CMF Phone 1 vs OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite: The Battle of Midrangers!

CMF Phone 1 vs OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite: Price

CMF Phone 1 starts from Rs 15,999 while the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite has a slightly higher starting price. The price difference is Rs 2,000 if you look at the same RAM and internal storage variants. CMF Phone 1 doesn’t have a 256GB variant, so if you want higher storage, the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite is the one you should go for.

CMF Phone 1 vs OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite: Design & Build

The CMF Phone 1 has a fresh new design, the one unlike anything in the market currently. It has an interchangeable back, which can be removed using screws on the back of the phone. There’s also a dial at the bottom of the phone, which doesn’t do anything, but act as a mounting point for various accessories for the phone.

OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite, on the other hand, looks like a normal phone. But the pill-shaped camera array makes it stand out from the rest of the OnePlus phones. It has an IP55 rating, giving the phone limited resistance to dust and water.

CMF Phone 1 is the phone to go for if you want a phone that doesn’t look like any other phone in the market, and if you love to use phones without any case or back cover, you’re going to love the interchangeable back in this phone.

CMF Phone 1 vs OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite: Display & Speakers

The CMF Phone 1 has a 6.67-inch FHD+ AMOLED display with a refresh rate of 120Hz, which we found great for the price. It is sufficiently bright in the outdoors and proves to be a good device for media consumption. It also has HDR support for videos on YouTube, but not on Netflix. The speakers are quite underwhelming in this phone, as it has only a single bottom-firing speaker.

The OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite also has a similarly sized 6.67-inch FHD+ AMOLED display with a refresh rate of 120Hz. We found the display vibrant and bright, but it could’ve been a bit brighter outdoors. It unfortunately doesn’t support HDR videos on Netflix or YouTube. The speakers are very good, with crisp and clear audio coming out of its stereo speaker setup.

Overall, the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite would be a better media consumption device as both devices have similar displays, but a good set of stereo speakers is only available in the Nord CE 4 Lite.

CMF Phone 1 vs OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite: Performance

The CMF Phone 1 is powered by Mediatek Dimensity 7300 SoC. The naming convention of Mediatek chipsets is all over the place now, so we need to look at the benchmarks of the chipset to get an idea about its performance.

In our testing, it scored 642,898 in AnTuTu benchmarks, which is good for a phone in this price range, and better than what the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite offers. The Snapdragon 695 SoC in OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite, on the other hand, scored 479,921, which is a big gap.

That’s not a surprise, as Snapdragon 695 is an older chipset, which OnePlus previously used in Nord CE 3 Lite and Nord CE 2 Lite.

It’s the same story in the Geekbench benchmark, the CMF Phone 1 scored a single-core score of 1,022 and a multi-core score of 2,825 while the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite scored a single-core score of 891 and a multi-core score of 1,938. But the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite fared better in the CPU throttling test, only throttling to 89% of maximum performance, whereas CMF Phone 1 dipped to 76% of maximum performance under the throttling test.

In gaming, we found the CMF Phone 1 offers better performance; we played BGMI with Smooth graphics quality and Extreme FPS settings, and the phone ran at constant 60FPS frame rates. The OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite faced stutters while playing BGMI at the highest settings.

It’s interesting to note that the CMF Phone 1 performs better than the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite while being cheaper. The CMF Phone 1 impressed us with its buttery smooth UI, which makes it feel faster than it is.

CMF Phone 1 vs OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite: Cameras

The CMF Phone 1 and OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite essentially have a single camera, as both phones go for a 2MP depth sensor for the secondary camera, which is practically useless (it helps in portrait depth sensing, but let’s be real).

The 50MP primary camera (with a Sony lens and an aperture of f/1.8, and no OIS support) captured good shots in daylight. It has an aggressive HDR, which can sometimes mess up skies. Take a look at the camera samples:

CMF Phone 1 Camera Samples

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Low light scenarios aren’t the CMF Phone 1’s forte cameras and it shows in the images, which get a yellow shade under low light conditions. There’s also massive shutter lag when shooting in the dark, owing to the lack of OIS. The selfies are good, but the camera struggles at night.

The OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite performs great in daylight, with colour-accurate images in most scenarios. The dynamic range is well-balanced, even though the camera smoothens out skin tones and sometimes colours are on the brighter side at times. Take a look at the samples:

OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite Camera Samples

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The cameras in the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite also fall off when the light drops. Noise and grain start to creep in when the light is low, activating the night mode improves the situation a bit. The selfies are good but they also offer less-than-optimal performance in the dark.

The CMF Phone 1 and the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite offer good cameras for the price but keep in mind you will see image quality dropping off when the light drops, which is usually the case with most phones in this price bracket.

CMF Phone 1 vs OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite: Software

We mentioned that the CMF Phone 1 impressed us with its smooth and buttery UI performance, which can be attributed to Nothing OS 2.6 based on Android 14 powering the phone. It brings lots of customisation options while staying similar to stock Android. It is a lightweight Android skin, and it comes with minimal bloat.

The OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite comes with OxygenOS 14 based on Android 14. OxygenOS was once known for its bloat-free clean experience, but that has changed now, we found that the phone came pre-installed with apps and games like Candy Crush, Agoda, Myntra, and more.

The CMF Phone 1 with its clean experience takes the cake on the software side.

CMF Phone 1 vs OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite: Battery and Charging

The CMF Phone 1, even with its removable back covers and slim profile comes with a 5,000mAh battery. It supports up to 33W fast charging but the charger is absent in the box, like other Nothing phones. In our testing, we found that the phone takes 1 hour and 15 minutes to charge from 0 to 100%

The OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite, on the other hand, goes all out. It has a bigger 5,500mAh battery with support for 80W fast charging. Thankfully, the 80W charger is still present in the box.

The OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite is much better in this department as it has a bigger battery and faster charging, and you don’t have to purchase an extra charger.

CMF Phone 1 vs OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite: Verdict

OnePlus phones used to stand for performance once upon a time, but these are now facing tough competition from lower-priced phones. The CMF Phone 1 is one such option and feels better than the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite in terms of performance. It also looks unlike any other phone in the market currently. It has got a decent camera and display as well.

The Nord CE 4 Lite isn’t the phone you get for performance; it’s the one you get for a better media consumption experience with its display and stereo speakers. This is topped with good cameras and a great battery and charging.