Nothing CMF Buds 2 Plus Review: Hear No Better Earbuds At This Price

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Nothing's CMF label is all about serving tech wrapped in a peppy package and an approachable price tag slapped on top. When I tested the brand's first pair of wireless earbuds, they wowed me with a solid mix of functional perks and lovely sound output. This year, the company is shifting gears.

The brand has just introduced a trio of earbuds, alongside a new phone and some cool modular accessories. At the top of the audio summit are the Nothing Buds 2 Plus, which offer larger audio drivers, better noise cancellation, more mics, and longer battery life.

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The CMF Buds 2 Plus are priced at $69, which is $10 higher than the CMF Buds 2 Pro. Confusing name aside, the premium you pay offers a better driver, personalized sound tuning, and over 30% higher playback time, but at the cost of a missing tweeter and customizable dial on the case.

I tested Nothing's CMF Buds 2 Plus (provided by Nothing for this review) for nearly two weeks, and in that duration, they delivered an overwhelmingly rewarding audio experience. Read on to find out whether these earbuds serve your must-haves for an affordable pair of wireless audio gear.

Nothing has changed, well, nothing, about the fundamental design. What you get are new color options and a lovely matte texture on the charging case surface. I had the light grey variant for review, which puts a sandblasted metallic wheel on the case with a lanyard attachment point. The earbuds also use high-quality plastic and have an angled earpiece with a flattened stem.

They don't look too different from wireless earbuds offered by a whole bunch of other brands, but then, there's only so much you can experiment with on this small form factor (and budget, of course). To their credit, the CMF Buds 2 Plus are comfortable to wear, and you also get to pick from different sizes of ear tips in the retail package.

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During my morning jogs or running downstairs, the earbuds remained lodged in their place and didn't slip off. However, when my sister tested them briefly during her badminton routine, she recalled a few instances where a combination of sweat and aggressive serves had one of the earbuds nearly fall off.

The earbuds come with IP55 clearance for dust and water resistance. They can handle sweat during your workouts, but I won't recommend taking them for a "shower podcast listening" session, or a swim into the nearby lake. Nothing, on the other hand, says the earbuds have been tested in the lab to survive three minutes of water spray exposure. I'd still stay on the side of caution.

On the CMF Buds 2 Plus, controls are handled using a mix of long and short taps, separated across single, double, and triple tap gestures. For toggling between noise cancellation and transparency, you need to press and hold. Likewise, you can also assign a shortcut to summon the onboard voice assistant. All these gestures worked reliably well in my testing spell.

A neat design touch is that the left earbud has a hollow circle at the top of the stem, while on the right one, you get a raised solid circle. It's hard to discern the shape with the fingertips, but you can at least identify them without squinting your eyes to look for the non-existent L and R markers.

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Notably, the tap as well as tap+hold gestures are customizable across each side, letting users assign different music playback controls. I was somewhat concerned about the volume controls, which require a double-tap and hold routine. Thankfully, it worked just fine across both earbuds for volume adjustments.

Wireless connection is established over Bluetooth v5.4, and you get support for Google and Microsoft's respective fast pairing systems. These earbuds support dual connection, a feature that worked fine across the mobile and computing devices I paired the CMF Buds 2 Plus with. Audio stream is intelligently handed off between the two connected devices for calls and music playback. I also appreciate the in-ear detection facility for automatic pause and resume when you take off the earbuds.

Before we get into the core audio output part, there are a few features one should set up firsthand. The ear tip test tries to tune the sound and noise cancellation output based on the unique shape of the ear canal and your natural listening. The Personal Sound Profile tool plays a series of beeps to create a unique profile for each ear.

My results were skewed towards a higher listening note for the right ear, and the audio output was adjusted accordingly. Personally, I kept it disabled. My ears are fine, Nothing! The six onboard mics do a decent job of minimizing the external noise, but they often pushed me to speak a tad louder than usual for the person on the other end to hear me clearly.

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Unlike a handful of other brands in the space, the CMF Buds 2 Plus don't put the whole emphasis on bass. Instead, they deliver a more subdued but controlled take on bass. You can feel it going from subtle to booming, without punishing your eardrums. Vocal clarity is well-preserved, and the soundstage is sufficiently wide.

Then there's the spatial audio mode, which employs Head-Related Transfer Function (HRTF) to simulate surround sound listening. You can feel the reverbs at the back of your head when it's enabled. It's quite a treat, but depending on the track, it can quickly get overwhelming. I tried a few death metal tracks and quickly hit pause on the unbalanced screams.

In Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard's climactic "Why So Serious," the headphones delivered a persistent bass without flattening the rumbles and clarity of the electric cello, guitar, and violin tunes. This is the kind of track where the Ultra Bass mode provides a noticeably better experience. Yes, go ahead and set the bass intensity to Level 5. 

For a more immersive soundscape, I enabled the Audio Mode and had a better experience. Once again, for tracks set against the backdrop of a cinematic scene, or when you are going through the Spatial Audio playlist on Apple Music, it creates a discernible difference. Switching to "The Batman" by Michael Giacchino and its haunting overlay with Nirvana's "Something In The Way," the bass and guitar chords are preserved.

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I had the best experience listening to "Massive Attack" by Angel, where the delicate sub-bass was not subdued, even as the track moved into roaring riffs. The Ultra Bass mode didn't crush Horace Andy's mellow vocals. As far as downsides go, at high volume levels, some instrumental distortion is evident.

Moreover, if you are listening to synth beats or tracks with high focus on the instruments, the ultra bass mode tends to muddy up the sonic textures. So yeah, it's more of a hit ot miss situation. For soulful music, or something like Pink Floyd's "Money," stay away from the bass toggle, disable spatial audio, and keep the volume levels on the lower side to avoid shrillness.

When it comes to the noise cancellation efficiency, your mileage will vary. Just how much of the external sonic hubbub you want to avoid will also depend on how loudly you want to dive into your own music playback, and not just the noise cancellation on offer. When the music volume was set to nearly 40%, the headphones nearly silenced the instrumental beats playing in the cafe, but the hiss of the coffee machine was still audible.

The chatter of people on the tables around me was muffled to a healthy extent, but remained discernible. When the volume was turned above the 80% mark and the noise cancellation level was set to its peak value, I couldn't hear anything except the drivers blasting music into my ear canal.

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Of course, the intensity of noise cancellation you get from the earbuds would also depend on the frequencies around you. For example, conversations are silenced admirably, but the creaking noise from old doors and engine rumbling can still be perceived. With the music levels cranked up close to the 70% mark, you likely won't hear conversations happening in the adjacent seat, except for faint remnants.

The transparency mode performed admirably at allowing the ambient sound in the ear canal. When I wasn't listening to music, the transparency mode did an acceptable job at keeping me aware of the surroundings, specifically the kids discussing an unreleased phone on my table. I hid it, of course.

The CMF Buds 2 Plus comes kitted out with a 53mAh battery, while the case offers a 460mAh unit. With noise cancellation disabled, you get a combined battery life of 61 hours, and close to 14 hours with the buds. When ANC is on, trim those battery mileage figures in half.

In my most recent run, I started the work session with nearly 85% of battery, and by the time I called it a day, the earbuds had 35% juice left. I streamed songs via Apple Music and shifted between ANC and transparency modes consistently over a span of 4-4.5 hours.

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Going by that pattern, if I extrapolate my usage across a full charge for the earbuds, they would last anywhere between 9-10 hours before I need to put them back in the charging case. It's also worth pointing out that the earbuds were simultaneously paired to my Android phone.

These also support LDAC audio for hi-res streaming. It's not quite there with the lossless tier, but you can at least stream audio files with a higher bitrate to get a little bit of extra sonic oomph at the cost of higher battery uptake.

Wireless charging is absent, which is not surprising considering the price segment we're dipping into. But thanks to fast charging, the earbuds can offer over four hours of play time, while the case stores enough electrochemical mojo for 8.5 hours of combined playback with just 10 minutes of plugged-in time.

Nothing's latest earbuds under the CMF label deliver a solid value for their sticker price. Their sonic output is pleasing, noise cancellation is acceptable, and battery life is a strong suite. The Nothing X app is loaded with a ton of features such as custom EQ, personalized ear profile, gesture customization, and more practical tricks. And they are pretty well-built, as well. For the audio tax you part ways with, they won't leave you with a bad aftertaste.

As far as alternatives go, the Jlabs JBuds Mini offer a good sound output (without ANC), but in a very portable package at just $40. If noise cancellation is a must-have, the brand offers JBuds ANC 3 at $60. Slightly up the price ladder are the EarFun Air Pro 4, which also throw Auracast support into the mix at $80 a pop.

Nothing CMF Buds 2 Plus

If you simply can't stand the stem design for earbuds, Anker Soundcore Sport X10 offers a loop-style design for workouts at the same price, while the $50 Sony WF-C510 earbuds will calm down your brand trust dilemma. But as you sum up all the parts and perks, the CMF Buds 2 Plus emerges as the strongest value proposition. If "do more, seek less" is the anthem of your budget earbuds shopping list, this should be among your top considerations.

You can purchase Nothing's CMF Buds 2 Plus earbuds in the CMF by Nothing store on Amazon right now for approximately $69.