CMF Buds Review: Not Pro, only in name

Its phones might get more attention, but Carl Pei’s venture, Nothing, has actually released more audio products than phones. The latest in the Nothing audio army comes from its more budget-friendly brand, CMF (which stands for Color, Materials, Finish in industrial design), the CMF Buds. These are the second TWS with CMF branding, the first being the CMF Buds Pro, which were launched last year. They lack the Pro tag, but in many ways, these are actually as good as and, in some ways, even better than their Pro counterparts and could well be the benchmark for affordable TWS with ANC.

CMF Buds Design and Appearance: So delightfully orange (and with a spinny disc, too)

Nothing has been turning heads with its designs, and the CMF Buds continue this trend. Their design is actually very similar to the Nothing Ears (2); instead of being transparent, they are very solid orange. You get them in dark grey and light grey, but take our word for it: if you want a pair of TWS that turns heads, just go for the bright orange ones.

The buds are very similar to the Ear (2) and even the CMF Buds Pro, with prominent stems and bulbous heads that incline downwards with changeable tips. They are laid horizontally inside the square-ish case, which has an aluminum alloy disc in the corner, which allows you to attach a lanyard to it. It is a typically whimsical design touch, and while we did get a lanyard separately, we actually had more fun just spinning the disc randomly – it gave us such fidget spinner vibes.

The buds are about 5 grams each in weight and very comfortable to wear. They will drop out sometimes, as all TWS do, but they generally stay in place. Together with the case, they weigh about 53 grams, and the case is super easy to carry around. The buds have IP54 splash resistance, so they are good enough for gyms and runs. We liked the orange shade of the CMF Buds Pro, and we love the same shade of the Pro-less bros, which actually look slightly more Pro because of their square case.

CMF Buds Interface: Simple enough to use

Pairing the buds is simple enough. You long-press the button next to the Type-C port – spotting the button can be a little difficult as it too is orange – and then simply choose the buds from the list of connected devices on your phone. While this is enough to play the buds on most devices, you can get more by downloading the Nothing X app on your device and using the buds through it – it is available for both iOS and Android.

The controls themselves are simple – a double tap will take you to the next track and also answer a call and end an ongoing call, a triple tap takes you to the previous track and declines an incoming call, and a tap and hold gets you in an out of ANC mode. There is also a double tap and hold command, which has been left blank but can be allotted to volume controls or a voice assistant.

A huge plus is the ability to connect to two devices at the same time, a feature that was missing in the CMF Buds Pro. You also get ear detection, which pauses the audio when you take one of the buds out, although it was a little erratic in terms of performance (the audio paused sometimes, and sometimes it did not).

CMF Buds Performance: Decent bass-forward audio and very reasonable ANC

The CMF Buds have a more bass-forward sound than the CMF Buds Pro, which had focused more on clarity. In fact, in terms of sound, we would call these perhaps the most ‘mainstream sounding’ buds from the Nothing stable, making them super for action films and gaming, although the bass is not as overwhelmingly prominent as in some budget TWS.

Interestingly, the audio is slightly more balanced if you use the Dirac Opted setting in the equalizer, but on others (except for ‘enhance vocals’), you do get a fair amount of bass. There is also an Ultra Bass setting with three different levels of bass for the basshead crowd – these make the buds really rumble-y but also tend to drown out vocals. Speaking for ourselves, we liked to stick to the first level of Ultra Bass when we wanted slightly more prominent bass in our audio.

ANC and transparency levels are handy rather than exceptional, but we did not expect top-of-the-line ANC at this price point. The ANC on the CMF Buds at times seemed slightly better than the one on the CMF Buds Pro and was good enough to drown out some of the noise in a crowded cafe and also was good enough to be used while traveling through traffic. Do not expect it to transport you to the sort of silent world that high-end TWS do, though. Transparency mode lets external sounds come in and is handy for those times when you are walking through traffic.

An area where the CMF Buds did surprisingly well was calls. Once again, we actually felt that the buds did better than their Pro counterparts in this regard. People we spoke to could not find out that we were using TWS to speak to them. The touch controls are slightly iffy if the buds sometimes do not quite register our touches, but things improve once you get the knack for where to tap. One issue with the buds was that they sometimes stayed connected even when placed inside the case, which meant that we sometimes picked up a call and could hear nothing, as it was being routed to the buds even though we had put them back inside.

Battery life is rather good for the price point – we got close to six hours with ANC and about an additional hour and a half without it. If you use ANC regularly, you get about 20-24 hours from the buds, and the case should see you through most of the week. There is no wireless charging, but then that is not expected at this price point.

CMF Buds Review Verdict: Worth purchasing?

The CMF Buds are priced at Rs 2,499, and at that price, given their performance, they are staggeringly good value for money. The audio quality is very good for the price, and so is the ANC. Yes, there are a few niggles, most notably the very hit-and-miss ear detection, but we are reasonably sure the Nothing software department will sort that out with an update in the coming days. More significantly, there is no TWS with ANC that can really challenge the CMF Buds – the likes of the OnePlus Nord Buds 2, the Redmi Buds 5, and CMF’s own Buds Pro are all priced slightly higher at Rs 2,999. All of which makes these a no-brainer for anyone looking at buds with decent audio and ANC on a tight budget.

Buy CMF Buds