CMF Buds Pro 2 Review: The Best Earbuds Under $100?

CMF is Nothing’s budget brand, and the CMF Buds Pro 2 have been gaining a lot of popularity recently. They retail for $69, and also frequent sales. For this price, you won’t be expecting much, but these earbuds have ANC, voice assistants, LDAC audio, spatial audio, and so much more. This raises the question, should you pay a big amount for earbuds like the AirPods 4? When you can get these features for such a low price. In this article, we will review the CMF Buds Pro 2 and find out if they are the best budget earbuds under $100. 

Buy on Amazon

CMF Buds Pro 2: Build Quality And Design

The CMF Buds Pro 2 come in four colors, Dark Grey, Blue, Orange, and Light Grey. The buds have a stem design and they have a hard plastic body. The ear tips have a glossy finish and the stem has a matte finish. There is a vent for the drivers on each bud, and there are three microphones in each bud. In the box, you get a USB-A to USB-C cable, an instruction manual, and some silicon ear tips. 

The case has a square body, with an indicator light on it for pairing and charging. There is also a silver dial in the corner of the case, this spins infinitely in each direction and can be pressed.  The dial can be used to control the volume and some other features which we’ll get to later. 

There are two drivers in each bud, an 11mm driver and a 6mm tweeter. The earbuds look identical, and there is no indicator on them for left and right. It was quite confusing to get them back in the case with no indicators, as if the charging pins are not aligned then the case won’t close. The earbuds fit perfectly in my ears, and they did not get loose or fall during movement. The CMF Buds Pro 2 has a dust and water resistance rating of IP55, which means they are good for workouts. 

How To Connect The CMF Buds Pro 2 With The Nothing X App?

You can set up the CMF Buds Pro 2 on the Nothing X app. To connect them, open the app on your phone, and open the case with the buds in it. There is a small button inside the case, hold it for two seconds to enter pairing mode, and then the app will detect your buds and you can connect them. 

What Can You Do In The Nothing X App?

Once you have connected the CMF Buds to the Nothing X app, you can enable some features. You can set up the smart dial, which is the silver dial on the case. It can adjust the volume, control noise cancellation, activate the voice assistant, mute your microphone, and switch to low-lag mode. The dial has different actions for rotation, single press, double press, and triple press. By default, the presses will do nothing, and you will have to assign actions to them in the app. 

In the app, you can also assign different actions to each bud, they can be pressed up to three times, and there are different actions for holding and pressing. This means that the CMF Buds Pro 2 are highly customizable, and you can assign 12 different actions in total. 

You can adjust the EQ, switch between codecs, and change the voice assistant to ChatGPT, which is a cool feature. 

CMF Buds Pro 2: Features

For budget earbuds, the CMF Buds Pro 2 sure do have a lot of features. You get spatial audio, which replicates the sound of being surrounded by several stereo speakers. You get three audio codecs, AAC, SBC, and LDAC. AAC is the standard Bluetooth codec that we see in many headphones and earbuds, but LDAC allows you to play hi-res audio with supporting LDAC Android devices. 

You can use Diraq Opteo with the CMF Buds Pro 2. This is a technology that enhances sound quality in earbuds and other audio devices. It uses algorithms to optimize sound and reduce unwanted resonances. The earbuds also have in-ear detection, transparent mode, Bluetooth 5.3, Microsoft Swift Pair, Google Fast Pair, ChatGPT’s voice assistant integration, and a Gaming Mode. 

CMF Buds Pro 2: Sound Quality and Active Noise Cancellation

The CMF Buds Pro 2 are very bass-heavy. You can adjust the EQ from the Nothing X app, but I liked the default curve. The sound is clear and feels natural, and there is more focus on bass than treble. However, you can adjust the bass in the EQ, and the 6mm tweeter does add some strength to the upper-frequency ranges. 

The Active Noise Cancellation was disappointing. The buds didn’t do a good job of blocking white noise, and if you want earbuds with good ANC, then the CMF Buds Pro 2 are not for you. 

How Long Does The CMF Buds Pro 2 Battery Last?

The CMF Buds Pro 2 have a battery capacity of 60 mAh, and the case has 460 mAh. If you’re using the AAC codec, you will get 11 hours of battery life with ANC off, and 6.5 hours with ANC or Transparency Mode on. If you’re using LDAC, you will get 6.5 hours with ANC off and 4.3 hours with ANC on. A 10-minute charge will give you 3 hours of playtime with ANC off and 1.8 hours with ANC on. 

Verdict

The CMF Buds Pro 2 are a good pair of budget earbuds. The sound quality is decent, but the Active Noise Cancellation is average. There are some quirks with the design, like the smart dial which can be accidentally pressed when in your pocket. There is a delay between turning the dial and seeing the actual effects happen. If you turn off in-ear detection, the buds will keep playing music even when you put them back in the case, this is something CMF needs to fix. LDAC is nice, and the integration with ChatGPT is something new. Overall, the CMF Buds Pro 2 give you good value for money, and you won’t find better earbuds under $100. 

Buy on Amazon