CMF (Colour, Material, Finish) is Nothing’s new range of affordable tech products. The London-based tech outfit released three products under this sub-brand last month – Buds Pro, Watch Pro, and a 65W GaN power adapter. We reviewed the CMF Watch Pro earlier and found it an excellent entry-level smartwatch that nails all the essential health & fitness functions while finessing the minimal aesthetic. Now, we turn our attention to the Buds Pro. We were curious to see what Nothing’s budget TWS had to offer, given the success its flagship ‘Ear’ series (our review here) has garnered in the last couple of years. We spent a week with these earbuds, using them for calling, listening to music, content watching, and even a bit of gaming. Here is our CMF Buds Pro review.
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In This Article
CMF Buds Pro review: Design
Like the Watch Pro, the CMF Buds Pro also ship inside a very sleek cardboard retail box that flips open like a book to reveal the charging case (with the earbuds inside), a USB Type-C cable, two pairs of extra ear tips, a user guide, and a safety information booklet. The retail package has two cutouts, one for the charging case and the other for all the accessories. The Buds Pro are available in three colour options – Orage, Dark Grey, and Light Grey.
Nothing has gone for simplicity over extravagance in design for the CMF Buds Pro. The charging case is completely round (yes, it can easily roll on a flat surface) and has a matte finish. The case is made completely out of plastic, much like the earbuds inside it. The hinge supporting the lid has a glossy finish to it. The lid can be flipped open with just one finger. It snaps shut with a very satisfying sound, making it hard not to fidget with. A small LED light bar sits right under the light. The USB charging port finds its way to the back, below the glossy hinge. The perfectly round design is certainly a breath of fresh air from all the pill-shaped charging cases out there, but it does make the TWS more prone to slip out of your hands. Nevertheless, we still like this design choice.
Flipping the lid open, you will find the two earbuds magnetically locked into their respective cutouts. The dedicated pairing button is very well integrated into the bottom panel, almost too well because it’s hard to spot if you don’t know exactly where it is. The inside of the case gets a matte finish as well.
The earbuds feature the traditional in-ear design. Either piece has a stem attached to it. The glossy inner panel offers a nice contrast to the matte finish on the stem. There are two events at the top of either stem to reduce the wind interference during calls. The voice clarity is further aided by three microphones on either earbud. What CMF gets absolutely right is the lightweight design. The Buds Pro are some of the lightest earbuds we have ever used. We barely felt them in our ears and there was no sign of fatigue after extended hours of use.
The stem of the earbuds is touch-sensitive and lets you control the playback and other functions with a simple tap. Since the stems on the earbuds are pretty slim, it is easy to trigger some controls accidentally while adjusting the buds. Other than that, the touch function is tuned very well. The earbuds are rated IP54 for dust and water resistance. This makes them immune to damage from sweat and light rainfall. We used our CMF Buds Pro review unit while working out and they did not present any issues whatsoever. Even though the inner panel of the earbuds is quite glossy, they did not slip out once.
CMF Buds Pro review: Performance
Delivering the audio output on the CMF Buds Pro is a dynamic bass boost driver on either earbud. The diaphragm is made out of Liquid Crystal Polymer (LCP) and Polyurethane (PU). There are two audio codecs on offer – SBC and AAC. In terms of connectivity, the Buds Pro support Bluetooth 5.3. Connecting the earbuds to your smartphone for the first time requires pressing the pairing button in the charging case for two seconds. Once you’ve set them up on your device, you can enable Google Fast Pair for seamless pairing on other devices.
The audio output offered by CMF Buds Pro is unmistakably Nothing. The signature that we’ve experienced on Ear (1), Ear (Stick), and Ear (2) has been carried forward to the company’s budget offering as well. This means the mix features a very prominent low end while nicely incorporating the midrange and higher frequencies as well. A boosted bass output always takes a little toll on the mids, and the CMF Buds Pro are certainly no exception. While the midrange frequencies were not totally shrouded by the low end, we would have liked them to be more fleshed out.
We played a diverse set of genres on the CMF Buds Pro including post-rock, hyper pop, prog rock, and neo-psychedelia. Overall, our experience was quite enjoyable and we did not have any issues with the detail that the earbuds managed to produce. Given the Buds Pro cost just Rs 3,000, the audio quality was much better than we expected. Even after cranking up the volume to the maximum limit, the distortion to the output was minimal.
For a diverse list of listening options and equaliser modes, you will need to download the Nothing X app. This is the same app that Nothing uses for its flagship audio products, but there are some noticeable differences when you pair the budget CMF Buds. The most significant difference is the equaliser function. Earlier this year, Nothing added an 8-band customisable equaliser on its TWS app. But the CMF earbuds are stuck with the outdated 3-band equaliser. After having enjoyed the new customisable equaliser on the Ear (2), going back to the previous one felt like a big drop-off.
The Nothing X app offers a low lag mode for gaming, but it is far from perfect. The latency did not drop down enough to match the visuals on the screen. The delay was very noticeable. If you’re for a dedicated gaming TWS, there may be better options for you. On the bright side, we did not notice the audio delay as much while watching content on YouTube and other OTT apps.
One of our favourite features on the CMF Buds Pro is in-ear detection. As soon as you an earbud from your ear, the media immediately pauses on your device. We liked that the implementation of this feature was very smooth and seamless. The media automatically started playing as soon as we popped the earbud back in.
The CMF Buds Pro also offer Active Noise Cancellation, which is good to see on a budget TWS. These earbuds can nullify up to 45 dB of surrounding noise. For a TWS priced at Rs 3,000, the quality of ANC on offer here is very decent. While it certainly doesn’t catch up to the flagship Ear (2), we found ourselves using it a lot while commuting on public transportation.
The calling experience offered by the Buds Pro is pretty standard for a TWS product in this price range. In indoor conditions with minimal surrounding noise, the earbuds do a good job of relaying the voice signal to the receiver. The loss in quality is negligible and the three microphones on either earbud do a good job of picking up even the faint whispers. However, the call quality takes a sharp hit in outdoor conditions with a fair bit of surrounding noise. We found ourselves switching back to the smartphone while taking a call outdoors.
Ending on a high note, the CMF Buds Pro have a tremendous battery life, even better than the Nothing Ear (2). On a full charge, we were able to get more than 10 hours of battery life from the earbuds. While using ANC in frequent intervals, we still got up to 8 hours from the Buds Pro. One of the advantages of having a large charging case is that holds a bigger battery unit. The 460mAh battery pack on the charging case can fully power the earbuds four times on a single charge.
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Verdict
So far, CMF has impressed us with its budget smartwatch and TWS offerings. Like the Watch Pro, the CMF Buds Pro get the essentials just right. The audio output is certainly bass-heavy, but the low end doesn’t shroud over other frequencies, as is the case with most budget wireless earbuds. The quality of ANC is also pretty good and features like in-ear detection add the cherry on the cake.
CMF Buds Pro: Pros
- Incredibly lightweight
- Minimal design
- Good audio output
CMF Buds Pro: Cons
- Charging case is prone to scratches
- Nothing X app has a dated equaliser
