum volume is especially high, but what's the point?
Photo: convincing for the price, but not much more
CMF has been quite generous with the sensors on its Phone 2 Pro. There are three on the back, including a 50 MP wide-angle sensor (f/1.88, 24 mm focal length), an 8 MP ultra-wide-angle sensor (f/2.2, 15 mm focal length), and a 50 MP telephoto lens (f/1.85, 50 mm focal length, 2x optical zoom). The latter is rare enough on smartphones in this range to be worth noting. On the front, the selfie sensor offers 16 MP (f/2.45, 22 mm focal length).
The main sensor performs quite well, especially, once again, for this price. While the colorimetry can sometimes be found a little exaggerated compared to reality, when the light is good the rendering is rather satisfactory, showing itself to be sharp and detailed. On the other hand, the result is immediately less good when the light is lacking.
Whether or not it automatically activates its night mode, the CMF Phone 2 Pro can quickly ask the user to not move for 2 seconds when taking the photo to compensate for the low light. This sometimes results in blurry photos when the smartphone struggles to focus, or at the slightest movement. In addition, when the light is really lacking, the colorimetry goes out the window: an orange veil appears on the photos, making them unusable. Its management of light sources is also a little random, which can particularly harm textures.
Regarding the ultra-wide angle, it has the usual flaws of this module in this price range. If the result is usable in good conditions (especially in the center of the image), the edges of the photos clearly lose precision (this is obvious in the photo of the courtyard above) and the whole thing tends to lose brightness. The dominant orange is also found when the light is lacking.
Concerning the telephoto lens, this one shines especially at 2x. This one offers good results in daytime like the main sensor, with good scene reproduction. However, you shouldn't ask too much of it at a higher zoom level, and at night the poor thing does what it can.
The CMF Phone 2 Pro finally does the job when it comes to selfies. Its sensor (which offers 22 or 27 mm focal length) performs well, as does its portrait mode, which applies blur sparingly, despite the loss of a few beard hairs in the process.
On the photo software side, the CMF Phone 2 Pro provides the bare minimum features and is not overflowing with alternative capture modes and does not offer AI-based object editing or removal. Finally, regarding video, it's classic but still appreciable for this price, with 1080p up to 60 FPS, but also 4K at 30 FPS. The whole thing is clean and rather well stabilized.
Autonomy: solid on its supports
Regarding its battery, the CMF Phone 2 Pro once again offers 5000 mAh. But thanks to good optimization of its SoC and interface, the terminal proves to be very durable for an entry-level device. With typical use without overusing video games and relying on Wi-Fi when available, it is possible to last a little more than a full day before needing to recharge. The most economical can even last two days. For a more telling demonstration, watching an episode of a series on Netflix over Wi-Fi costs a reasonable 4% of battery.
On our mixed battery life protocol, which requires continuous use of the smartphone, it lasts 17 hours and 40 minutes, which is in line with the average results observed. It is therefore neither excellent in this area nor catastrophic.
The 33W charging power level isn't the fastest in the industry, but again, it's excellent for the price, and sometimes better than other, much more expensive smartphones. That's enough to fully recharge your battery in just over an hour, and 19% in 10 minutes. Ample enough.
Software: sober and efficient
The CMF Phone 2 Pro comes equipped with the Nothing OS 3.2 overlay, which allows you to enjoy Android 15. Before we get into it, let's salute CMF, which is one of the rare manufacturers, if not the only one, to not fill its terminal with bloatware. This sobriety is also reflected in the look of the interface, which is minimalist, right down to its default monochrome theme for applications and widgets on the home screen.
Don't panic, though, because the OS is packed with options for visually customizing your experience. From the Always On Display to the shortcut drawer (where you can change the size and placement of buttons), to the app drawer (which can be categorized using AI), there's plenty to have fun with and boost your productivity. For artificial intelligence enthusiasts, the Gemini app is included, but that's pretty much all there is to it related to AI.
Speaking of productivity, let's finally talk about one of the main specificities of this CMF Phone 2 Pro: its Essential Key button and the Essential Space section linked to it. When pressed, a screenshot is taken. When long pressed, it is possible to record a voice message. Everything is automatically saved and organized via AI in Essential Space, an area designed to "organize your thoughts" by making suggestions and producing summaries. Unfortunately, not only will this feature likely be a gimmick, or even useless for many users, but above all, it is impossible to define another action with this button, which could have been used for something else. Too bad.
Like most of its competitors, CMF has the good taste to be quite generous when it comes to future updates: 3 years of Android versions and 6 years of security patches. Sufficient and appropriate given that after this period, you will probably have to change it anyway because of inevitably aging or obsolete hardware.
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