The RAM crisis just killed Nothing’s next budget phone — CMF Phone 3 Pro scrapped as co-founder says ‘we can't build a phone that feels like a genuine step forward’

CMF Phone 2 Pro in light green showing back with exposed screws and cameras
The CMF Phone 2 Pro (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

  • A Nothing exec has announced that there won't be a new CMF phone this year
  • They say the ongoing RAM crisis is to blame
  • There will, however, be other CMF products and other Nothing phones

The CMF Phone 2 Pro from Nothing combined distinctive looks with a bargain price when it launched last year, but if you’ve been hoping for a CMF Phone 3 Pro this year, you’re out of luck, as the company has just confirmed that no new models are coming.

Posting on X, Nothing’s co-founder Akis Evangelidis claimed that while the company was previously working on a successor, “with memory prices where they are right now, we can't build a phone that feels like a genuine step forward at a price that makes sense for CMF.”

As a result, there won’t be a new CMF phone this year — though he added that other new CMF products are still planned, including “entirely new categories,” and also that there will be new phones from Nothing, just without CMF branding, meaning they’ll presumably be pricier models.

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An unsurprising development

This news isn’t entirely surprising, and indeed not long ago, Counterpoint predicted that low-end phones could face a “permanent removal” in some markets.

This is all thanks to rising RAM costs, with AI data centers demanding huge quantities of the stuff, therefore leading to shortages and skyrocketing prices. This, in turn, makes it increasingly hard for companies to make cheap phones.

For now, Nothing has only announced that we won’t see a new CMF phone this year, but the company will likely be facing the same issues next year too, so don’t be surprised if it’s a long time before we see another CMF handset.

So, if you’re hoping to upgrade your phone any time soon, you might have to be prepared to spend a bit more — and to look at more premium ranges like the standard Nothing line.


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James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.

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