Nothing has introduced the second telephone below its colourful subbrand CMF: the Phone 2 Pro. Just like the primary CMF telephone, this can be a modular handset with further equipment you’ll be able to screw into place. And additionally similar to the primary CMF telephone, it’s not getting an official US launch.
Buy the Phone 2 Pro by itself and also you get a surprisingly well-specced price range Android handset, with an honest triple rear digital camera system, a shiny 120Hz OLED display screen, and 128GB of storage. But the actual attraction is the array of modular add-ons: a screw-on case, a kickstand-card pockets combo, a shiny orange lanyard, and a pair of swappable digital camera lenses.
Nothing has modified its method a bit for the reason that Phone 1. While house owners of that telephone might take away its backplate to connect replacements, that’s now not an choice right here. Instead, covers — bought individually — are screwed on high of the telephone’s current rear, which is likely to be how Nothing made the leap from IP52 to IP54 water-resistance. The new equipment then connect to the duvet, the kickstand counting on its built-in magnet and the lenses merely clicking right into a plastic ring round the principle digital camera.
The lenses are the largest new addition right here. Sold as a pair, you get a fisheye and a macro, every of which merely sit on high of the prevailing essential lens. The fisheye is a bit subtler than I anticipated — you’ve set to work a bit to discover a shot that basically accentuates the impact — so I feel the macro will see extra use. Macro images in low-cost telephones is normally dreadful, counting on the already inferior ultrawide cameras, and I a lot want the outcomes I acquired from clipping this on.
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The lanyard is the one accent from the unique Phone 1 that also works with the two Pro, and it’s additionally the one one which doesn’t require the duvet to work, as an alternative screwing into the round accent cowl within the telephone’s backside nook. I’m at the very least 10 years too outdated to tug off carrying my telephone like this, however I did spend a day doing so within the title of science, and felt excruciatingly embarrassed swinging it spherical to make a contactless cost on the bus.
Embarrassment apart, I like all the pieces in regards to the concept of the CMF ecosystem — modular tech is simply enjoyable, rattling it, and particularly when it’s reasonably priced too — however I’ve some qualms in regards to the execution right here. Requiring the duvet to allow a lot of the modules makes it a necessary buy in the event that they’re a part of the draw to you. But the tech concerned is just a magnet and a little bit of plastic across the digital camera, and it might simply as simply have been constructed into the telephone itself.
There’s a pressure between Nothing’s need to push an attention-grabbing modular ecosystem and its want to make use of CMF as a platform for consumers on a price range, and so the out-of-the-box expertise clashes with all the pieces else. Case in level: the Phone 2 Pro ships with a transparent plastic protecting case, but it surely’s not appropriate with the (much less protecting) screw-on covers.
I’m extra irritated by one other obtrusive incompatibility, between the lanyard and the kickstand case. Prop the telephone up in portrait mode with the lanyard connected and it raises one nook up, leaving the entire thing wobbly and unbalanced. That is likely to be alright — it might be cheap sufficient if Nothing merely didn’t intend somebody to connect each single module directly — besides that the corporate’s personal promotional imagery exhibits the telephone getting used similar to that, with each corners sitting stably on the bottom.
I additionally fear about longevity right here. In the 9 months for the reason that CMF Phone 1’s launch, Nothing hasn’t added to its accent vary in any respect. And now it’s releasing a follow-up that makes use of a brand new system and principally isn’t interoperable with the unique bits. The modular ecosystem calls for a spread of choices Nothing can add to over time, and thus far there’s no signal that’s the plan.
The excellent news is that the telephone on the coronary heart of this all is spectacular in its personal proper. I’ve solely been utilizing it for 3 days or so, however efficiency has been clean, the battery has comfortably lasted till the top of the day, and the cameras, together with a 50-megapixel 2x telephoto, are higher than I’d anticipate at this value. There are a number of small points — particularly some unusually muted colours within the viewfinder, which luckily don’t translate to the ultimate images — however there’s not an excessive amount of to complain about right here.
The Phone 2 Pro runs the identical software program as Nothing’s different telephones, arriving on Android 15 and promising three years of OS updates together with six years of safety patches. It additionally contains the AI-powered “Essential Space” launched with the Nothing Phone 3A gadgets, with the identical devoted key to activate it. You can use it to take screenshots and digital camera captures and save them to the Essential Space together with optionally available voice notes and reminders. Does it want a complete button? I don’t know, but it surely does really feel like one of many extra sensible implementations of AI in a smartphone but.
The Phone 2 Pro is accessible to preorder now, with an official launch on May sixth, beginning at £219 / €249 in Europe for 128GB of storage, rising to £249 / €279 for 256GB. In the US you’ll be able to solely purchase it by means of Nothing’s “beta program,” which comes with a string of caveats about potential hiccups on US carriers and no after-sales assist, and it’ll set you again $279 for the 256GB mannequin. The modular equipment aren’t accessible within the US in any respect, and there’ll solely be “restricted portions” in Europe, ranging from £25 / €25 for the lanyard and rising to £65 / €65 for a bundle together with the duvet, kickstand, and lenses.
Alongside the brand new telephone, Nothing has additionally revealed a trio of price range earbuds. The Buds 2, 2 Plus, and 2A all borrow the aesthetic — and rotatable “good dial” — seen on final yr’s Buds Pro 2. Ranging from $49 / £29 / €39 for the 2A as much as $69 / £49 / €59 for the two Plus, all three fashions embrace lively noise cancellation and water-resistance, with spatial audio on the two and a pair of Plus, and Hi-Res LDAC assist on the Plus.
Photography by Dominic Preston / The Verge
