One of many coolest issues about Nothing’s CMF line of merchandise is their modularity. By definition, this implies which you could take elements off and readily exchange them as you see match. For merchandise just like the CMF Watch Professional 2, meaning you may 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 complete again and exchange it with mainly something you can discover. This prompted a complete 3D-printed cottage business to pop up on retailers like Etsy, making the CMF Cellphone 1 the best telephone to debut in 2024.
Nevertheless, the CMF Cellphone 2 Professional does issues somewhat otherwise, 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 stunned 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 received midway by way of 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.
Wanting again on the spec sheet, it’s clear that is how Nothing improved the ingress safety (IP) score of the telephone, from IP52 on the CMF Cellphone 1 to IP54 on the CMF Cellphone 2. That quantity 4 within the score means the CMF Cellphone 2 Professional can now stand up to splashing of water from any course, whereas Cellphone 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 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 understand how troublesome it was to take away — Nothing went with a “Common cowl” design featured in our CMF Cellphone 2 Professional overview 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, nevertheless it additionally provides customers the flexibility to click on extra lenses onto the cameras.
The issue, as customers have already discovered, is that this case is just not 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 mainly 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 a whole lot of equipment for the telephone. I’m comparatively OK with this, as I believe the group proved itself the primary time round and might do it once more, nevertheless it’s nonetheless disappointing to see such a serious design change occur and a product not obtain the assist it wants out of the gate to make up for it.
Lesson realized: don’t take the again off your CMF Cellphone 2 Professional until you’ve already received 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, not less than, it’s nonetheless an unimaginable value-priced telephone that’ll exceed any expectations you may need for what a sub-$300 telephone is able to.
