CMF’s first pair of over-ears pack adaptive noise cancellation, tactile controls, and up to 100 hours (!) of battery life.
CMF’s first pair of over-ears pack adaptive noise cancellation, tactile controls, and up to 100 hours (!) of battery life.
Over the past several years, Nothing’s budget-centric subsidiary, CMF, has built a reputation for producing attractive, inexpensive products with features often reserved for gadgets that cost twice the price. The CMF Headphone Pro — the company’s first pair of over-ear wireless headphones — fit precisely in that lane, especially now that they’re on sale at Amazon in both light gray and a subtle green shade for an all-time low of $69 ($30 off).
Although the Headphone Pro eschew the retro-transparent design found on Nothing wares like the Headphone 1, I wouldn’t necessarily say that’s a bad thing given the polarizing, squared-off design of the latter. Instead, the Pro go all in on the curves, with circular earcups, cushions, and a plush headband. You can also add an additional pop of color with CMF’s $25 interchangeable cushions, which, as of now, are available in either orange or the aforementioned green hue.
Unlike many premium pairs of noise-canceling headphones, the Pro ditch touch-capacitive controls for physical buttons — a plus, as far as I’m concerned — allowing you to control playback, adjust the volume, and tweak a range of other settings using a customizable action button and a multi-function roller. Nothing also includes something called an Energy Slider, so you can adjust the treble and bass balance on the fly without digging into Nothing’s app to make EQ adjustments.
The biggest draw of the Headphone Pro, aside from their adaptive ANC, is that they offer a whopping 100 hours of battery life per charge, ensuring you can travel just about anywhere without having to top them off. That number drops to 50 hours with active noise cancellation enabled; however, that’s still 10 hours more than what you’d get with a higher-end pair like Sony’s WH-1000XM6 and 20 hours more than the latest Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones. The fact that they support Google Fast Pair and the higher-quality LDAC codec is just a plus.
Other alternatives to consider
With lossless USB-C audio, 50 hours of battery life, Find My support, spatial audio, and comfy ear cups, the Beats Solo 4 offer significant quality-of-life improvements over their predecessors. They still deliver that bass-rich Beats sound, too. Read our review.
The Sony WH-CH520 offer a lot for very little. The on-ear Bluetooth headphones provide 50 hours of battery life and support hands-free voice assistants, including Google Assistant and Siri. They also offer multipoint Bluetooth support and can tap into Google’s Find Hub network.
