This Modular Phone Is A Gimmick - Nothing CMF - Teardown and Repair Assessment 

Void if removed stickers are absolutely illegal in the US. Denying warranty coverage requires proving that the device was damaged, not just opened or serviced. That doesn't stop companies from continuing to use them and declare that the policy will be rigidly enforced, of course.

Gonna start calling myself modular and when people ask what does that mean I just excuse myself for a minute and come back with different clothes.

It would be cool if they made the battery easily removable since you can already remove the back cover. And it’s not like the phone is going to disassemble like Legos when dropped because it has literal screws holding it on! But no, it’s 2024 and nothing has to be easily replaceable anymore I guess. :(

IDK about the laws in Australia, but in the US, those "warranty void if removed" stickers are meaningless. Why? There's a law in the US called the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act, which I'll shorten to MMWA for the rest of this comment. Anyways, the MMWA bars device manufactures from denying you warranty service solely because the sticker is broken. It also prohibits them from denying you service for one thing because you modified something else unrelated to the first thing. If that's confusing, here's an example. Say you have a smartphone, and you break the screen and replace it yourself, then, later down the line, a board level problem comes up, and the device is still in warranty. The company can't deny repair or replacement of the board/device because the screen was replaced. People will claim the stickers themselves are illegal, which is a little bit of a misnomer. It's actually the act of voiding the warranty from breaking them that's illegal, not the stickers themselves. I'd simply call the stickers meaningless. They can try all they want to say they can deny you warranty service if you break the sticker, but in actuality, they can't. Again, these are the laws in the US, and will vary if you're outside there. Edit: Corrected the name of the law since it was wrong the first time.

If I recall correctly they never marketed the phone as modular or easily repairable. They just want to sell more covers and accessories.

I don't consider it modular

This seems relatively manageable. Not having to fight with adhesive and glass is a big win in my eyes. last time I replaced my own phone battery, phones still had glued down metal unibodies.

Honestly the specs seem damn good for the price. Assuming you get a decent length of software updates it seems like a good phone as far as the phone itself is considered. But it will never make sense to me why they implemented a removable back in this day and age but didn't make the battery user removable 😂

people make jokes about nothing by using the brand name a pun when the real joke is the phone

A Nokia 3310 is way more modular than this. 😂😂😂

"Interchangeable design" my ass! 😂

It is a gimmick, but a creative one.

This phone was heavily advertised as "100% repairable" in mexico and the ads where taken down by the authorities (physical ads)

Wow! They had one hell of a missed opportunity if only if they do it with their next phone that would be amazing! But great job!

6:02 “it lifts out easily” 😭😭

No NFC is tough in 2024 :/

The CMF Phone 1 missed a few major points that would have made it a best seller. A user replaceable battery, stereo speakers and (the real deal breaker in many regions like europe) no NFC so you can't set up contactless payment. Also most budget phones still feature a headphone jack, but I can sadly see they will eventually be phased out from all phones.

This phone isn't being marketed as a easily repairable phone. It's a phone to sell their accessories at a high margin.

Where haven’t nothing mentioned that this is modular? They just said you can swap back covers and add accessories. But I have to agree with you on the missed opportunity in making the battery removable.

I never understood what is stopping them from designing a simple dedicated screw in "battery bracket", which, combined with a screwed down back and an accessible plug would make battery chance 10x easier (6-8 identical screws, no heat) even if you don't go for a hardshell design like Fairphone.

The people with the confidence to repair this phone are smart enough to know it's shett

It's a shame that the battery isn't user replaceable but I still feel that it's a very compelling phone at that price point. Decent specs, good screen and I think the OS is probably my favourite flavour of Android at the moment. I also think it's a pretty good looking phone but that's very subjective.

From just watching your videos, i learn how to repair phones.

Lenovo K3 Note was truly modular. Had easy to remove rear cover, with several different rear covers available, including a subwoofer(!).. Loved mine to death. Went through 2 of them. Both "lemon yellow"..

Not having a removable battery is what like 99% of reviewers are complaining about, and it's a big miss imho. But the biggest dealbreaker for me is it not having NFC as it's used for BankID (digital ID-service for banking, collecting parcels and much more) here in Sweden, rendering it pretty much useless.

Always a good day when Hugh uploads.

Jerryrigseverything took out the battery with ease, I can't say why it was difficult for you.

The LG G4 did this but that phone was one of the easiest ever to repair.

Done watching now heading to sleep. 2am here on the other side of the continent

My theory is that some countries' regulations prevent companies from encouraging battery replacement due to potential legal issues if a fire occurs and someone sues them. This recently happened with a 3D printer recall. While 3D printers are meant for tinkering, the company issued a statement that in some European countries, replacing an electrical part legally requires expert examination before use. Otherwise, you risk voiding your house insurance in case of a fire.

personally I don't understand why all these RU-vidrs are hating this phone. it's actually a good phone, I bought it for my dad and he loves it, and I think that's what matters, no where did they say that it would be easier to repair, and sure it's a bit of a gimmick but I like the fact that you don't need a case since you can just remove the back. also, I think the attachments are pretty cool, like having a lil screw on stand is quite useful. idk i just feel like everyone is overreacting

A few years back I successfully modified a couple of "action cameras". Recently, I had some reason to look at what was new in that market, and I found one that has some interesting potential. But I cannot do anything with a new device right now, so I thought I'd mention it to you and see if you might want to look at it. It is the SJCAM SJ20 Dual Lens Action Camera. As its name implies, it has two "lenses" (actually more than just lenses, there are two sensors and some of the circuitry). One "lens" is "normal" brightness but the other is lower F-stop (brighter) giving extra low light capability. At the very least, I can suggest "focusing" the lenses so that switching between them might give you a choice of near/far focus. Alternatively, one of the lenses could be replace (which is what I did to my own cameras), possibly giving a "normal" / "telephoto" option. Anyway, if you decided to take up this suggestion, I'd be interested to see what you come up with.

Carl Pei is complicit on anti-repair.

the nice thing about the modular bit is you can change the colour of your phone at will if you get bored of it, and cmf has released a template to 3d print back casings and accessories for the phone 1.

The accessory screw is in the sim ejector

The latest Nokia ones are somewhat harder to open but it's actualy a feature to be able to repair your own device, exchange the battery or replace the screen. I wouldn't call this a modular phone at all if they actualy say you void the warranty if you're replacing the battery yourself. It's little more than an option to get a different coloured back cover. I.E. a gimmick.

*As nice as modular design goes* -- I want a phone that allows me to install alternative Operating Systems --- *That's what I would call -- 'Adaptive & Flexible'*

I don't know about Australia, but "void if removed" stickers are illegal in the United States. They can get sued for this.

Finally someone not glazing the company, the processor is garbage , it has a useless camera with the one being actually functional literally garbage quality, and the screen is average for all androids at this price for the last 2 years

The fairphone is way better, but at 200 euros it is hard to beat.

5:57 redmi: 🗿

06:24 - "Like little Legos..." 😏😉🤣🤣🤣👍 😎🇬🇧

Dude you do remember the price point on this phone, “missed opportunities” just adds more $$$

Good video as usual Hugh. Keep it up to keep us consumers aware of what's what.

IIRC tbe sim eject is also the screwdriver

Imagine going to all that trouble to engineer a removable back and then putting void if removed stickers on top of a glued in battery.

The highlight on this phone is the SD card slot

Such a shame. This would have been such a cool phone if it was actually repairable.

Modular for esthetic purpose,... i bought one... (and you can say about it what you want).. BUT this phone is more stable then my Pixel a7. It runs REMARKABLE SMOOTH. Love it!

The EU will require user replaceable batteries in phones by the end of next year, I believe.

This phone feels like a giant middle finger in the face of consumers. There is absolutely no reason this battery couldn't have been user replacable. I hope Nothing returns to being nothing.

If you're going to make the back plate easily replaceable, at LEAST make the battery replaceable. Without that simple feature, this phone is a hard pass.

hey Hugh, i found your original title "Hugh Jeffreys uploaded: This Modular Phone Is Nothing But A Gimmick - Nothing CMF - Teardown and Repair Assessment" more interesting

I like the professional effort of no longer showing the PCB in green or blue like in years past, because fake phones have this particularity of being so. Not up to iPhone standards yet, but it's already better.

finally a huge youtuber denies this phone. too much hype from others where there is little added value to this phone. absurd how difficult to replace that battery considering the removable back. I'd be happier for this phone if this included bypass charging.

having an easily removable back but no easily removable battery is wild

I've already replaced parts on my backup and daily driver phones both are screen and battery AND THE MOST PAIN IN THE ASS THING IS REMOVING THE FREAKING BACK COVER AND IS FINDING ORIGINAL PARTS. Seeing how easy to remove the back cover of that phone is great and maybe this can be the first step for the true modular phones and I hope really hope that we can replace chipsets and ram in the future like a desktop

The concept of removal back panel of CMF 1 is super simple, with that feature they can sell more "accessories" to the customers who thinks they have bought a "budget" phone. It's simply a tricky, cleaver and somewhat evil way of making money by giving the illusion of "user repairable" bought phone so that more people buys it

id say that seeing that qr opening their page with accessories was enough to consider this phone as marketing gimmick aimed at that particular kind of mouth-gaping "tech enthusiasts" customers; not mention that special cute little screwdriver... which just screams "give us more money".

I will wait video for new HMD phone, which claims to be repair friendly

I mean that's a little better

Pissed off at nothing as nothing os 2.5 bricked my dads nothing phone 1, TWICE. It seems others are having that issue too, but nothing really need to step up their game. otherwise itll be like gizmondo, forgotten.

Your title should have been: "This CMF Phone is Nothing but a gimmick."

"Wow look, nothing!" Weird that the battery was so hard to remove, since JRE made it look easy with the pull tabs. But then again, he's not taking care to preserve the device the way Hugh does.

In the teardown video by Zach from Jerryrigeverything his battery got removed with no issues with the pulltabs .So this could be deffect in the some phones ?

basically a FairPhone 5 but with extra steps, and worse repairability

How are companies still including "warranty void" stickers when they've been legally unenforceable pretty much worldwide for years now?

In the old days you could replace the battery with a touch of a button on the Ericsson at least, it was a heavy battery and low cost battery swap.

I own one of these phones as I needed a secondary phone for when I travel to developing countries. I love it, but I do agree it is a missed opportunity with the battery. I am curious though if it is cheaper to have those batteries by a significant margin.

With all of these repairs/breakdowns, I'm curious what ol Huge Jeffrey's is running and why

I wonder if Oppo produce Nothing/CMF phones? The layout and battery connectors/fitting style is identical.

This phone reminds me of one plus when they started saying that they were revolutionaty and so on...now they became like the other brands, nothing will go the same routes, they hype the people so they buy their products saying they are the best bla bla bla and in a few years they will dissapear or just be like the others...

Try some of the HMD phones. I think they used to be Nokia.

I also tought that the card holder was a battery pack

I hope you can get your hands on the new HMD Skyline at somepoint, its supposed to have a screw system(single screw on the bottom) which will release the back cover & display for easy replacement.

The screwdriver is in the box, you can see it at 1:04 under the box liner, it's orange.

Always think if back case is so easy to remove we should get Swappable batteries like we use to why do we have to go backwards and not allow for easy swap of batteries

We may have to sharpen the screwdriver to fit it.

Yay he uploaded

Hugh, I got a question, i have an iPhone with a CRC error, a battery stuck at 100%, can you help me fix this? Replacing hasn’t solved the problem.

Good Name you said at:1.05🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Yet another smartly marketed phone for the Geeks and Nerds.

I just want a phone that’s got a removable battery and back case that’s not from 2010. Why can’t we have a 2024 phone with removable battery and back case? Idc about water resistance as long as it runs modern apps with modern hardware with replaceable parts.

It's a baby step to make the modular phones possible again.

The "Accessory Interface", to me, looks like just a waste of space where they could probably have implemented an headphone jack. "BRING BACK THE HEADPHONE JACK" !

Budget phones like that are getting too close in price to upmarket phones. 300-400 for a half decent budget phone, yet I paid about 700 for my Pixel. It would have been nice to see some pogo pins inside the back beneath the outer rear housing. RGB housing anyone, that would be popular. Dock maybe... add on NFC.. there's plenty of options.

The Nokia 3310 had the ability to attach a lanyard. Calling this modular is ridiculous.

Lack of easily removable battery in this phone is not incredibly strange, it's worse, it's incredibly stupid.

At this point Hugh Jeffreys should just start his own phone company that makes repairable and long-lasting devices. I'm sure with his level of expertise he could figure it out!

6:42 it looks like the charging board looks like a Galaxy A51 charging board tbh...(i knew cuz i own one lol)

While the removable back with a non-user replacable battery seems like a gimmick, it's most likely no one is going to repair this phone. A lot of reviewers said that this is a great value phone, and it's true, but that hurts it in a repairability aspect. After a few years or even a few months, the value of the phone would significantly degrade (as is the case for any phone), but the repair costs won't, we all know how expensive it is to replace a screen from a phone, especially if it's a 120 hertz OLED display. If that screen breaks after a few months it would most likely cost more than half of the perceived value of the device.

What is it with newer tech companies that are trying very hard to be unique (CMF, Rabbit R1 and We are Rewind for example) having their products in a bright orange that reminds me a lot of Teenage Engineering??

Is it weird that I want one that's more expensive? Give it better specs and an actual removable battery and I'd love to have one of these with a resin printed clear back iMac G3 style

I must say, I have some older smartphones in my collection that also have a removable back but not the battery

They have every opportunity to do something actually different and would be worth recommending for android enthusiasts had they not just avoid these opportunities completely. I really hate that they keep going in the gimmick route hard and even avoiding anything that can help them make more money in a way that benefits both the customer and the company. By letting people just buy parts that, when bought together to equal more than the price of the phone, can still net them a lot of money as long as they let people know that fixing it themselves wouldn't be covered under warranty or something like that. I dont get why offering an option of repairing it yourself or getting it repaired through them just doesnt seem to want to exist to them.

Lucky you, not even available here in Canada

arent they all :P

No NFC sadly. By my standards, the battery it's easy to replace. However, by the time the battery will be unusable, this device might be already e-waste.

one word- Gimmick

This was their first version of this, maybe they wanted to start small. Hopefully, if they release a second version, it has some or all of these features mentioned in the video.