CMF Buds Pro Review: Loud, Clear, and Orange

If you’re wondering what CMF stands for, it is an abbreviation of Color, Material, Finish – a term famously known in the design field that influences whether a product feels cheap or luxurious; durable or fragile. While these new products from Nothing’s stables might not look very different from what’s already out there in the market, they are easy on the pocket. Out of the trio of launches by CMF, we take a closer look at the CMF Buds Pro in detail based on our usage over the last month.

CMF Buds Pro Review: Design and controls

• CMF Buds Pro has a plastic finish.
• The earbuds come with three sizes of eartips, namely small, medium and large.

We received the Orange variant of the CMF Buds Pro. It is so flashy that it can be spotted from a distance easily. We believe it can be the perfect fit for somebody trying to colour-match their Naruto tracksuit on Halloween. The circular case has a boxy design exactly like a hockey puck and can easily fit in pockets. The case has a matte finish over it, with CMF logo embossed on the top.

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While its lid is supposed to open and close vertically, it has the tendency to twist around a little horizontally. Nothing alarming here, but it may put off a few people who prefer a nice, solid case. On the inside, you get earbuds and a button to help you with pairing and a small LED to indicate actions. The earbuds have a pretty solid build and minimal design, with a two-tone finish – half matte, half glossy.

The fit of the buds was snug in my ears (it may be entirely different for you given the shape and size of your ear canal), and they do not cause any discomfort when worn for a few hours at a stretch.

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The controls are all touch, and during my testing, responded quickly to inputs. You can also tweak the touch controls to your liking using the Nothing X app.

CMF Buds Pro Review: Audio performance

• The CMF Buds Pro require the Nothing X application to unleash its true potential.
• These budget earbuds support active noise cancellation.

Inside each earbud, you get a custom-developed dynamic boost bass driver that is tuned in a way that music genres such as pop, rock, metal sound great. Bass seems to be on the punchier side and high-frequencies are also shiny, just like we Indians prefer.

Still, the vocal-heavy tracks such as “Someone Like You” by Adele were enjoyable. It felt at home playing the bone-shattering bassline of AC/DC’s “Thunderbird”. Despite being buds aimed at bassheads, podcasts sounded surprisingly clear.

While we just talked about the stock, out-of-the-box sound output, you can also customise frequencies to your liking using the equaliser settings in the app. There’s even a ‘More Bass’ to make Linkin Park songs really pierce your heart, but do not make the mistake of listening to soft music with this preset as it will all sound muddy.

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You get three ANC modes – Off, Transparency and Noise Cancellation. There are three intensities of Noise Cancellation, offering you granular controls. We found the High setting to be very effective even in noisy environments.

Finally, the mic quality was also decent, something that many buds do not really get right. My voice’s volume on the buds equaled that of my phone’s mic, while suppressing background noise very well.

In transparency mode, I perceived ambient sounds to be a bit robotic, which was strange because the on-board mics work just fine for calling and even ANC.

CMF Buds Pro Review: Battery

• CMF claims these earbuds have about 39 hours total playback.
• These earbuds also support fast charging.

CMF claims that earbuds alone can go 11 hours without playback with ANC off, and six and a half hours of playback with ANC on. While these may look super impressive, they do not translate well in the real life. In our testing, we got over five hours of battery with ANC enabled, and nine hours without ANC.

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While the CMF Buds Pro do not support wireless charging, you do get about four hours of listening time in just 10-15 min of charge.

CMF Buds Pro Review: Verdict

For an asking price of Rs 3,499, the CMF Buds Pro offer solid audio quality with punchy bass and clear sound. It has got some serious ANC chops, but mediocre Transparency Mode. With crisp sound quality, good mic, and five hours worth of backup with ANC, the CMF Buds Pro offers great value for money. These can definitely be recommended to someone who is looking to buy quality and flashy TWS on a budget.

However, the CMF Buds Pro are not the only option out there. The Realme Buds Air 5 emerge as a strong contender which offer good ANC, at a cheaper price of Rs 2,999. Last year’s OPPO Enco Air2 Pro buds (Review) also deliver great sound at Rs 3,499.