Introduction and unboxing
Nothing’s CMF brand is growing rapidly. What started as an affordable brand that relied on styling to compensate for any technical shortcomings has now evolved into a market disruptor that covers everything up to midrange.
Now we’re getting more and more “pro” devices from CMF – a Phone Pro, a Watch Pro, and yes, the Headphone Pro that we have for review today. It’s a feature-rich set that looks pro but costs less than you think. At just €99, it already outperforms many of its competitors. CMF also offers 20% discounts from time to time, and the “sold out” sign below the dark gray and light green models on CMF’s website will tell you that the CMF Headphones Pro are quite a success.
So what do you get for your money? The retail package is where CMF saves a little money. You get a 3.5mm cable, a suede-like carry bag, and the headphones themselves.
CMF offers extra ear cushions in orange or light green for €25, so you can customize them to match your style.
design and feel
The CMF Headphones Pro have a nice and clean design with rounded cups and ear cushions and a high-arching headband.
Everything that touches your head is well padded. The headband isn’t too tight, and this editor had no problems wearing the Headphones Pro for hours at the office. There’s plenty of adjustment for larger heads, too.
Ultimately, at just 283 grams, this is a light enough pair of headphones to carry around all day.
Like the AirPods Max, the headphones don’t fold up in any way for easy transport. This means that they’ll take up a lot of space when you throw them in your backpack and there’s little chance that they’ll get lost among your other possessions.
Getting a third-party hard case for the Headphones Pro will fix that second problem, however, they will make the first problem worse.
All controls on the CMF Headphones Pro are physical – no capacitive touch swipes here (looking at you, Sony XM). However, the controls on the CMF Headphones Pro are a bit small and will be a problem for people with larger fingers.
The Headphone Pro’s earcups are made of shiny, stain-free plastic. But it’s unlikely you’ll spend too much time touching them, so it’s okay.
Finally, the headphones are rated IPX2 for water and dust resistance, meaning they’ll hold up fine against a little sweat or light drizzle, but you should be careful with excess water.
Overall, the Headphones Pro do a good job of looking and feeling more expensive than they are. Although it’s not at the level of the Apple AirPods Max or Sony’s latest XM6, the Headphones Pro make up for it with interesting colors and style.
Features, Sound Quality, Battery Life
CMF’s Headphone Pro has all the features you need. It also has Google Fast Pair and Microsoft Swift Pair as well as dual connection support.
The dual 40 mm drivers support a frequency range of 20 Hz to 20 kHz, and provide an active noise cancellation range of up to 40 dB.
ANC uses 5 microphones on the headphones to cancel noise. 3 of them are available for microphone calls.
The CMF Headphones Pro supports AAC, SBC, and LDAC.
The NothingX app is also used to customize the controls and set your personal sound profile.
Nothing X App
Setup takes 2 to 3 minutes and plays several sounds into each ear to determine your hearing ability and adjust the frequency response accordingly. Using personalized profiles provided a better listening experience.
There’s a power button on the left cup – long press it to turn on the Headphones Pro (a little voice in your head says “power on”).
There’s a slider on the left cup that tunes to bass by default, but you can switch it to treble. It’s so rigid that it stays in place even after tossing the headphones around in your bag.
The slider affects the sound quality – I set my slider to about the 60% position.
There is an assistant button on the right cup and roller. The slider adjusts the volume (non-customizable), and supports presses – a single press to play and pause, double press to advance or reject a call, triple press to skip back. You adjust what the press and hold does – by default, it toggles between noise cancellation modes, and you can also set it in the app to decide which mode to toggle – so you can only toggle between ANC and Transparency modes, or enable the toggle to turn off noise cancellation altogether.
Control
There are plenty of controls on the CMF Headphones Pro and I found them intuitive to use. The power and voice assistant buttons are a little too small, but it’s not a dealbreaker.
The CMF Headphones Pro sound good. The soundstage is wide and well separated. The vocals and instruments are vibrant and impressive, and the sound has an impressive spatial feel when you enable spatial audio mode in the concert simulation.
The EQ presets provided are great, with Pop being the best all-rounder. Switching from AAC to LDAC (if your phone supports it) makes another level of difference – sounds are enhanced without any loss.
So what’s not so great? The total quantity is not enough for my liking. The CMF Headphones Pro are also slightly quieter than my Galaxy Buds Pro.
The bass is only okay, and it quickly dulls the sound significantly at higher frequencies, where there is a distinct lack of sparkle. No matter the EQ setting, I couldn’t get a vibrant soundstage at higher volumes.
Passive isolation on the Headphones Pro is excellent, which in turn aids both music enjoyment and active noise cancellation.
Speaking of which, ANC is strong on the CMF Headphones Pro. It’s best at low frequencies, where you’ll get normal engine or A/C fan rumble. ANC also deals well with typical office noises, which are generally in the higher frequency ranges and harder to cancel out.
And last, but not least – battery life, which is probably the strongest side of the CMF Headphones Pro. CMF says the built-in 720mAh battery is capable of up to 100 hours of listening with ANC off and 50% volume. Enable LDAC and that number drops to 70 hours, which is still impressive.
During a 5-hour listening session with ANC on and volume at about 70%, my battery dropped to just 10%. Expect solid endurance from these headphones!
decision
The CMF Headphones Pro are an easy recommendation. Priced at €99 (currently 10% off at Amazon), it’s not a lot of money but a lot of package.
A cursory look at any of its rivals reveals prices that are a few times higher. Nothing’s own headphones (1), while also discounted, cost more than double the price.
With the CMF Headphones Pro, you’re getting good sound quality and great ANC, a stylish design with interesting colors, lots of physical controls, and an excellent app experience.
But perhaps the biggest strength of the Headphones Pro is its strong battery life. You can easily get over 50 hours of runtime from these headphones, which is beyond the reach of many of its rivals.
Overall, a solid first effort by Nothing with both their headphones (1) and their sub-brand CMF’s Headphone Pro!