My experience with the Nothing family of products goes back to when the Nothing Phone (1) was “released” to users in the United States in the form of the Nothing US Beta Program back in January of 2023. What an exciting time it was to get to use the phone I previously could only experience virtually through YouTube videos and blog articles. Then the Phone (2) was unveiled and I pre-ordered mine while watching the launch event. That Phone (2) remains my primary device - I love it.
Fast forward to early May when I received my CMF Phone 1, or Beedrill as we knew it then, test unit. Unceremoniously but necessarily swathed in a protective security shell as it was, it was fairly easy to determine that the phone was rather sleek. I could see through the penetrations in the shell that the device I was testing is a pale, minty greenish color. I love it! It was also evident that the phone has two camera lenses, more on that later. The button layout is similar to that of its cousins in the Nothing family with “power” on the right side and volume on the left. The buttons are rather low profile while being quite clicky. Solid stuff. My final outward observations were that there is no 3.5mm headphone jack and there’s just one downward-firing speaker.
Powering up the phone was just SO familiar. The startup logo is different of course, but once past that you are dropped into Nothing OS. Not a reduced quality, feature reduced version either. You get the same launcher, the same settings (for the most part), the same widgets. My favorite Nothing widgets, Media Player and Quick Look, work just like they do on my Phone (2). The only things missing are by necessity - you’ll find nothing glyph related. There’s no need for those settings, features, and widgets as the glyph LEDs are just not there. It was a slight disappointment initially but spoiler - we now know why this is with the removable backs and other awesome features! Fair trade off. Here’s my home screen featuring my favorite widgets:
Specifications
SoC - MediaTek Dimensity 7300
RAM - 8GB with up to 8GB more when using RAM Booster
Storage - 128GB/256GB (my unit has 256GB)
Display - 1080×2400 Super AMOLED with 120Hz dynamic refresh rate and HDR support
Battery - 5000mAh
Charging - 33W wired fast charging, no Qi wireless charging
Having now used Beedrill for 2 months I have some informed opinions about how the phone performs in daily activities.
Social media and messaging
CMF Phone 1 is a great device for your typical social media and messaging usage. Being in the United States my primary method of messaging friends, family and colleagues is Google’s Messages app. And for those with an Android phone, or recently with an iPhone on iOS 18 Beta, I especially enjoy using the RCS protocol. Even as an uncertified device RCS worked out of the box. Of course all the usual apps also work properly. The ones I use are Discord, Threads, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Telephony
CMF Phone 1 works phenomenally on T-Mobile. I get 5G service everywhere my other devices get 5G, and never did my CMF phone have less than 4G+ service. VoLTE and WiFi calling both work just as well as on my Phone (2). Voice quality in calls is crisp. I actually use my phones to make and receive traditional calls daily so it was important that the phone actually work well as a phone. I also used this phone as a mobile hotspot for my laptop when out in the field for work. Compared to other devices I’ve used as a hotspot recently (Pixel 8 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro, Nothing Phone (2)) CMF Phone 1 performed admirably.
Media consumption
Aside from phone calls, my other primary use for my smartphones is media consumption - primarily in the form of podcast and music listening during the day and YouTube video watching in the evenings. The screen on the CMF Phone 1 has no business being as good as it is. Turn on HDR and enable high refresh rate and you’ll swear you’re looking at a much higher end device. The single downward firing speaker was definitely the weak spot in this scenario but it was decent enough. Pair your phone with some nice wireless buds, say Nothing Ear, and you’ve got an excellent multimedia setup. Speaking of pairing, Bluetooth performance is solid. I tested with Nothing Ear, Nothing Ear (2), Pixel Buds A Series, and Anker Soundcore Life Q30 and they all paired quickly and stayed connected reliably.
Photography
With the CMF Phone 1 you get a majority of the features and settings that you have with the Nothing Phone (2). Missing are Macro Mode (no wide-angle lens) and Recording Light (no glyph LEDs), but you do gain Vivid Mode. I enjoy using Vivid Mode since I’m not a truly skilled photographer, I prefer to just point and shoot. Vivid Mode explained:
This setting helps me turn out pictures that seem to pop more. This is very subjective of course but I do like the results most of the time. I think most regular users of this phone will enjoy using this new feature. Advanced photographers aren’t left behind though, CMF Phone 1 comes with an Expert Mode that will present all the settings you normally would use to capture the perfect images.
Gaming
During the course of my testing I used CMF Phone 1 to play some games of course. I tried it on Mighty DOOM, Diablo Immortal, Honkai Star Rail, Pickle Pete, and a casual game named Cubistry. The only game that I could not play was Cubistry - the phone was not supported so unfortunately I couldn’t even install it. The others were all able to be installed and were playable - some better than others. Mighty DOOM and Pickle Pete played the best, and in Mighty DOOM I was able to use the high quality settings with minimal stutters in areas with intense action. Diablo Immortal and Honkai Star Rail were playable on lower quality settings but still enjoyable. My hunch is that with upcoming system updates gaming performance will be optimized further. The MediaTek Dimensity 7300 SoC paired with 8GB of RAM and a high refresh rate Super AMOLED makes for a potentially excellent gaming platform. Time will tell.
Battery life and charging
CMF Phone 1 comes with an extremely efficient SoC and what looks to be a 5000mAh battery. I was not able to kill the battery in a day of extremely heavy use. The lowest I saw the battery get was about 30%. On this day I took the phone off charge at 6am, kept WiFi turned off, drove 2 hours to work in the field, used the phone as normal for calls, emails, messaging, hotspot (even used Maps to find a place for lunch), got home and watched YouTube videos and played Mighty DOOM for a couple of hours. I put the phone back on charge at 10:30pm with the battery at ~30%. Most days I had over 50% left at bed time. I’m convinced that this kind of battery performance is good enough for a majority of people, and I believe you could easily get two days of use on one charge if you exercise some screen time restraint.
Final thoughts
I came away from testing Beedrill seriously impressed. From the beginning the phone was exceptionally stable and the UI/UX was equally refined. And we testers were literally pelted with OTA updates, the CMF/Nothing team obviously intended for the best possible experience from Phone 1 on release. The test program was extremely well managed and executed.
About the phone itself, using it was a solid and satisfying experience. As I said the OS was incredibly stable right out of the box which is remarkable for a pre-release device from such a new brand. I do miss the flair of a Nothing phone with there being no glyphs and the accompanying software features. The security shell did an excellent job of hiding any CMF design flair, hopefully the teased accessories we’ve seen make up for this. I mean swappable backs could be a game changer.
When CMF Phone 1 is released I will have absolutely no problem recommending this to anyone looking for a quality daily driver phone that doesn’t want to break the bank. I tried really hard to find something my Nothing Phone (2) does well that this phone doesn’t. Happily, I failed.
That really surprises me because I though that was standard now (like having a fingerprint scanner), but it’s a good thing from my point of view because I don’t use NFC or any online banking.
