I’m anxious about budget audio gear. At $99, the CMF Headphone Pro won me over

Nothing, the UK-based tech upstart, has made some waves with its flashy products since day one. The transparent look of its phones has been the spotlight grabber, and that aesthetic choice has also spilled over to its audio gear, as well. They don’t sound bad, either. 

The brand recently created a distinct label called CMF, which has since spawned budget earbuds, phones, and, most recently, a pair of headphones. In typical Nothing fashion, the CMF Headphone Pro focuses on delivering more for less, served atop an eye-catching design. 

I’ve been pushing these headphones as my primary driver for over a month, and they’ve punched above their weight. If your budget is strictly under $99, these are serious contenders for value-first audio excellence. Read on to find where they shine, and what’s not-so-good about them. 

A quick look at the specs

Bold looks, old-school charm

So far, the CMF label has focused on staying away from the mundane and mediocre when it comes to aesthetics. The Headphone Pro doesn’t stray too far from that philosophy. They come in a minty green color, but if you want something more understated, you can secure them in light grey and dark grey shades, as well. 

And this is where the fun begins. The earcups are removable, with a simple twist movement. Nothing sells the earcups in multiple colors, including the CMF label’s signature orange shade. You can just mix and match them to achieve some funky combinations. Orange-on-black and black-on-white combos look pretty neat. 

Not one for subtlety

The build quality also hits above the pay grade on these headphones. You get a synthetic leather finish on the soft earcups and the headband, which feels quite premium. The matte surface on the earcups also exudes a premium feel, though it’s decidedly plastic and got scuffed, while the metallic stem further defies their budget-centric appeal. 

If an easy-on-the-eyes design is a key pre-requisite for you, the CMF Headphone Pro knocks it out of the park. They also fare pretty well on the comfort metric. The cups offer a decent seal around the ears for noise isolation, though I wish the headband had slightly thicker padding. 

The real standout is a focus on good ‘ol tactile controls, instead of finicky touch-based inputs. Aside from the usual power and assistant buttons, there’s a volume dial that also doubles as a physical button for toggling between noise cancellation and transparency modes. 

Then we have a slider — something the brand markets as an energy slider — on the left earcup. Broadly, it lets you adjust the high and low frequencies to shift between bass and treble-heavy listening experiences. 

There’s also a customizable multi-function button that lets you pull up ChatGPT or record a voice note, but these perks are restricted to Nothing smartphones and not available in the companion Nothing X app. I just wish the round buttons on either earcup were slightly bigger. 

A neat surprise is IPX2 water resistance, something you don’t often get on budget headphones. It’s not the best, but for gym workouts, they should be able to handle sweat exposure without frying the circuits and drivers. On the connectivity front, dual-device pairing worked fine, and so did auto-pair. 

Sound in, noise out

Nothing has built a reputation for making audio gear that punches above its weight class, especially under the CMF label, and the Headphone Pro is no exception.  The CMF Headphone Pro is somewhat of a breath of fresh air. A healthy chunk of headphones in this price bracket often go with a bass-heavy approach, and even CMF’s budget earbuds have taken a similar approach in the not-too-distant past. 

These headphones take a more restrained approach, though I could feel that there’s still an inclination for bass. By default, the sound output is pleasing and warm. The soundstage is pretty vibrant, though not the widest. Notably, these headphones also do a decent job of reproducing the trebles, and when needed, a layered bass, given the right track and EQ preset. 

The bass output is thumping, and thankfully, I didn’t notice any aggressive distortion. I listened to a wide range of songs, shifting extremes between Rob Zombie and the soothing vocals of Morteza Pashae, covering at least four genres across half a dozen languages. The Headphone Pro held its fort pretty well across all the music types I pushed it at. 

You get five pre-tuned presets — Pop, Rock, Electronic, Enhanced Vocals, and Classical. I am happy to report that a few of these create a discernible difference. Listening to electronica tracks, you often struggle with the vocal clarity as it gets mushed between the instrumental tunes. 

Switching from Electronic to vocal preset in the Equalizer settings, you get a discernible lift in the vocals and clarity, though it comes at the cost of subdued treble and lower thump in the bass output. The preset switching doesn’t always work as expected, and depends more on the track at hand.  

Listening to Farida Khanum, the Classical preset actually worked better than the Enhanced Vocal EQ preset. The latter pushed the classic crooner’s voice to the background, despite raising the mids. A similar situation was observed while listening to the Persian tracks by Moein and Siavash Ghomayshi.

The difference in EQ turning is mostly felt when you are listening to heavy instrumental tracks, such as Mick Gordon’s Rip & Tear. I would strongly recommend that you stick with one of the built-in presets, as the custom EQ option does some heavy-handed adjustments to the bass, treble, and highs, and even subtle changes can make the songs sound utterly different. 

I don’t quite understand why Nothing offered a full-fledged EQ adjustment system on the Headphone (1), but skipped it in favor of a nerfed three-way custom EQ system on the CMF Headphone Pro, despite using the same Nothing X companion app for both. 

The good news here is that you can shift to the LDAC codec for hi-res music streaming, though I felt only a subtle lift in overall depth and clarity when jumping from the standard quality music streaming. Broadly, the Headphone Pro sounds better than a lot of other options I’ve tried in the $100 ballpark, and that’s no mean feat. 

Noise cancellation is pretty solid 

When I first enabled the noise cancellation, I was pretty surprised at the result. In a room playing groovy fusion music, I handed them over to my friend just to make sure the ANC was working as well as I had experienced moments ago. “Oh, this is pretty good,” they told me. 

On paper, the 40dB noise cancellation figure is fairly standard, and it’s enough to mask the sonic ruckus around you, if not entirely silence it. Sitting on a plane, the engine sounds still made their way in, and so did the unhinged laughter of a few college students at the next table in a cafe. 

But if you’re predominantly buying headphones to drown out the noise, put on some music, and immerse yourself in work, these budget headphones will get the job done. Just make sure you get a good seal around the ears, and clamp them tight atop the skull. 

Transparency mode, on the other hand, also does its job well. I was expecting the mics to be meh, but for cellular and internet-based voice calls, I never heard any complaints from the person on the other end. “It sounds natural, and doesn’t feel like you’re using headphones,” said my brother. Neat job, Nothing!

Battery life: Just keeps going

Nothing promises up to 100 hours of battery life without noise-cancellation, and 70 hours with ANC active. But if you have enabled the LDAC codec for listening to music at a higher quality, the numbers drop down to 70 hours (without ANC), and 38 hours (with ANC, respectively). 

Those numbers hold pretty well. Spacing out my listening time across an hour of workouts, about 40-60 minutes of daily commute, and roughly five hours of music streaming during the daily work, I didn’t have to charge the headphones for a week. 

I switched between Apple Music (AAC codec) and Amazon Music (for hi-res listening over LDAC), while the audio levels were usually hovering between 40-60% levels. My ANC usage was mostly restricted while I was out, so it accounted for nearly 20% of my daily listening time. 

Your mileage will vary depending on the hours you keep noise cancellation enabled and the preferred audio codec. But even when pushed to their absolute limit, the CMF Headphone Pro will easily last you 3-4 days of average usage. In my ANC-only run, the headphones lasted just over 43 hours, which is pretty good. 

Charging the headphones takes about two hours, but the real winner is the charging pace. With just five minutes of plugged-in time, you get roughly eight hours of listening time (ANC disabled and volume levels around the halfway mark) and two days of standby time for calls. 

The power draw is surprisingly frugal. Even after four hours of listening over LDAC and noise-cancelling mode, the battery life just took a hit of around 10-12% in my most recent test. Overall, if you’re looking for long-lasting headphones without nuking your wallet, the Nothing Earbuds work pretty well. 

Where they miss the mark

The CMF Headphone Pro makes for an impressive audio kit,  but it is not without its fair share of flaws. To begin, they keep the doors open for wired audio output via the 3.5mm jack. Unfortunately, you don’t get the same facility via the USB-C port. 

That port is only there for charging, and not allowing an audio signal stream. In a nutshell, if you want to enjoy hi-res audio, your only option is an additional wire with a round 3.5mm interface in your pocket or bag. 

Another miss is the lack of wear detection, which means if you take off (or put on) the headphones, the audio playback doesn’t pause or resume automatically. Then there’s the ecosystem lock situation. 

You get support for Hi-Res audio, a setting that lets you switch between AAC and LDAC codes. This setting is only available when the headphones are paired with an Android phone, but is missing from the Nothing X app for iPhones. 

Moreover, when you switch the audio codec, it requires a reboot that disconnects the headphones from the paired phone. Then we have the design of these headphones. Well, these are not folding-style headphones,  which means you can’t put them in one of those flattened boxes. 

You either stuff them in a bag, carry them around like a handbag, or wear them around your neck. Thankfully, the retail box comes with a carry pouch. To their credit, they don’t look over the top, especially in the black variant that I have for review, so they blend in well. 

With the orange cups, well, be prepared for some unwanted attention from your immediate surroundings. Finally, we have the energy slider, which is a great concept in theory, but doesn’t really create much of a tangible difference in the listening experience. 

I dearly wish it transformed the listening experience, but it doesn’t in a straightforward fashion. Then we have the equalizer situation. Once again, there are two sides to the argument here. The Custom EQ only lets you adjust the Mid, Treble, and Bass, which is good news for beginners who want a simpler approach to tuning their listening experience. 

But these controls are pretty crude, and take some hit-and-miss adjustments to strike the right balance. And unlike the proper equalizers, where you have more control over different frequency ranges, the three-way EQ adjustments in the Nothing X app are pretty aggressive and dramatically change the audio output. 

Raising the bass, for example, adds an odd noise aspect that dilutes the treble and overall sonic depth. I strongly suggest sticking with the five EQ presets and picking one that sounds the best for each genre. 

Verdict: Yeah, you can splurge

Nothing’s product philosophy is a mishmash of standout design and a solid set of features, and it reflects pretty well on the CMF Headphone Pro. For $99, you get a fairly well-built kit with an easy-on-the-eyes design and bright colors to break the monotony.

They are comfortable to wear, offer good per-charge mileage, pack decent mics for calls, and won’t bother you with connectivity hassles. The focus on tactile controls is a welcome shift, though I wish the buttons were a tad bigger and the energy slider did more. 

Sound output is pretty impressive, while ANC will get you through the daily commute without the ambient noise raising your anxiety levels. To sum it all up, the CMF Headphone Pro is a heavy-hitter at $99. In case you want to take a look at rivals, check out the Anker Soundcore Space One, 1More SonoFlow Pro, JBL Tune 770NC, Sony WH-CH720N, and the Earfun Wave Pro. 

But if you want to make a fashion statement without sacrificing substance, the CMF outing should serve you well.