One of many coolest issues about Nothing’s CMF line of merchandise is their modularity. By definition, this implies you can take components off and readily exchange 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 Cellphone 1 was much more modular, permitting you to simply drop on equipment through an exterior screw system, which additionally allowed you to take away your entire again and exchange it with principally something you can discover. This prompted a whole 3D-printed cottage business to pop up on outlets like Etsy, making the CMF Cellphone 1 the good telephone to debut in 2024.
Nonetheless, the CMF Cellphone 2 Professional does issues slightly in a different way, and I didn’t understand that till it was too late. As I unboxed the telephone, I took the time to unscrew the again and work on prying it off. The unique telephone’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 way in which it did as I obtained midway by the method.
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After conferring with my Nothing PR contact, the corporate confirmed that the again of the CMF Cellphone 2 Professional isn’t designed to be detachable the way in which the CMF Cellphone 1 was.
Trying again on the spec sheet, it’s clear that is how Nothing improved the ingress safety (IP) ranking of the telephone, from IP52 on the CMF Cellphone 1 to IP54 on the CMF Cellphone 2. That quantity 4 within the ranking means the CMF Cellphone 2 Professional can now face up to splashing of water from any route, whereas Cellphone 1 was solely resistant towards water drops as much as a 15-degree angle.
However none of this adjustments the truth that I now have a CMF Cellphone 2 Professional with a damaged again and a must order a alternative half.
Step on a crack
As an alternative of the pain-in-the-butt detachable again of the unique — for those who used it you’d know the way tough it was to take away — Nothing went with a “Common cowl” design featured in our CMF Cellphone 2 Professional assessment by Android Central’s Harish Jonnalagadda. This cowl makes use of all 5 screws to connect to the again of the telephone and never solely allows using MagSafe equipment and a number of other different official CMF magnetic equipment, but it surely additionally provides customers the flexibility to click on extra lenses onto the cameras.
The issue, as customers have already came upon, is that this case isn’t solely tough 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 informed me, these equipment are “solely out there on Nothing.tech in Europe + UK with restricted qty.”
That principally means it’s as much as Etsy and the 3D printing group to avoid wasting the CMF Cellphone 2 Professional’s proverbial butt since Nothing itself doesn’t appear to be making numerous equipment for the telephone. I’m comparatively OK with this, as I believe the group proved itself the primary time round and may do it once more, but it surely’s nonetheless disappointing to see such a serious 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 Cellphone 2 Professional until you’ve already obtained a alternative in hand. This semi-modular telephone goes to be superb as soon as accent makers get off the bottom and get producing merchandise for it. For now, at the least, it’s nonetheless an unimaginable value-priced telephone that’ll exceed any expectations you might need for what a sub-$300 telephone is able to.
