As you may already know, CMF is the new budget-friendly company connected to Nothing and the idea here is to provide affordable tech but without the quality compromise.
The CMF Buds Pro are the ones that I rock for the past few weeks and at first glance I was very happy with the minimalistic and eco-friendly packaging.
In the box you will find the case with buds, a USB cable, a user’s manual, and some different size ear tips – That’s pretty much it.
The Buds Pro’s case is made entirely of plastic, but it differs from other more budget-friendly brands as the one that we see here is made of high-quality materials and feels nice in the hand.
The weight is not big, nor is the size of the case and it’s easy to carry in the pocket, so that’s a big plus for me.
The earbuds are also made from plastic but with two different textures. The part that goes into your ear is glossy and easy to clean, as the stem features the same matte finish as the case. The stem is also the control part of the earbuds as here you rely on a touch-sensitive surface. Last but not least – you have an IP54 rating for the earbuds only (not the case), so you can work out with them.
In case you wish to use the touch controls, you can double-tap to skip to the next track or to answer/hang up calls, triple-tap for skipping backward, tap and hold for noise control, and double-tap and hold for volume up/down, depending on your preference. All of these controls can be adjusted in the Nothing X app, which for me is very easy to use and everything is intuitive.
The comfort is something very subjective when it comes to earbuds. I have been using in-ear buds for quite a long time and I personally prefer them over the more “open” type. The thing is that the Buds Pro are made to be extremely comfortable, and I usually forget that I wear them – just enjoying the music or the ANC if I am using public transport.
It will differ from person to person but overall if you’re used to wearing in-the-ear buds you’ll probably love these for the low weight, smooth plastic casing and the short stem that doesn’t interfere at all.
Sound Quality
The sound is the king… or should I say the BASS. It’s like you’re in a club, a loud club.
Man, are these earbuds bass-heavy. Even for my EDM liking, I find them to be too bassy for my taste and I had to lower it a bit on the Nothing X app. The high frequencies are very nice and crispy and the mids need a bit of ramping up (again in the app).
It’s hard for me to not like them for EDM, House, and Techno music as the dynamics are good, the dB also, and Faithless, Pendulum, and Avicii sound great. If you are going for more vocal-oriented music, you’ll need to put some mids in the EQ to enjoy them, otherwise, you’ll be facing the so-called V-shaped sounding which, to be honest, most people prefer 😊
One downside that I find here is that they do not support any aptX codecs, but only AAC and SBC.
The drivers are doing a good job of providing a punch to the music.
Let’s talk about… Talking…
One of the biggest Nemesis of all kinds of earbuds are the microphones and phone talks in a loud environment. The people from Nothing did a great job with implementing a noise-canceling algorithm so the other side of the phone call can hear you very clearly even in a louder environment or a windy day. This is one of the things that I spend most of the time testing earbuds, as I find it very important, at least for me and my usage. The CMF Buds Pro features 6 microphones in total, to guarantee a good call experience, even if you’re in the park around many people or near a busy road, so I can give a thumbs up for this – 10/10 for the price!
When did I charge them?!
The battery life here is wild, keeping in mind the price range again. The earbuds can hold up to 5 hours with ANC turned ON and a total of 18,5 hours with the case charge, or at least that’s what the manufacturer states.
I haven’t used them for 5-6 hours straight, but I am happy to see a fast charge option on these, as with ANC: ON 10 min of charging will give you almost 3 hours of listening.
In my opinion, these are the best budget earbuds when it comes to battery life and charging speeds.
The final verdict!
My experience with the CMF Buds Pro was almost flawless. Again, you have great sounding earbuds with up to 45dB ANC which is a BIG DEAL for this price. The fact that you can easily adjust everything in the Nothing X app is also a good sales point because not all users are ready to spend lots of time tuning everything, and the Google Fast Pair option is coming in handy.
The only downside that I see here is that they do not support any High-Res codecs, but nonetheless, they work absolutely perfectly with iPhone 13 Pro Max, so even Apple users can go for them. Almost forgot to mention – the Microsoft Swift pair, for the people who rely on their earbuds for some work meetings and laptop connectivity.
