In a refreshingly honest move, Nothing’s sub-brand CMF has decided to skip launching a new phone in 2026. Fans hoping for a successor to the well-liked CMF Phone 2 Pro will have to wait a bit longer.

The main reason? Skyrocketing memory prices. Nothing co-founder Akis Evangelidis confirmed that the team had been working on a follow-up, but rising costs for DRAM and storage made it tough to deliver a meaningful upgrade without pushing the price much higher, something that would go against CMF’s whole budget-friendly identity.

For context, the CMF Phone 2 Pro (launched in 2025) was praised for offering good value: a MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Pro chipset, a 120Hz AMOLED display, decent cameras, and solid battery life, all for around €259 or ₹18,999. But reports show memory prices jumped over 90% in early 2026, largely because of massive demand from AI data centers. That made the numbers just not add up.

Evangelidis put it pretty straightforwardly: “We’d rather be upfront about that than ship something we’re not proud of.” It’s a refreshing bit of transparency in an industry that often rushes out half-baked updates.

This isn’t just a CMF problem either. The main Nothing brand is feeling the same pressure: CEO Carl Pei has talked about memory costs nearly doubling and affecting phones like the Phone (4a). Across the board, brands are slowing down launches or rethinking their entry-level and mid-range plans to keep things affordable.

That said, CMF isn’t going quiet. They’ve already teased new products and even completely fresh categories coming later in 2026. Meanwhile, tipster Yogesh Brar has hinted that the shelved project might resurface as something like a “Nothing Phone (4a) Lite,” possibly launching as soon as next month. That could give them more pricing flexibility in the mid-range (around ₹25,000 and above).

For now, the current CMF Phone 2 Pro might stay a strong recommendation for longer than expected. And we’ll be keeping an eye on what Nothing and CMF drop next.

(Source: Akis Evangelidis on X)

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