The Nothing CMF Phone 1 has completely shaken up the budget smartphone market in South Africa. As the first-ever smartphone under Nothing’s budget-friendly “Color, Material, and Finish” (CMF) sub-brand, it strips away expensive frills to focus heavily on unique hardware customization, long battery life, and snappy daily performance.
Here is an in-depth look at its local pricing, nationwide retail availability, and the standout features that make it an absolute budget champion.
In South Africa, the Nothing CMF Phone 1 enters the value segment with an incredibly competitive starting price of approximately ZAR 6,000.
When planning your purchase, keep these local market factors in mind:
Solid Base Hardware: The ZAR 6,000 baseline price generally applies to the configuration pairing 8 GB of RAM with 128 GB of internal storage, which offers immense value and smooth multi-tasking overhead for daily apps.
Regional Pricing Variances: Exact storefront prices can experience minor variations across different provinces depending on independent retail promotions, regional shipping fees, or physical store clearance sales.
Affordable Network Financing: If you prefer not to pay the full cash amount upfront, select cellular network operators offer budget-friendly 24-month contract structures, allowing you to split the hardware cost into small monthly installments bundled with data allocations.
Nothing has secured a massive national distribution footprint for its CMF line. You can purchase the CMF Phone 1 cash upfront or secure it via contract upgrades across all major digital platforms and physical retail channels:
Online Platforms & Tech Specialists: Takealot, HiFi Corp, and Hi Online.
Cellular Networks & Mobile Specialist Outlets: Available on contract plans and prepaid upgrades via MTN, Chatz Connect, Cellucity, and 4U.
Major Hypermarkets & Retail Chains: Makro, Game, and Foschini.
Everyday Convenience & Value Stores: Mr Price, PEP, and Ackermans.
The CMF Phone 1 completely separates itself from generic, boring plastic budget bricks by re-imagining how a phone can be customized physically.
Interchangeable Modular Back Covers: Instead of hiding your phone inside a generic case, the CMF Phone 1 lets you physically unscrew and swap the entire rear shell. You can switch between different textures and striking colors (like Black, Light Green, Blue, or vibrant Orange).
The CMF Accessory Point: Located at the bottom corner of the rear panel is a unique, physical mechanical dial. By unscrewing it, you can securely attach useful modular accessories directly to the phone’s chassis, such as a sturdy kickstand, a lanyard wrist strap, or a snap-on cardholder wallet.
Shockingly Premium 120 Hz AMOLED Display: Budget phones usually compromise on screen quality, but the CMF Phone 1 boasts a stunning 6.67-inch Super AMOLED display. Featuring a fluid 120 Hz adaptive refresh rate and an impressive peak brightness of 2,000 nits, it remains completely readable under harsh South African sunlight.
Clean, Bloatware-Free Nothing OS: Running Nothing OS on top of a modern Android framework, the phone provides an incredibly fast and clean user experience. It is entirely free of the annoying pre-installed junkware apps or duplicate software common on typical budget competitors.
50 MP Sony Primary Camera & Powerhouse Battery: Photography is handled by a highly capable 50 MP Sony main camera that snaps crisp, true-to-life images with excellent daytime detail. Under the hood, a power-efficient MediaTek Dimensity 7300 processor works alongside a massive 5000 mAh battery to comfortably clear up to two days of casual use on a single charge.
Note: The Nothing CMF Phone 1 comes with full out-of-the-box compatibility with Google Mobile Services, ensuring completely seamless functionality for all major South African banking apps, food delivery platforms, public transport networks, and global social media channels.
| Brand | Nothing Phone |
| Model | Nothing CMF Phone 1 |
| Announced | 08 July, 2024 |
| Released | 14 July, 2024 |
| Status | Available |
| Price | ZAR 6,000 |
| Type Design Type called form factor refers to a mobile phone's size, shape, and style as well as the layout and position of major components of phone. There are three major form factors seen in mobile phones => bar phones, folding phones and sliding phones. | Bar |
| Dimensions | 164.0 x 77.0 x 8.2 |
| Weight | 197 g or 202 g (6.95 oz) |
| Protection | IP52, dust and splash resistant |
| Colors | Black, Orange, Light Green |
| 2G Network | |
| 3G Network | |
| 4G Network | |
| 5G Network | |
| SIM SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) is a small card that contains mobile network subscriber's account information. This allows the phone using the card to attach to a mobile network. The SIM card is most commonly associated with GSM and UMTS mobile networks. Moving a SIM card from one phone to another allows a subscriber to switch mobile phones without having to contact their mobile network carrier. SIM cards can also be used by a phone to store limited amounts of data, such as phone numbers and text messages. | Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by) |
| Display Type Display Technology => A number of display technologies and types used in mobile phones => TFT (Thin Film Transistor), IPS (In-Place Switching), OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode), AMOLED (Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode), Super AMOLED (an even advanced version of AMOLED), Resistive Touchscreen (Resistive touchscreens contain two layer of conductive material with a very small gap between them which acts as a resistance), Capacitive Touchsceen (Capacitive touchscreen technology consists of a layer of glass coated with a transparent conductor) | AMOLED, 120Hz, HDR10+, 500 nits (typ), 2000 nits (peak) |
| Size | 6.67 inches, 107.4 cm2 (~85.1% screen-to-body ratio) |
| Resolution | 1080 x 2400 pixels, 20:9 ratio (~395 ppi density) |
| Audio Playback | |
| Video Playback | |
| FM Radio | No |
| Ring Tones | |
| Loudspeaker |
| Main Camera Camera is able to capture photographs and usually videos, The most important characteristics of a camera are the resolution (measured in megapixels), lens focus type (fixed or automatic), higher megapixel cameras are known to capture higher quality photos, but not always a good measurement of the photos quality. |
50 MP, f/1.8, (wide), PDAF 2 MP, f/2.4, (depth) |
| Video | 1080p@30fps |
| Selfie Camera | 16 MP, f/2.0, (wide) |
| Video | 1080p@30fps |
| Operating System OS => Every computer system run on a base software called Operating System (OS). Operating System controls all basic operations of the computer (such as smartphone, PDAs, tablet computers and other handheld devices). The Operating System allows the user to install and run third party applications (apps), apps are used to add new functionality to the device. | Android 14 |
| Chipset Chipset is a group of integrated circuits designed to perform one or a more dedicated functions, often with real time computing constraints, Popular smartphones are equipped with more advanced embedded chipsets that can do many different tasks depending on their programming. | Mediatek Dimensity 7300 (4 nm) |
| CPU CPU (Central Processing Unit) mostly known as processors, CPU processes instructions in order to carry out certain functions that make your device operate properly. Processors are often described as the brain of computers, smartphones and tablets, Smartphones and tablets rely on processors to carry out their every task, Processors are an incredibly important factor in selecting any type of computing device, including your smartphone. | Octa-core (4x2.5 GHz Cortex-A78 & 4x2.0 GHz Cortex-A55) |
| GPU GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) is a single-chip processor designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display, This includes things such as lighting effects, object transformations, and 3D motion. | Mali-G615 MC2 |
| RAM (Memory) RAM (Random Access Memory) is a type of computer memory that can be accessed randomly, any byte of memory can be accessed without touching the preceding bytes that allows information to be stored and accessed quickly from random locations. RAM is the most common type of memory found in computer systems, smartphones, tablets and other electronic devices. | 6GB/8GB |
| Internal Storage Internal Storage is a data storage space (flash memory) mostly used in smartphones, tablets and other electronic devices where operating system, apps, music, photos, videos, files and other user data Is stored. | 128GB/256GB |
| Card Slot Memory Card Slot is a special slot for inserting a memory card. Memory cards allow you to expand the phone's built-in memory, A memory card (sometimes called a flash memory card or a storage card) is a small storage medium used to store data such as text, pictures, audio, and video, for use on small, portable or remote computing devices such as mobile phones, mp3 players, digital cameras. | microSDXC |
| Sensors Sensors are electronic components that detects and responds to some type of input from the physical environment. The specific input could be light, heat, motion, moisture, pressure and location, The output is generally a signal that is converted to use in computing systems, a location sensor, such as a GPS receiver is able to detect current location of your electronic device. | Fingerprint (under display, optical), accelerometer, proximity, compass |
| Bluetooth Bluetooth is a wireless communications technology for exchanging data between mobile phones, headsets, computers and other network devices over short distances without wires, Bluetooth technology was primarily designed to support simple wireless networking of personal consumer devices. | 5.3, A2DP, BLE |
| Wi-fi Wi-Fi is a popular wireless networking technology using radio waves to provide high-speed network connections that allows devices to communicate without cords or cables, Wi-Fi is increasingly becoming the preferred mode of internet connectivity all over the world. | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6, dual-band |
| Wi-fi Hotspot | |
| USB | USB Type-C |
| Positioning GPS The Global Positioning System is a satellite-based radio navigation system, GPS permits users to determine their position, velocity and the time 24 hours a day, in all weather, anywhere in the world, In order to locate your position, your device or GPS receiver must have a clear view of the sky. | GPS, GALILEO, GLONASS, BDS, QZSS |
| NFC NFC (Near field communication) is a set of standards for smartphones and similar devices to establish peer-to-peer radio communications with each other by touching them together or bringing them into proximity, usually no more than a few inches. |
| Battery Type Battery Type => Cell phones run on various kinds of batteries depending on the manufacturer, phone size or shape and features. There are basically four types of cell phone batteries => Lithium Polymer, Lithium Ion, Nickel Metal Hydride and Nickel Cadmium. | 5000 mAh, non-removable |
| Charging Wireless Charging (Inductive Charging) uses an electromagnetic field to transfer energy between two objects. This is usually done with a charging station. Energy is sent through an inductive coupling to an electrical device, which can then use that energy to charge batteries or run the device. |
33W wired 5W reverse wired |
The information contained in this post is for general information purposes only.