I’ve used and reviewed scores of Android phones in my career as a technology journalist and many have struggled to stand out from the pack. Even though our phones all do the same thing at their core, you might be looking to buy a new smartphone that has a bit more personality to it or has features that you won’t find on rival manufacturer’s devices. I’ve been testing a brand new Android phone that ticks all these boxes – and it’s currently unbelievably affordable at a limited time price of £179.99 in the lead up to Amazon Prime Day.
Amazon Prime Day starts on Tuesday 16 July and runs until the end of 17 July, and we expect there to be two full days of great tech deals, but we’ve spotted this early deal that’s too good to miss.
The CMF Phone 1 is the latest phone from UK tech start up Nothing. Based in London, the firm’s CMF sub-brand (it stands for ‘colour, material, finish’) concentrates on putting out well-designed tech at very affordable price points. With an RRP of just £209, the phone boasts an eye-catching design with screws in the back you can remove to change the whole plastic backplate to a colour of your choosing.
The phone is making waves with Android fans, with Nothing confirming it sold 100,000 units in just three hours on the first day it went on sale on Friday 12 July.
You can also buy bright orange accessories to attach via a screw point, including a stand, card case and lanyard. The phone has a big bright OLED display, a big 5,000mAh battery, a 50MP camera, 5G compatibility, and an under screen fingerprint sensor.
The company sent me the phone to test out recently, and I’ve been using it for more than a week. That’s why I was surprised to see it’s already on sale from Nothing and Amazon in a ‘limited time deal’ for £179.99. That’s an incredibly good price for a phone that packs in practically every feature you could want. If you don’t mind having a plastic phone rather than more premium metal and glass, there really isn’t much missing here. Plastic construction even means I don’t feel like I need to use a case.
I’m a fan of Nothing’s Android software too. At launch, the CMF Phone 1 has Nothing OS 2.6 which is very customisable but also quite minimalist. It’s rare to see a smartphone at such a low price where the company has put so much thought and effort into making sure the quality of the hardware and software is so high. With Android 14, the latest version, Nothing is also promising you’ll get updates to Android 16 and a total of three years of security updates until 2027.
I think this should be longer, but you get what you pay for – only Samsung and Google’s most expensive phones offer the industry-best seven years of updates currently.
I also wish the CMF Phone 1 had NFC, the tech needed to make contactless payments with your phone. Without it, I’ve been having to carry my bank cards around with me again, something I’ve got used to not doing. But if this doesn’t bother you, there really is nothing missing from this phone compared to one that costs £1,000.
Camera quality will always be better on pricier handsets of course, but if that’s not your main concern then the 50MP snapper here is more than adequate. The second lens on the back is for capturing portrait images, so there’s no ultra-wide or telephoto camera either.
If you’re thinking of upgrading your phone and don’t want to spend the earth, the CMF Phone 1 should be near the top of your list – and especially at this discounted offer price. You can pick the phone up today in black, orange or green.
