One of many coolest issues about Nothing’s CMF line of merchandise is their modularity. By definition, this implies you could take elements off and readily substitute them as you see match. For merchandise just like the CMF Watch Professional 2, which means you’ll be able to swap the bezels, not simply the bands.
The CMF Telephone 1 was much more modular, permitting you to simply drop on equipment through an exterior screw system, which additionally allowed you to take away the complete again and substitute it with principally something you could possibly discover. This precipitated a whole 3D-printed cottage trade to pop up on retailers like Etsy, making the CMF Telephone 1 the good cellphone to debut in 2024.
Nonetheless, the CMF Telephone 2 Professional does issues somewhat in a different way, and I didn’t understand that till it was too late. As I unboxed the cellphone, I took the time to unscrew the again and work on prying it off. The unique cellphone’s again design wasn’t the simplest to get off, so I wasn’t shocked it took me a bit of labor to take away this one, however I wasn’t anticipating the plastic to crack the best way it did as I received midway by the method.
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After conferring with my Nothing PR contact, the corporate confirmed that the again of the CMF Telephone 2 Professional isn’t designed to be detachable the best way the CMF Telephone 1 was.
Wanting again on the spec sheet, it’s clear that is how Nothing improved the ingress safety (IP) score of the cellphone, from IP52 on the CMF Telephone 1 to IP54 on the CMF Telephone 2. That quantity 4 within the score means the CMF Telephone 2 Professional can now stand up to splashing of water from any path, whereas Telephone 1 was solely resistant in opposition to water drops as much as a 15-degree angle.
However none of this adjustments the truth that I now have a CMF Telephone 2 Professional with a damaged again and a have to order a alternative half.
Step on a crack
As a substitute of the pain-in-the-butt detachable again of the unique — if you happen to used it you’d understand how troublesome it was to take away — Nothing went with a “Common cowl” design featured in our CMF Telephone 2 Professional overview by Android Central’s Harish Jonnalagadda. This cowl makes use of all 5 screws to connect to the again of the cellphone and never solely allows the usage of MagSafe equipment and a number of other different official CMF magnetic equipment, however it additionally offers customers the power to click on further lenses onto the cameras.
The issue, as customers have already discovered, is that this case will not be solely troublesome to search out proper after launch, however U.S. beta program customers don’t appear to have entry to it in any respect. As Nothing particularly instructed me, these equipment are “solely obtainable on Nothing.tech in Europe + UK with restricted qty.”
That principally means it’s as much as Etsy and the 3D printing neighborhood to save lots of the CMF Telephone 2 Professional’s proverbial butt since Nothing itself doesn’t appear to be making quite a lot of equipment for the cellphone. I’m comparatively OK with this, as I feel the neighborhood proved itself the primary time round and may do it once more, however it’s nonetheless disappointing to see such a significant design change occur and a product not obtain the help it wants out of the gate to make up for it.
Lesson discovered: don’t take the again off your CMF Telephone 2 Professional except you’ve already received a alternative in hand. This semi-modular cellphone goes to be superb as soon as accent makers get off the bottom and get producing merchandise for it. For now, not less than, it’s nonetheless an unbelievable value-priced cellphone that’ll exceed any expectations you may need for what a sub-$300 cellphone is able to.
