Nothing’s CMF Devices Prove Yet Again Cheap Doesn’t Have to Mean Boring

This does not run Google’s Wear OS platform, so you won’t be able to access a wealth of apps as on other smartwatches. CMF hasn’t provided details on the operating system, but it works similarly to Wear OS smartwatches and is very snappy. It supports iPhone and Android, so anyone can use it. You pair it with your phone via the CMF Watch app. Battery life is impressive—CMF claims 11 days with typical use, and that seems likely. After a day, I was left with 90 percent.

You can get notifications, and swipe through tiles to see details like the weather and step count. The watch can track sleep, heart rate, cycle tracking, blood oxygen saturation, and more than 100 workouts (with auto-workout detection), plus there’s built-in GPS. From my very limited time with the device, its results seem to be fairly accurate, though I’ll need to do more testing. All of this can sync with Google’s Health Connect, Apple Health, or Strava.

CMF Buds Pro 2

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

Finally, there’s the CMF Buds Pro 2, a pair of AirPods-esque wireless earbuds with a fun case design. The round part on the exterior of the case is called the Smart Dial, which you can brilliantly rotate to adjust the volume without having to fiddle with the earbuds or pull out your phone. You can even push this button to control the noise cancellation, activate a voice assistant, or mute the microphone (all of this is customizable in the Nothing X app. There are still touch controls on the earbuds if you prefer to use them instead).

The earbuds have dual drivers and support active noise cancellation and transparency mode, and there are three mics to power all of this. CMF claims 6 hours of battery life and 25 hours if you juice them back up with the 460-mAh battery in the case. There’s no wireless charging for the case, but you can recharge it via USB-C.

All of these devices are available for purchase now.

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