Are Nothing’s CMF Buds 2 the best buds you can buy? No—but also, yes. When buds this good can be had at this price, it’s hard to justify spending more.

Battery Life

Up to 55 hours

Charging Case Included?

Yes

Microphones

Six

Brand

CMF

The CMF Buds 2 are solidly built earbuds that deliver excellent sound at a stellar price, with ANC, good mics, and spatial audio included. They may not be the best earbuds, but they offer among the best value you will find on the market.

Pros & Cons

• Only $60
• Loud, competent sound
• Excellent battery life

• Very unoriginal earbud design
• ANC is present, but not a strong point

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Price and Availability

The CMF Buds 2 cost $60, making them expensive cheap buds or cheap expensive buds. They come in three colors: light green, dark gray, and orange. I’m reviewing the orange option.

You can buy these buds directly from Nothing, or you can find them on Amazon.

AirPod Knockoffs With a Distinct Case

The CMF Buds 2 are not a premium-looking pair of earbuds, but they have character, thanks entirely to their protective case. The case is more square than round, and it has a wheel in the top left corner that makes for an excellent fidget spinner.

The case provides your first impression, and honestly, considering I see the case more often than the buds, I don’t mind the trade-off. That said, while the corners of the case aren’t pointy, the product does feel bulkier in my pocket than any other buds I’ve used.

As much as I dig the case, I don’t like giving people either the impression that I’m using an Apple product (I’m not—don’t try to iMessage me) or that I wish I were. The CMF Buds 2 are not identical to AirPods, but they’re not as distinct as I’d prefer—the colors are doing most of the heavy lifting here. It’d be nice if the earbuds did something to standout as much as the case does.

Loud, Booming Sound

I review quite a few earbuds, and from my experience, as long as you aren’t buying the cheap buds from a store checkout line, you’re going to get good sound these days. What stands out to me about the CMF Buds 2 is how loud and deep their sound is. When I switch from these buds to others, I find that I suddenly need to crank the volume up to match the level of the CMF Buds 2.

There is a downside to this. If I crank the volume all the way up, it hurts. I listen to music or podcasts while cutting grass, so I appreciate being able to overpower the sound of my battery-powered motor. Yet if I were to be in an environment where I need to turn these buds all the way up, there’s no way that can be good for my ears for any amount of time. That’s something to keep in mind if you’re considering getting these buds for someone young enough not to believe it’s possible for them to damage their ears.

Excellent Mics for Calls, But ANC Is So-So

I absolutely love the way my Samsung Galaxy Buds FE fit in my ears, but the downside of their tiny design is that the mics are trash. I regularly hear complaints from people I’m talking to ask me to repeat myself.

That is not the case with the CMF Buds 2. A benefit of imitating Apple’s design is that it works. Stems like these provide space for more mics and allow those mics to get closer to your mouth. The CMF Buds 2 have six of these mics, which not only come into play with voice calls, but are also needed for active noise cancellation.

The ANC is fine. It does dampen background noise, but if you asked me right now whether I have it on or off, I’d have to check. The difference isn’t large enough to be obvious. I didn’t notice this at first, because earbuds can overcome a lot of background noise just by being loud, and did I mention they are loud? There’s an included transparency mode that I haven’t seen a need for, since I can always hear voices no matter which mode I use.

If you told me you wanted to pay more to get earbuds with better ANC, I’d understand. It’s not what these buds are best at, though, on the flipside, leaving ANC off maximizes battery life. There are other features baked in, like spatial audio, and I wouldn’t consider any of them to be the reason to buy these buds.

An Intuitive App Paired With Customizable Touch Controls

The CMF Buds 2 rely entirely on touch controls, which are not my preferred way to interact with earbuds. Yet Nothing has done well by not allowing for a single tap option. You must double tap, triple tap, or tap and hold to trigger actions, which reduces accidental presses. The buds do automatically pause when you take them out of your ear, which led to my confusion when my audio would stop every time my buds got slightly loose. Once I swapped out the default tips for a better fit, that issue went away.

You can configure the buds using the Nothing X app from the Apple App Store or the Play Store. It’s an attractive piece of software that makes most of the features accessible from a single screen.

I changed the default tap controls, since I personally wanted to pause without taking out my buds, and that wasn’t how these buds were configured out of the box.

Battery Life for Weeks

Nothing advertises over 55 hours of battery life for these buds. I don’t wear earbuds for eight hours a day, so it’s hard for me to confirm whether this number is accurate. What I can say is that I could use these buds for weeks without thinking about battery life. After all, three hours of listening per day is still only 21 hours.

In other words, battery life just isn’t something to think about unless you’re spending the majority of your waking hours with buds in your ears. In that case, maybe you’ll charge once a week? On top of that, these buds charge quickly, so you’ll be fine.

Should You Buy the CMF Buds 2?

I’ve had quite a few complaints about the CMF Buds 2 so far, so why do I like them so much? Because frankly, the difference between how these buds sound and those that cost double or even quadruple the price is much smaller than you’d expect.

I find myself happily reaching for these buds throughout the day. At their price, I’m much less stressed about one falling out while I’m out landscaping around the house or running errands. I can afford to replace them, yet they don’t look or feel like I’m going about my life wearing cheap buds. I’m a dad, and this is the kind of consumer tech cheap enough to buy for multiple members of the family but good enough to actually be dependable. It’s not the kind of tech I dream of, but it’s the kind I increasingly value most.

If you are an audiophile or simply listen to audio constantly, and you have the budget to treat yourself to the best sound and comfort you can afford—buy these buds as your backup pair. Everyone else, save yourself the research and just buy these buds. They’re good.

Battery Life

Up to 55 hours

Charging Case Included?

Yes

The CMF Buds 2 are solidly built earbuds that deliver excellent sound at a stellar price, with ANC, good mics, and spatial audio included. They may not be the best earbuds, but they offer among the best value you will find on the market.