How brave! Nothing enters the thousand-yuan machine, there is no transparent design, who buys it?

Ray Technology

2024-06-28 21:59Creators in the field of technology

In 2021, former OnePlus Technology co-founder Pei Yu founded a new start-up Nothing in London, England, and released its first smartphone product, the Nothing Phone (1), in 2022.

The Nothing Phone (1) has achieved great results in its first year of sales, with Android Central revealing that the phone has garnered around 1 million sales worldwide. However, Pei Yu said in an interview with the media that Nothing is not yet profitable and is not expected to reach the expected target until 2024.

（图源：Nothing）

Earlier this year, Nothing unveiled its first mid-range model, the Nothing Phone (2a), at MWC 2024. Or because of the limited time for profit targets, Nothing is not in a hurry to launch the Nothing Phone (3), but chooses to launch a new device at a lower price in the sub-brand - the CMF Phone 1.

It is understood that the CMF Phone 1 is tentatively scheduled to be sold in the Indian market, priced at 15,999 rupees, or about 1,393 yuan. As the first phone from the Nothing sub-brand, and the cheapest model of Nothing to date, can it really help it move into the mainstream of the market and become profitable in 2024?

CMF Phone：或是最有质感的千元机

The Nothing Phone has always been known for its "texture", and even the mid-range model Nothing Phone (2a), which was released earlier this year, did not remove the well-known Glyph light strip and transparent back design. But when it comes to CMF Phone, it's a different story.

The CMF Phone 1 chose polycarbonate as the body material, which is the plastic material that we are all familiar with. For the rear cover part, the machine did not choose the transparent back cover design, but made two knob devices at the tail of the fuselage, one large and one small, which is quite "cyberpunk".

（图源：9to5google）

The CMF Phone 1 currently exposed is only available in orange, and in terms of color selection, Nothing seems to have intentionally made this orange hue more vibrant, and the benefit is naturally that the stylization is more obvious, which makes people have an unforgettable feeling. The CMF Phone 1 still has two cameras, with the Deco lens set in the upper left corner of the body, and the flash floating outside of the Deco, which looks somewhat similar to the Nothing Phone (2).

In terms of image solution, due to low positioning, CMF Phone 1 only has a 50-megapixel main camera and a 50-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens, and the specific sensor parameters are unknown. Luckily, the main lens supports OIS optical image stabilization, which means that at least the hand-picked image performance isn't too bad.

(图源:ourtechnology)

The CMF Phone 1 is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 7200 mobile platform, which is built on a 4nm process and is equipped with two Cortex-A715 cores with a peak frequency of 2.8GHz and six Cortex-A510 cores. The chip is positioned between the Dimensity 1080 and Dimensity 8200, but it is close to the Snapdragon 778G+ in terms of extreme performance. Also equipped with this chip is Redmi Note 13 Pro+, which can be said to be a more common solution in the price range of thousand-yuan machines.

In terms of display, the CMF Phone 1 is equipped with a 6.78-inch OLED display with a right-angle bezel + straight-facing screen, and supports a maximum 120Hz refresh rate.

I have to say that due to the rather low positioning, CMF Phone 1 is not only far from the mainstream thousand-yuan machine in terms of performance, but even the peripheral configuration is not satisfactory, such as side fingerprints, 6GB memory, 33W wired fast charging, etc. In addition, the CMF Phone 1 has hardly inherited any of the distinctive design elements of the Nothing. However, combined with the starting price of about 1300 yuan, CMF Phone 1 is also a model that takes into account design and texture at this price point, and its performance is decent.

The main fader sub-brand, Nothing wants to get out of the comfort zone?

In 2023, Nothing announced the establishment of a sub-brand "CMF By Nothing", in which CMF is taken from the three key words in the field of industrial design, "Color, Material, and Finish", that is, "color, material and finish". The extended meaning of CMF is that by carefully selecting and matching the colors, materials and surface treatments of products, the designers will also have a better sense of design and texture.

In the same way as the launch of the main brand of Nothing, CMF's first product is also TWS earbuds, CMF by Nothing Buds Pro was exhibited at the Beyond 2024 exhibition, this cheap earbud with outstanding colors, has received unanimous praise from the market. Also on display is a smartwatch called CMF by Nothing Watch Pro, both of which are priced under RMB600, which is quite different from the main brand's positioned products.

（图源：CMF by Nothing）

Thanks to the lower pricing, almost all the products launched by CMF by Nothing have become the sweets of the market, especially in the Indian market, where the cheap, high-performance, and design CMF by Nothing Buds Pro has been coaxed by many enthusiasts.

On the main brand Nothing, it was supposed to release an iteration of the Nothing Phone (3) in 2024, but due to various factors, it was postponed until July 2025. It is not difficult to see that although Nothing Phone has a good reputation in the geek circle and there are many loyal fans of Nothing in the global market, the higher pricing and the performance configuration that does not match the price of the product determine that the main brand models are always in a state of high and low.

If Nothing is to be profitable in 2024, it won't work the Nothing Phone, and the only way to find a way out in emerging markets is the priority. As a result, we also see that Nothing launched its first smartphone on CMF by Nothing after launching a mid-range model under the main brand earlier this year, and its target is the potential sinking market.

（图源：Nothing）

Of course, another theory is that Nothing is equipping NotingOS on the Nothing Phone (3) with a new generation of artificial intelligence systems, that is, Nothing's self-developed AI functions, such as AIGC wallpaper generation, AI image processing and other functions. It will take time to reconcoct the new system, which is why Nothing will focus on the mid-range market in 2024, leaving plenty of time for the Nothing Phone (3) to be produced.

What is certain is that Nothing's main battlefield this year is in the mid-range market, and with the launch of CMF Phone 1, it will also complete the full line layout of sub-brands from smart wearables, smart audio to smartphones. As for whether Nothing can occupy a place in the mid-range market with the CMF Phone 1, it depends on the final market feedback.

Nothing to get into the mainstream market with CMF?

According to IDC, an international market analysis agency, the growth rate of India's smartphone market has been accelerating in the past three years, with India's smartphone sales reaching 64 million units in the first half of 2023, with an average selling price increase of 13%. Despite the rise in average selling prices, the Indian market remains a paradise for mid-range phones.

The CMF Phone 1 is mainly sold in the Indian market, which is also quite competitive today.

In the list of India's most popular smartphones in the first half of 2024 by EconomicTimes, mobile phone brands from China occupy 7 positions, with OnePlus Nord CE 3 5G being the most popular, followed by iPhone 13 and Samsung Galaxy M14 5G.

Although the demand for extreme performance in the Indian market is far less than that of Chinese players, some preferences of local consumers can also be seen in the list, such as the OnePlus 11R, OnePlus Nord CE 3 5G and realme narzo 60X 5G, which are all models with larger battery capacity and faster charging speeds. The iPhone 13 and iQOO Z9 5G are the best models in their respective price ranges.

(Source: iQOO)

Obviously, battery life, fast charging, and imaging are not the advantages of the CMF Phone 1, and its performance is only slightly better than the individual models on the list, but compared to the price, both sides also have their own advantages, and the CMF Phone 1 did not achieve an overwhelming victory.

It can be said that if Nothing wants to win the Indian market with the CMF Phone 1, the competitive pressure is still relatively large, but if the sales scope of this model is expanded to the world, it may be able to attract the attention of more players. After all, in some developed countries, the CMF Phone 1 costs about $178, which is actually equivalent to the cost of buying a toy.

（图源：CMF by Nothing）

In any case, Nothing is unique to the entire mobile phone market, after all, as a start-up company, it is already a very high achievement to be able to keep constantly updating the mobile phone product line, not to mention the design aesthetics of Nothing, and the system is highly recognizable. The CMF Phone 1 will be Nothing's first step into the 1,000-yuan market, and we're looking forward to seeing what Nothing can bring to the boring 1,000-dollar market, and the mystery of all this will not be revealed until the press conference on July 8th.

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