Did you guys address any of the Chinese spyware concerns in any of these product 'not reviews' for Nothing or otherwise? You mention privacy concerns about all kinds of stuff on WAN, but I've yet to see mentions let alone analysis on product reviews you guys put out. Sure id love cheap smart watch or ear buds.. but what exactly is the mandatory app harvesting from my phone back to the CCP?
Regarding not having NFC. Phone is intended for India market where cashless payment goes through QR code/UPI ID. Google pay, Facebook WhatsApp pay and all banks use this common protocol hence NFC omission won't impact the target consumers
It’s marketed towards India, and we don’t really use nfc over here. All our payments are through qr codes. And all its competitors in India offer two years of software updates as well.
Nope, Gpay (and other payment apps) are more popular since most of the indian users have android phones..and QR codes can be printed on a paper or on a board and even street vendors have access to it
@@donc-m4900 No, we don't have Apple Pay. Google Pay app is also different for us. We have a technology called UPI, which is similar to Apple's new cash transfer, but you can do much more with it. Basically I never need to carry cards or cash with me. UPI is much more convenient than NFCs.
@@Major_D3rp It's how you do branding and marketing right. It's a way to show your audience that you GENUINELY try to connect with them and are just trying to make a good product for them. From what I can tell, it holds up too. Unless I am way out of the loop, in terms of device skins, dbrand GENUINELY IS the best of that category of products in terms of quality and longevity. It's one of the VERY FEW youtube sponsor companies that aren't borderline scams. I COULD be wrong though, and if I am, someone please respond. I am just going by what I've observed.
You'll be surprised how many ppl don't use nfc payment. Just like wireless charging. It's not a deal breaker. You're getting a greatttt new phone for $200. I greatly recommend. If I was a poor kid looking to get a phone, I would convince my parents to get this one. They would love the price.
Dane here, and based on purely anecdotal evidence I'd say it's about half and half in Denmark. Most younger people use it, almost no people over 40-ish. And it's not like people over 40 don't have a smartphone, because we have so many digital services that it's hard to live without, I just think that they don't really trust it to be safe. My dad broke his phone recently, and I'm considering this as one of the options for him.
Thinking about how often i use my phone to pay for something its almost always exclusively for my coffee habit. But debit cards all use nfc now - its not even necessary to use my phone because i carry a physical wallet.
If they could include NFC in their next iteration, I'd consider buying it. You're spot on about the overall value of this phone though, it's so well built for a budget device.
I still got this as my a53 is getting tired, I know it's a downgrade in specs, but I don't need nfc or multiple cameras, I need something that isn't a samsung because samsung is shitty, they scammed me in the past with repair prices, and now since it's so cheap I can just buy another one if it breaks
It kinda has. Not hot-swappable but it still is easily accessible under the Sticker on the back as far as i know. It should also have NFC. With a few pogo pins they could have attached NFC to the cover, like the Lumia730/735 did.
The battery has pull tabs and can be removed from the back. Most phones require a heat gun and careful prying of the screen to get that far. It'd be a breeze of a swap comparatively.
It's weird not to trust it bc Google pay and Apple Pay are A LOT more secure than regular contactless, chip or regular swiping; GP and AP use a one time use only token when you make a payment, once used it can't be used again so no way for anyone to steal your info.
As someone who still uses their card instead of NFC, I'm still somewhat shocked at how many people adopted a pure phone payment approach. There's been a few times where I've had friends run out of battery from forgetting to charge etc and just having 0 access to their money. You could always slide your card behind the removable back :p
Yeah, I don't get this NFC payment popularity either. Like is it really that much more inconvenient to pull out your credit card instead of a phone from your pocket? It is the same move, maybe a bit slower if you have your card in a wallet, but still. And just as you say, that plastic card is not reliant on a battery. So many times I have seen people panicking outside when they have just 1 or 2% of the battery... But I guess I'm just an old millennial :D
to me the issue is the growing number of places that use NFC for tickets/entry instead of issuing disposable cards to people... I'll still use a card for payment but sometimes you just dont have options anymore
That has never happened to me. In fact, I've never ran out of battery on my phone, period. Only once at a festival, so yeah, I just use my phone to pay all the time. Haven't used my card to pay in like a year or two.
I never run out of battery, usually without a portable charger but I still keep one around just in case...That being said, I actively hate the idea of paying with my phone and have never done so. I always use my card, and I'm a young folk - right on the border of the generations so I always forget lol
My superior at work is like that. One time we had to get gas to give back a rental truck completely filled up. He didn't freaking know that you couldn't pay gas with contactless... So I had to pay the advance with my personal card which is normally against company policy so it took months for me to get reimbursed...
And the Motorola G2 would also like a word! They had back covers of a lot of colors and they were snap in, no screws required, it basically was a case for the phone cause under the fancy colored back panel it had a plastic cover to protect the internals from water
Motorola's budget phone is the same price with slightly less powerful processor and less ram, but it has a headphone and NFC and their $250 option has Wireless charging as well.
my s24 plus case with a ridiculous INTENTIONAL gouge out of the side so it's uncomfortable to just scroll up or down on the left side. actual dogshit case because of this one terrible idea.
i feel like more of a dealbreaker than NFC is the fact that its band support is so limited that it won't work properly on most north american carriers. in the U.S. alone, 2 out of the 3 majour carriers' 5g networks won't work with it, and the 4g bands are limited enough that you can't rely on the 4g alone with those carriers for solid signal. i'm not sure about carriers up in canada but i heavily recommend that people compare band lists before purchasing what could end up just being a fancy ipod due to poor carrier support. i honestly kinda feel like tech media outside of the intended regions for the phone should be mentioning this instead of glossing over it, especially when this info is on nothing's own website.
I came here to say the same thing. This phone will technically work on 4G on AT&T and T-Mobile and it will work on 5G only with N41 5G band with T-Mobile. On the phone's page, they specifically state its incompatible with Verizon (due to not having any of its bands). They also mentioned it is compatible with AT&T and T-Mobile 3G but they haven't had 3G for 2 years. The CMF phone has about the same level of compatibility in Canada as it does with the USA, "check your bands and see if your carrier supports it, but most likely not". As far as I can tell, the Nothing CMF Phone is not being released in Canada, even as a "beta tester/early access" thing. It really does piss me off too when a reviewer/tech site gushes over a product but fails to mention to their core audience that they literally cannot use it.
@@DiceRobo Yeah. I think carrier compatibility should be #1 when choosing an international phone for the North American market. Then what it does comes 1.5. This part of the reason why I'll only ever recommend Moto or Samsung or Pixel.
@@siralexander3359 LTT might be Canadian, but they post all their videos and run everything as if they were American. I'm not even sure how they tested the phone in usage if the 4G/5G doesn't work. Even in the US, you can't technically buy it. You have to sign up for Nothing's Beta program for a chance to purchase.
Yeah, me neither. My local supermarket doesn't do NFC, and I use an app to buy gas, so it's pretty rare that I even have an opportunity to use NFC let alone choose it. And it's just as easy to wave a credit card at the reader in most other cases.
for me personally i dont even carry wallet with me most of the time and pay only with phone, so yeah :D it depends where you live and how you interact :D
Walmart still does not take NFC payments in my area. So unfortunately, I'm in the same boat of having to carry around my wallet ANYWAY for the off times that I can't use tap to pay.
And for me it would be a massive dealbreaker. I don't bother carrying my wallet around these days. Depends on where you are in the world tho. Here in Finland, you can use your phone to pay basically anywhere.
The phone is primarily targeted towards the Indian market, where NFC isn't in demand, as the system of UPI is more prevalent which doesn't require NFC (as it uses account based or QR code based transfer) and it's cheaper and easier on both the customer and the merchant (like small road-side vendors).
6:37 they said their target audience was india (they might not have said that). but there although nfc exists it's a lot more common to scan a qr code to pay so the lack of nfc may not affect their sales as much over there
@Pastronomer69 Here in Belgium (western Europe) QR codes are also common. Mostly I pay with my card (like most) but QR codes are also an option often. Never used NFC to pay.
That kind of branding is super commonplace in the guitar world. LTD by ESP, Squier by Fender, Sterling by Music Man, Epiphone by Gibson (rare now but they used to write it like that in the 80s at least) and others are sold like that.
Canadian. My phone does not have NFC and I don't feel it's a downside AT ALL (I use my debit card and credit card's embedded chip to pay). So, I'd consider this phone in a heartbeat!
thats not what makes the credit card NFC compatible, inside the credit card theres a small copper coil that reacts to the magnectic field of payment terminals.
@@JMKarymidoN Just need to grab the antenna at the same time haha. Dissolve the credit card in acetone and voila! Edit - If you're interested in that sort of thing or want to see some examples, check out the Dangerous Things forum (mostly about implants, but they do have some examples of just what he's describing)
Missing headphone jack is more of an issue than NFC missing. I was going to say that my daily driver phone didn't have NFC or Wireless charging, because I have never even checked/used them, but then I checked the specs and apparently my old Samsung S9 does have both of these features. so TIL that my phone has NFC and Wireless charging, not that I will likely ever use them. TLDR the basic feature that I actually use my current phone, a headphone jack, is the main reason not to buy the CMF Phone 1.
@@theMelvinShow they're not audiophiles and we can tell because they're listening to music on a phone, they're using 3.5mm headphones, or worse, earbuds, and they're doing it on the move where there's noise. Audiophiles have carefully setup rooms and headphones that cost more than this phone, or high end speakers and listen when the washing machine isn't on and there's no other noise around. One cannot audiophile on a train, in a car, or walking around a city or shop. One can merely be pretentious about the sound quality while being 100% ignorant of what sound quality was from vinyl or cassette players and the old headphones and not recognising that budget gear is now superior to most hi-fi of the 80s and 90s. It's a bit like Gourmet Burger Kitchen - even if burgers could be gourmet food, that wouldn't be it.
@@jonevansauthor last time I checked audiophiles are just people who care deeply about sound quality. The where and when is not relevant. You can define it that way but I don’t agree with that definition. Go tell Crinacle and other audiophiles that they aren’t real because they listen to music via 3.5mm jacks. Also I was using the term a bit hyperbolic. I just meant that if you accept lesser audio quality you don’t have to worry about minor inconveniences like that. Or just use an adapter if you care so much about tangled cables
Thank you. Exactly. easier to pull the wallet out of the pants pocket than the phone. in fact, I tend to leave the phone in the car and just carry my wallet into businesses. The phone is too big and heavy, especially in shorts.
@@SHO1989 but for most people (at least in my experience) it's the other way around. Everyone has their phone on them. Less people always have their wallet on them. I am currently just waiting for germany to release the official passport app so I can leave my wallet at home entirely.
@@HerbaMachinado you know much much room casings on the battery would take up? To make it safe to the correct standards you'd throw away a lot of capacity, then everyone would hugely shit in your phone, way more than it being a little harder to change
@@HerbaMachina Marketing it as replaceable means the replacment process has to be foolproof - including crush and drop resistance. It's easy to replace, but they don't advertise as such so they can maximize battery size instead of sacrificing capacity for a housing
@@HerbaMachina i am not defending nothing here, i am just saying that if a sticker like that is enough to deter you, you probably shouldnt be doing it in the first place. i have replaces many phone batteries in the past and i HATE getting those stupid glued backcovers off, so this is still a win in my book.
microSD slot - every phone should have one. Replaceable back but no replaceable battery? Stupid. No NFC? Not a deal breaker, but tough. No headphone jack? Deal breaker at any price.
How will they sell you a 256 gb version at a 25% premium if they don't remove the expandable storage option . About the headphone jack every company is selling their own wireless earphones. Why would they give you a 3.5 mm jack
In this day and age, if you take a lack of headphonejack as a deal breaker, then you just cant buy any new phone, because the majority of phones dont have them now
Fully agree with you there. It's a solid phone apparently, but you get all that stuff if you invest just a little more money and buy a different one. It's a no for me sadly.
Yeah, I´m not changing away from my old AKG studio headphones as daily drivers. I like everything else about this phone and even the battery is way easier to replace than most. If it had a headphone jack, I would probably buy it straight away
The one saving grace for not having NFC (although it's probably the cheapest thing to leave from a phone) is that most smartwatches/smartbands already have it and support mobile payment. And that's the real convenience, not reaching into my pocket for my phone (where I could just as easily reach for my card).
Being an user of nothing phone 2 I can absolutely say that I Nothing Phone experience just outstanding! It has outstanding community support, great -complete camera experience, great video quality, and one of the best Android experience ever (NOTHING OS), AND THE GLIPHS ALSO LOOK COOL TOO!.... I WOULD LOVE TO SEE THAT LINUS ONCE TRIES TO USE THE NOTHING PHONE 2 FOR A MONTH! AND SHARE HIS EXPERIENCE! HE MIGHT START USING THE PHONE AS A DAILY DRIVER BECAUSE IT'S SO GOOD! 😄😄💫😄👌
One thing I wish phones would offer is the option to record in mono sound. I can't believe it's not a thing yet. At least I haven't seen it yet. At all. Also, both cheaper and more expensive phones give you a headphone jack. I don't care how much you're into wireless, wired is still very much a thing. Don't be that guy plz.
I would have assumed most phones recorded in mono sound. Do they really have multiple mics spaced out well enough to do stereo? Every phone I've seen seems to have a mic at one end of the phone. Sure, you can put more than one in there, for noise filtering purposes, but they would need to be on the far ends of the phone, and even then they wouldn't be as far apart as a person's ears. Or do you just mean the encode the audio as stereo? Because, if they do, that's not that big a deal. If both sides are the same, it won't take up more room than mono audio.
Ooft, I literally feel your pain dude. Keep blowing your nose. Like, be borderline paranoid about it. Don't stop blowing your nose (Extra space added as a "didn't need to read that" buffer😅) A while back, I was trying to eat the last of my takeaway chinese in a rush to get back to work... almost inhaled some rice, coughed, and then spent 15 minutes blowing fried rice out of my entire sinuses... thought I was good, blew another piece an hour later, and then everything felt fine. Two days later I thought I might be getting a cold, ended up blowing out one of the nastiest things I've ever felt, seen, OR smelled... and realized that sinus infections from foreign objects was an actual thing. Idk if corn flakes would hold up like cooked rice, but I hope things clear up ok😂
It's a solid phone. I just hate seeing it busted up like that. Literally sitting here like: "Find a clean donor phone with bad internals and swap the guts over dude. You have an actual tech channel. It would take what, an afternoon?" Dude could invite JerryRigEverything over and make a colab video about it. The trip to Vancouver would even double as a tax deductible vacation 😂
@@mmorris2830 As a technician myself, i can tell you that enthusiasts are actually ironically the ones who often have a lot of broken stuff they wont / cant fix lol Until now, ive had a busted phone, and would do repairs on other peoples phones, but even tho i got paid, i still didnt fix it, because i would rather spend the money on other tech stuff😂
Also, you didn't cover the specs of the phone entirely. You've made me interested but now I have to do further research. What CPU does it have? RAM? Do people enjoy Nothing OS? Is the UI experience seamless and feature rich? etc..
Honestly, the lack of NFC isn't such a big deal. I used to use my phone for payments quite a lot, but all the different banks stopped supporting it and instead use Google and Apple Pay. Which is not something I intend to use any time soon. It's bad enough that my bank gets to dig through my bank statements in the name of anti-laundering (and occasionally share it with the government), I do not also need Google or Apple collect and sell all that data.
NFC is biggest oversight. I would say in baltics that phone would sell like cakes if it had NFC. It is reason why 1+ Nord phones are pretty popular around baltics and that part of EU.
Should've mentioned that despite the backcover being easily removable, the battery is not (easily) replaceable. It is glued in with fairly string adhesive.
I got this a few weeks ago. Grabbed a Mint burner SIM and tossed in a 1TB SD. Phone is amazing for $199! Impressive and I have an S24 Ultra and a 15 Pro Max.
The name... 🙄Sony first introduced the concept of **CMF (Color, Material, Finish)** in 2014. CMF refers to the design philosophy and approach focused on how the color, material, and finish of a product contribute to its overall aesthetic, tactile experience, and brand identity. This approach has been a key part of Sony's design language, influencing how their products are perceived in terms of quality and user experience.
Why NFC, just use the card that you got from the bank. It's just laziness using your phone and also could be more dangerous for thieves because they get two items for the price of one. They could go on a spending spree before you get the chance to freeze your phone
i use it to read out my blood glucose sensor so NFC is pretty crucial for me. its not just for payments although people seem to only use it for payments these days.
Don’t make up stuff. NFC payments are more secure. Unlike a card, NFC payments require a code to be unlocked. Not having to carry a wallet is convenience, not laziness.
@@Scarlet_Soul Remembering to put it there. Actually having it there. Wallet is unnecessary if you can replace it with another thing that you’re already carrying. Being able to not carry something around without missing that thing is convenient.
Same I also have it disabled and why did he say that he cannot recommend the product just because of that. If you are so bothered just put your card in your phone case! NFC is not a necessity it's just a nice to have. A bit of an unfair conclusion to not recommend based off of his preferences. Beyond unfair for this phone especially considering its specs.
@@stevenlee3661not just his preference, the preference of millions, I have it set up incase I need it but don't really use it, but people maybe 5 years or so younger than me? Don't see them using anything but their phones to pay for stuff tbh
That Note 9 Linus has is one hell of a trooper, the things it has been though, how much he uses it, and how old it is now, an yet it still going, and has to still work great if he still is using it. I have gone through an S8, S10+, and now using an S23 Ultra in the time that he has had that Note 9. To be fair none of my previous Samsung phones had any real issues with them, just getting on the outdated side of thing, and I am picky about my tech, and this S23 Ultra fits my needs and wants in every way and just had to get one and retire my S10+. That being said I also buy my phones used, saves money, also saves a phone. Have only ever bought 1 phone brand new, and that an Alcatel One Touch Mini... Worst phone I ever owned, $100 back in 2015 was way too much for that e-waste...
Given the fact that CMF is targeting younger/growing markets like India (where I am from) for this phone, I wanna let you know that probably 75% of our population doesn't even know what NFC is. India has had a rather unique digital payments system for a few years now, called UPI. For that to work, you basically just need to have a camera on the back of your phone. With UPI apps, the receiver (or a merchant) has to have their UPI QR code displayed/printed out for the sender/payer to scan (using any UPI app - yes, there are multiple, including GPay!) the code and enter the amount you wanna send. And it is a seamless payment made from the sender's bank account to the receiver's.
@@Imhi420imhi YES I LOVE MY MOTO! The ONLY decent spec phones left that still have a 3.5 jack. there is defiantly a audiophile working at moto who wont stand to let it go lmao.
I have the nothing 2 and i was surprised by the build quality of the phone. Glad to see that they are trying to keep the wuality high throughout the lineup
No NFC is really a deal breaker? I don't think I've used NFC except for when I used it to pair my headphones for the first time... like 3 years ago! Honestly the lack of wireless charging is the bigger downside for me. Even then, I've got chargers and type C cables coming out of my ass at this point. CMF may be the first place I look next time I need a new phone. Unless folding phone become affordable, I really wanna try one of those!
++Display (really nice) +Design +Decently performant +Nothing OS ++Vibration motor --Mono speaker --No NFC I got mine on Monday. Would recommend as a secondary phone if you got anything equal or better than (2a). I picked it up because it was so affordable.
My Samsung S23 Ultra is having problems right now and I was so close to picking up one of these phones instead, that's how good a job I think they've done. No NFC, no dual speaker and no wireless charging are the only reasons I'm not doing it. More power to CMF!
Headphone jack is also a bizarre choice to lose on a phone like this. The Galaxy XCover 6 Pro is a fair bit more expensive than this phone, but it ticks a lot more of the right boxes.
@@PhysicsGamer hell even most Motorola phones have a 3.5 jack still. its crazy to relese a $150 to $500 phone without it imo. its sad that its a "feature" now
D-brand, I hope you guys never change with these sponsorships. Personally the NFC isn't a deal breaker since I haven't ever used NFC for payments despite having NFC on my phone for years. What the deal breaker is that there's no headphone jack & removable battery at that price point
I can't lie that replaceable back plate reminds me so much of my Samsung r500 from back in the day and it's nice to see the replaceable covers making a comeback
The interchangeable back reminds me of the Lumia 820, my first smartphone. The cmf not having NFC is a deal breaker in North America, but a lot of other places use QR codes for mobile payments. Back in China getting on the bus or getting groceries is just a QR scan, I think India is having a similar system.
That selfie camera is actually way better than I expected. I've also never once used NFC on my phone and I've had NFC on my phones for at least 7 years now.
The reason it doesn't have nfc is cause they are targeted towards the Indian market , and Payments here are done using QR codes , nfc is not a deal breaker here
I don't think not having NFC is a good reason to not recommend this! 🤨 Lots of people including myself do not trust NFC, it just provides thieves one more potential way to get my money.
If this thing had headphone jack and came at $/Euro 250 I would immediately buy one. It looks like the perfect "secondary" smartphone, where you can load it a small pay-as-you-go SIMM and slam a microSD filled with music, the perfect solution for a trip/gym/whatnot, where you will not care *that* much if something horrific happens to it.
Since when is OnePlus a budget oriented sub-brand? They haven't been budget oriented since the 7. They have the Nord lineup, but that's just one line of their phones. It isn't their entire brand.
Stuff like leaving out NFC just makes no sense to me. In 2024, it's almost a critical feature and surely the implementation cost is pennies? This is a really cool concept, I think the 'gimmick' is cooler than the Nothing gimmick, I would love to see it on higher end phones and with common sense things like NFC, wireless charging and easy battery replacement with much longer software support.
I feel like this would be a fantastic smart phone for my grandmother, who just wants to be able to make calls, text, and take pictures of her cats and birds, but isn't interested in online shopping, food delivery, uber, etc.
Can confirm. NO NFC is a deal breaker for me. It's clearly a marketing choice probably to not cannibalize the 2a; A NFC modules is less than 2-5$. And it takes little to no space inside the phone.
2 years of updates from the OEM but given the price and accessibility, 10+ years of community support. Nothing should lean as heavily into that as they can. If they opened it up fully this would be a tinkerers dream!
The lack of NFC payment is basically the only thing keeping me away. Just a very essential function. And the fact that the battery isn't removable is just weird
The device is aimed at countries like India (and neighbours). It's quite common to use 2 SIM Cards (cellular service is super cheap here compared to North American). NFC on mobile devices is not in vogue at all. All Debit and Credit Cards support contact-less payment but the payment method really in use is the UPI (QR Code / Mobile number based). It's caused quite the revolution and it is being fast adapted by countries around the world. India provides the technology for free for any nation that wants it. Do a feature on UPI (India) versus the situation in US/Canada.
At this price they are selling this in developing countries were nfc is not a thing only online payment so i think that's not deal breaker for everyone
As a point and shooter, that camera quality is amazing to my eyes Im one of those "remember that trip last week, took this awesome pic of the waves" aslong as i have the memory im fine, im not a pixel peeper
I got interested by SoC for a second, because 4x 2.5GHz A78 sounded like finally after 5 years of stagnation we are getting some improvement in budget phones SoCs, even though it is a Mediatek for peasantry ;) (I have G90T, its hot and eats up battery like there is no tomorrow) - but then no headphone out just killed it for me. No way I'm bothering with dongles, especially since I had USB C in the phone fail on me once, and it is stressful when you suddenly lose ability to charge your phone :P
With its unique design, impressive specs, and Dimensity 7300 under the hood, the Nothing CMF Phone 1 is a game-changer in the mid-range smartphone market. 🏆
