CMF Phone 1 camera revealed – Nothing's next phone to belie its budget price

CMF is on a mission to tease, revealing the specs of its forthcoming budget smartphone through a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter). There's been a missing piece of the puzzle so far, however, which has finally been rectified. We finally know what the CMF Phone 1's camera will offer.

First, we get a closer look at the design of the cameras on the rear of the phone. They sit in their own segment, alongside the visible screws around the body of the phone.

CMF has made a lot out of the screws, with a small screwdriver included as part of the package, allowing for customisation of the device, which will have changeable back covers. 

But back to the camera: there are two lenses on the rear of the phone, with the main camera detailed as having a Sony 50-megapixel sensor with f/1.8 lens. That's all the hardware detail that we get – there's no mention of optical image stabilisation and we don't know exactly which sensor module it is.

Nothing says it will capture "bright and immersive" photos and it's described as a premium sensor, offering 2x zoom. The company has shared some images here.

But the CMF Phone 1 won't actually offer a dual-camera system. The second lens on the rear is a "portrait sensor", claiming to enhance the offering when taking portrait photos and giving you that bokeh effect with a blurred background.

In the introductory video on Instagram, Supersaf says that "Nothing has focused on one great main camera sensor instead of trying to trick users by turning the portrait sensor into a poor camera just to say there's a dual camera." 

Take from that what you will, but it sounds exactly like Nothing has added an additional sensor to the rear of the phone to look like a dual camera, while claiming that it's there for "extra data".

The front camera is 16-megapixels, but again that's the only information we have about it.

CMF has now basically revealed every aspect of the CMF Phone 1, so it's only really the software and user experience that remains to be revealed.

It's clear that CMF wants to do something different and the design of the phone will make it stand out from other devices in this category. With the ability to add accessories to customise the phone, if nothing else, this is going to be a phone that's different.  Will that make it one of the best budget phones? It's looking likely.

The phone will be announced on 8 July with the price expected to be around £200.