What made Nothing's CMF Phone 2 Pro so much cheaper than others?
I like that CMF is treating cost as a design constraint instead of an afterthought. The interesting part is what they chose to keep: a capable processor, a decent display, and a battery that lasts, while dropping things like wireless charging and fancy camera sensors that most people in this price bracket won't miss. That kind of honesty about what a phone actually needs is rare.
What I'd want to know next is how much of the savings comes from the modular back and replaceable parts. If those are genuinely cheap to produce and easy to swap, it's a clever way to reduce repair costs too. But if the modularity is mostly marketing, the price difference probably comes from older chips and less aggressive profit margins.
Either way, this shows that a budget phone doesn't have to feel like a compromise. It just has to be clear about what it's not trying to be. I'm curious to see if the trade-offs hold up in daily use, because on paper, the prioritization looks right.