Introduction and unboxing
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Nothing’s CMF brand is moving fast. What started off as an affordable brand that relies on style to compensate for any technical deficiencies has now evolved into a market disruptor that covers everything up to the midrange.
We’re now getting more and more “Pro” devices from CMF – a phone Pro, a watch Pro, and, yes, the Headphone Pro we have for review today. It’s a feature-rich set that looks Pro but costs less than you’d think. At just €99, it already undercuts a lot of its competitors. CMF even runs a 20% discount from time to time, and the “Sold Out” sign under the Dark Grey and Light Green models on CMF’s website will tell you CMF the Headphone Pro are quite successful.
So what do you get for your money? The retail package is where CMF saves a bit of money. You get a 3.5mm cable, a suede-like carry bag, and the headphones themselves.
CMF offers additional ear cushions in either Orange or Light Green for €25, so you can personize them to match your style.
Design and feel
The CMF Headphone Pro has a nice and clean design with circular cups and ear cushions, and a high-arching headband.
Everything that touches your head is nicely cushioned. The headband isn’t very stiff, and this editor had no issues wearing the Headphone Pro for hours in the office. There’s also plenty of adjustment for larger heads.
Finally, at just 283 grams, this is a reasonably light pair of headphones to carry all day.
The headphone doesn’t fold in any way for easier transportation, similar to the AirPods Max. That means that when you throw them in your backpack they will take a lot more space and there’s a small chance that they’ll get roughed up amidst your other possessions.
Getting a third-party hard case for the Headphone Pro will fix that second issue, though, they will make the first one even worse.
All the controls on the CMF Headphone Pro are physical – there are no capacitive touch swipes here (looking at you, Sony XM). However, the controls are a bit small on the CMF Headphone Pro and will be an issue for people with larger fingers.
The earcups of the Headphone Pro are made of glossy, prone-to-smudging plastic. But you’re unlikely to spend a lot of time touching them, so it’s fine.
Finally, the headphones are IPX2 rated for water and dust resistance, meaning they’ll be fine against a bit of sweat or light drizzle, but you should be careful around more water.
Overall, the Headphone Pro does a fine job of looking and feeling more expensive than it is. While it’s not on the level of the Apple AirPods Max or Sony’s latest XM6, the Headphone Pro makes up for it with interesting colors and style.
Features, sound quality, battery life
CMF’s Headphone Pro has all the features you’d need. There’s Google Fast Pair, and Microsoft Swift Pair, as well as dual connection support.
The dual 40mm drivers support a frequency range of 20Hz to 20kHz, and offer an active noise cancellation range of up to 40 dB.
The ANC uses 5 microphones on the headphones to cancel out noise. 3 of those microphones are available for calls.
The CMF Headphone Pro supports AAC, SBC, and LDAC.
Nothing’s X app is used to customize the controls and also to set up your Personal Sound Profile.
The Nothing X app
The setup takes 2 to 3 minutes and plays a bunch of sounds in each ear to determine your hearing and adjust the frequency response accordingly. Using the personalized profile yielded a better listening experience.
There’s a power button on the left cup – long-press it to power the Headphone Pro on (a little voice says “Power ON” in your head).
There’s a slider on the left cup that tunes the bass by default, but you can switch it to treble. It’s stiff enough to keep its place even after you toss the headphones around in your bag.
The slider does affect sound quality – I set mine to around the 60% position.
There’s an Assistant button on the right cup and on the roller. The slider adjusts volume (non-customizable), and supports presses – a single press for play and pause, double press to skip forward or decline a call, triple press to skip back. You adjust what a press and hold does – by default, it toggles between the noise cancellation modes, and you can even set it in the app which modes to toggle – so you can toggle only between ANC and Transparency mode, or enable a toggle to turn off noise reduction altogether.
Controls
There’s plenty of control on the CMF Headphone Pro, and I found it intuitive to use. The power and voice assistant buttons are a bit too small, but it’s not a dealbreaker.
The CMF Headphone Pro sounds good. The soundstage is wide and well differentiated. Vocals and instruments are lively and punchy, and there’s an impressive spatial feel to the sound when you enable the Spatial Audio mode in Concert simulation.
The provided EQ presets 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 grow without detriment.
So what’s not so great? There’s not enough overall volume for my liking. The CMF Headphone Pro is a bit quieter than even my Galaxy Buds Pro.
Bass is only okay, and it quickly makes the sound quite muffled at the higher frequencies, where there’s a tangible lack of brilliance. No matter the EQ setting, I just couldn’t get a livelier soundstage at higher volumes.
Passive isolation is excellent on the Headphone Pro, which in turn aids both music enjoyment and the active noise cancellation.
Speaking of, ANC is strong on the CMF Headphone Pro. It’s best at lower frequencies, where you’d find the typical engine or A/C fan rumble. ANC even deals well with the typical office noises, which are typically in the higher frequency range and harder to cancel out.
And last, but not least – battery life, which is probably the CMF Headphone Pro’s strongest suit. CMF says that the built-in 720mAh battery can reach 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 and around 70% volume, I got the battery down by just 10%. Expect solid endurance from these headphones!
Verdict
The CMF Headphone Pro is an easy recommendation. Priced at €99 (currently 10% off on Amazon), it’s a lot of package for not a lot of money.
A quick look at any of its rivals reveals a price that’s a few times higher. Nothing’s own Headphone (1), while also discounted, is more than twice the money.
With the CMF Headphone Pro, you’re getting good sound quality and great ANC, a stylish design with interesting colors, plenty of physical controls, and an excellent app experience.
But probably the Headphone Pro’s biggest strength is the solid 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 try by Nothing both with its own Headphone (1) and its sub-brand CMF’s Headphone Pro!
