TL; DR
- Nothing co-founder Akis Evangelidis has confirmed that there won’t be a new CMF smartphone in 2026, despite work having started on a successor to the CMF Phone 2 Pro.
- Rising memory prices made it difficult to deliver a meaningful upgrade while keeping the phone within CMF’s affordable price bracket.
- Nothing says more products and even new categories are still on the way this year, while the main Nothing smartphone lineup isn’t done yet.
If you were waiting for a CMF Phone 3 Pro, it looks like you’ll have to wait a little longer. Nothing co-founder Akis Evangelidis has confirmed that CMF won’t be launching a new smartphone this year. According to him, the team had been exploring a successor to the CMF Phone 2 Pro (review), but eventually decided against bringing it to market.
The reason comes down to memory prices. RAM and storage costs have surged over the past year and have quietly become some of the most expensive components inside a smartphone. For a brand like CMF, which operates in the budget segment, those increases leave very little room to improve the experience without pushing prices higher.
Akis said the company would rather skip a release than launch something it isn’t fully satisfied with. It’s a surprisingly candid admission, and it also highlights how component inflation is reshaping smartphone roadmaps across the industry. Several brands have slowed down launches, adjusted product strategies, or reconsidered projects entirely as costs continue to climb.
This doesn’t mean CMF is going quiet. Nothing says new CMF products and even entirely new categories are still planned for later this year. The company’s smartphone plans also aren’t over yet. Akis has hinted that more smartphone launches from the main Nothing brand are still on the horizon.
CMF Phone 3 Pro Might Be Launching Under the Nothing Brand Name
Tipster Yogesh Brar suggests that the scrapped CMF Phone 3 Pro project may not be completely dead. According to him, the same device could eventually resurface under the main Nothing brand, much like how Nothing introduced a Lite model last year.
With the Phone (4a) series already seeing price increases, there’s a possibility that a potential “Nothing Phone (4a) Lite” could occupy the ₹25,000 and above segment instead. That would allow Nothing to make use of the development work that had already gone into the CMF project while giving it more pricing flexibility than CMF’s stricter value-focused positioning.
ALSO READ: Nothing Phone (3a) Lite Review: Eye-Catching Looks and Reliable Performance With a Few Compromises
Of course, Nothing hasn’t confirmed any of this. Yogesh Brar also claims that the device isn’t too far away. According to him, the reworked project is currently slated to launch as early as next month under the Nothing brand.
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