CMF Buds Pro overview

The Nothing X app has a handful of alternatives for the CMF Buds Pro. You can alter the EQ, which I will get to later. You also can exchange the controls. Here, you can customize the contact gestures for double, triple, tap and keep, and double tap and hold. There is not any single faucet, which ought to save you accidental faucets if your hand brushes in opposition to the earbuds.

You also can modify the ANC modes within the app. You have noise cancellation with three degrees of guide manage but no automobile adjustment as on the Nothing Ear (2). You also can engage the transparency mode or turn off ANC, both of which are indicated by using unobtrusive beeps. For a few reason, permitting ANC plays a exceptional, deep bass tone. Nothing has had problems inside the past getting the quantity of these proper and I nevertheless experience the bass tone whilst enabling ANC is just too loud, especially while not anything is gambling inside the background.

Aside from that, the app helps you to disable the in-ear detection, which handiest impacts playback, and the ANC will nevertheless mechanically permit or disable regardless of what this option is set to. You also can enable a low-lag mode, although it might had been excellent if this prompted robotically because it does on OnePlus phones when a sport is launched.

Finally, you could use the Find My Earbuds feature in addition to the firmware replace option in the app.

Getting again to the EQ settings, I actually have a bone to pick with Nothing. You are confined to the 3-band EQ of the older Nothing earbuds and no longer the new superior parametric EQ to be had for the Ear (2). Equalizer is a completely software-based totally function and gatekeeping it for certain models isn't cool.

Nothing X app

This wouldn't even be an problem if Nothing had a very good 3-band EQ but it doesn't. It's impossible to get a half of-respectable tuning with it because it just sounds lousy by using default and making any drastic changes also drops the overall volume. The presets are similarly lousy and at this factor only a meme. This entire phase of the app feels like it has obtained 0 care or interest from the sound engineering branch, as a minimum inside the version of the app we had available at the time of trying out (2.Three.6).

Aside from intentionally horrific features, the software enjoy on the CMF Buds Pro was pretty proper basic. EQ apart, the app is nicely-designed and a satisfaction to apply. And the software program become solid with nearly nothing to whinge about. The only different time this befell with a Nothing audio product become with the Ear (stick), that is funny given that that changed into also a highly low-price product as compared to the Ear (1) and (2), each of which had issues galore at release.

Performance

Audio satisfactory

The CMF Buds Pro have a single dynamic liquid crystal polymer polyurethane motive force. The earbuds aid SBC and AAC codecs over Bluetooth 5.Three. The earbuds additionally modify bass frequencies in real-time primarily based on the content.

Starting with the frequency reaction, the CMF Buds Pro have a straightforward v-formed tuning. The treble is the same old Nothing highly spiced affair and this time across the bass has also been bumped up more than one notches, leaving the mid-variety in a valley so deep simplest Maverick in an F-18 can fly out of it.

The bass reaction on the CMF Buds Pro is instead aggressive. This is on pinnacle of the Nothing Ear (2) tuning, which had a greater balanced however nevertheless very thumpy low-stop. The bass is a piece higher managed than what we generally see in this fee variety however there is no getting over simply how a great deal there's. On bassy genres such as digital music, the bass effect can without difficulty get overwhelming and fatiguing however on less bass-heavy tracks it failed to almost trouble me as a good deal.

The low mid-variety is compromised, just like at the Ear (2), where there is a totally audible dip in the frequency response. This reasons some units and deeper male vocals to be pushed returned into the combination. It will also have an effect on the discernability of vocals in content which includes movies and podcasts.

The higher mid-variety and treble can be pretty hot at times, as has now grow to be a tradition for Nothing's tuning. However, this does prove to be a boon as opposed to a curse inside the case of the CMF Buds Pro. Having that a good deal bass desires a right away counter on the alternative quit to prevent the sound from turning into lopsided and overly muddy, and the high treble energy does just that.

The fleshed-out upper mid-range way lady vocals and a variety of male vocals sound distinct and energetic inside the blend. The higher treble power can motive some sibilance at times however also helps imaging and spatial traits.

The general sound is active and vibrant, with a first rate feel of space and positioning. Timbre is not in particular herbal because of the choppy mid-range and matters have a tendency to sound slightly tinny or shouty. Detail and resolution are also missing at instances due to the submerged mid-variety, which obfuscates a variety of finer statistics inside the blend.

Compared to the immediately opposition, the OnePlus Nord Buds 2, the CMF Buds Pro sound greater balanced in spite of being just as bass-heavy. The Nord Buds 2 have a better lower mid-variety presence with mellower vocals but the stupid highs make the sound average dark and muddy in comparison. However, OnePlus really gives a completely succesful EQ in its app, something Nothing in reality does not for the CMF Buds Pro, so you can really make the Nord Buds 2 sound higher than the CMF Buds Pro with a chunk of guide tuning.

The CMF Buds Pro sound, much like that of the Nothing Ear (2), is laid low with the ANC. The aforementioned observations were with ANC enabled, that is the default. Disable the ANC, however, and abruptly the missing lower mids move slowly out of the woodwork. The sound is also perceptibly less bass and treble heavy leading to an overall more balanced tonality. In a feel, disabling the ANC almost acts as an EQ preset that would be worth exploring in case you don't need to apply the feature.

Overall, the CMF Buds Pro are fairly respectable-sounding earbuds for the fee. However, I would have appreciated to peer a more useful EQ being offered inside the app to let customers get the most out of the hardware without having to investigate 1/3-party options.

Microphone

The CMF Buds Pro have mediocre microphone performance. Voices sound slightly muffled pleasant to them even when recorded in a quiet room without a heritage noise. It's now not terrible enough to be distracting throughout a name however you're absolutely not getting any compliments on your microphone.

This is one vicinity where the OnePlus Nord Buds 2 actually smoke the CMF Buds Pro. The Nord Buds in reality have extra natural, better-sounding voices, making them a miles superior choice for folks who make a number of voice calls and care about the microphone exceptional.

In truth, the Nord Buds 2 mic sounds better than even the 3x more costly Ear (2) mic, which shows that it is high time Nothing starts prioritizing microphone overall performance in place of simply aiming for a passing grade.

Noise cancellation

The CMF Buds Pro feature energetic noise cancellation, which fits in tandem with the six onboard microphones. As stated earlier than, you can pick from 3 levels of energetic noise cancellation, switch it off entirely, or allow transparency mode.

At the best putting, the ANC overall performance on the CMF Buds Pro is very good. The earbuds are noticeably effective at low-frequency sounds however also have very decent coverage of the mid frequencies, something we do not usually see in the less expensive earbuds. It nonetheless lets in higher frequency sounds to a degree however that is somewhat unavoidable.

Compared to the OnePlus Nord Buds 2, the ANC on the CMF Buds Pro is in a unique league altogether. The Nord Buds allow in lots more mid-range sounds and also do not have as exact of low-frequency coverage as CMF. Compared to the greater luxurious Nothing Ear (2), the CMF Buds Pro have barely worse mid-frequency insurance but the are fairly near otherwise.

Lowering the ANC level has a drastic impact on the pleasant of the impact, with even the medium mode being way worse and not that much better than the low mode. I might not propose using those lower modes and just depart it at high.

The transparency mode turned into disappointing. It does not increase ambient sounds almost enough and finally ends up sounding pretty a piece muffled. You become simply putting off the earbuds if you need to hear better, which defeats its purpose.

Latency

The CMF Buds Pro have bad latency performance. Like microphone excellent, this is another place where Nothing struggles constantly and the CMF Buds Pro are no higher. On average, the audio latency is anywhere among 2 hundred-300ms, which is a lot. Even movies, which when played on smartphones do generally tend to automobile sync to account for Bluetooth latency, can not sync a long way sufficient for these earbuds and have a tendency to have a seen delay in speech. Gaming is genuinely out of the question.

The earbuds have a low lag mode in the Nothing X app, which aside from having to be manually toggled even on Nothing telephones, just doesn't appear to do a whole lot, if in any respect. The latency clocked in at more or less the equal price irrespective of whether or not you turn this on or off. It additionally turns off on every occasion you positioned the earbuds back inside the case.

Battery Life

The CMF Buds Pro have a 55mAh battery in every earbud, which is a alternatively massive 67% boom over the Ear (2)'s anemic 33mAh batteries. The claimed battery existence for the CMF Buds Pro is 11 hours with ANC disabled and six.Five hours with ANC enabled.

In my trying out, the CMF Buds Pro performed for 11 hours and 41 mins with ANC disabled and 6 hours and 26 minutes with ANC disabled. These are superb numbers and a much cry from what the Ear (2) controlled. It's additionally manner better than what the Nord Buds 2 could do.

Conclusion

The CMF Buds Pro are priced at INR 3499 ($42) in India. For the rate, you get a lightweight, comfortable design, an attractive, easy-to-use app, decent audio quality, extraordinary active noise cancellation, and a superb battery lifestyles.

As for the downsides, there is no decent audio customizability to be had, the microphone first-class is meh, and the latency is instead high.

These specific problems have constantly been present for all Nothing audio products at launch so it truly is not anything new. But in terms of the sheer wide variety of court cases, that is the shortest listing out of they all to this point, which makes the CMF Buds Pro the maximum properly-obtained out of all its siblings. Add to that the bottom price but and in a way this might just be the best audio product Nothing has ever made.