Do not get me wrong. I have been an iOS user for most of my adult life. I used Samsung during the Note 9 era, and while the hardware was impressive, the software was always rough around the edges. I tried a folding phone once too. It looked great, but the software felt unfinished.
My favorite phone ever was the iPhone 15 Pro Max. When Apple finally moved to USB C, it felt like society had taken a small but important step forward. One cable for my ThinkPad, my phone, and my Sony XM5s made me feel like someone who had their life together. The battery life was great, iOS felt polished, and the camera was good enough that I rarely thought about it.
Then I fell off my bike and snapped the phone in half. Titanium is strong, but Indian roads have their own curriculum for teaching humility. I was not upset about the money. I was upset that I would have to go through the entire setup process again. Even with iCloud, restoring a phone is tedious.
It was August, the next iPhone launch was basically tomorrow in Apple time, and buying a device that would become last year’s news in a few weeks felt pointless. So I went looking for something cheap that could survive a month. While clicking through those phone comparison sites that contain more ads than pixels, I found the Nothing CMF Phone 1. The specs looked great. A 120 Hz display, 8 GB of RAM, and a clean Android experience according to reviewers. The price was low enough that I wondered what the catch was. They also manufacture in India, which was a cool discovery.
I set it up and waited for the big catch. Two years later, nothing. The camera is not great, there is no NFC or wireless charging, and the speakers are weak. But for my actual usage, it handles everything I need. The camera scans documents perfectly. The speakers handle calls. The phone does not slow down if I open Maps while also juggling email, messaging, and a browser tab that I absolutely meant to close three days ago.
People talk about Pro phones like everyone is running Blender renders while deploying Kubernetes clusters. Most smartphone usage has barely evolved. Email, chats, social apps, maps, YouTube, repeat. A mid range phone today handles the same tasks as a flagship from a few years ago.
I use the phone the way most people pretend they do not. It is my doom scrolling machine, my inbox triage device, and my constant reminder that I am still bad at navigation. I open Google Maps even when I am going somewhere I have already been. Twice. The CMF handles all of this without complaint. The battery holds up, the 120 Hz screen is easy to get used to, and the lightweight Android skin stays out of the way instead of interrupting with suggestions I did not ask for.
The only thing I genuinely miss is the iPhone camera. But here is a simple test. Open your gallery. If your recent photos are mostly screenshots, random notes, QR codes you forgot to delete, and the occasional poorly lit picture of a restaurant menu, you probably do not need a camera system that belongs on a documentary crew. Some people take real photos. I mostly take evidence.
So yes, do not buy an iPhone unless you actually need one. In India, the price of a new Pro Max can get you a perfectly good Android phone and still leave enough money for something that is not another glowing rectangle. And if this phone does not survive my next crash, that is fine. At this price I can buy six more before I even get close to peak iPhone territory.