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ZDNET's key takeaways
- The CMF Buds 2 Plus are the most premium pair of earbuds from the Nothing sub-brand.
- At $79, they're one of the best-sounding and most feature-rich earbuds in the price segment.
- The way these earbuds are designed makes them not ideal for side sleepers.
The new Nothing CMF Buds 2 Plus sit above the CMF Buds Pro 2 in price hierarchy and offer similar sound, better call quality, and longer battery life. They fit well and there's not much to fault at that $69 price point. Soon after launch, I shifted to the CMF Buds 2 Plus as my daily driver for music and calls.
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Apart from one minor annoyance, there's a lot to like. These might be my new go-to recommendation for budget earbuds.
The CMF Buds 2 Plus feature a similar square-ish case to the Bud Pro 2. While the dial is still present, it isn't functional and is only present as a signature CMF design element. The absence of the Smart Dial feature doesn't bother me since I seldom used it on the Pro model.
As for the overall case build, you get a textured but slightly slippery finish. I've dropped it a couple of times because it keeps slipping out of my hands. However, I haven't noticed any wear and tear due to my accidental drops.
The buds themselves are light and fit me well. They have a small touch control area that recognizes taps. You can double-tap, triple-tap, tap-and-hold, and double-tap-and-hold to control the music playback, volume, and ANC.
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While I find swipe gestures to be more intuitive, the controls on CMF Buds 2 Plus earbuds work well… unless you're a side sleeper. The only annoying part of these earbuds is that they register fake touch input from clothes/pillow covers. As a result, you hear constant ANC on and off pings through your music when lying on your side.
If you can look past that, the CMF Buds 2 Plus are one of the most feature-rich and good-sounding earbuds under $70.
Setting a Personal Sound Profile within the Nothing X app.
The new Personal Sound profile actually helped make my earbuds experience better. You can add it by taking a 3-minute test within the Nothing X app. The company says a Personal Sound profile creates "a dynamic compensation solution based on your unique hearing and keeping your music crystal clear." I prefer it over the out-of-the-box tuning.
The app also allows you to adjust the equalizer or create your custom one with the ever-so-intuitive circular tri-band equalizer. The EQ presets like Pop, Rock, Electronic, Enhance, and Classical should be good for people who know what type of songs they like listening to. For instance, Classical is great for orchestral music as it reduces the bass to make the sound lean toward neutral.
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Other features include Ultra Bass, Spatial Audio, dual connection, in-ear detection, ANC, Ear tip fit test, Low lag mode, and Find my earbuds functionality. If you toggle on Ultra Bass, the Buds 2 Plus will sound heavier. You can adjust the levels from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest). For me, anything above 2 was a little much, and 4 or 5 was too much.
The CMF Buds 2 Plus sound very good for the price. By default, the earbuds support SBC and AAC codecs, but the app recognizes if your source device supports LDAC, and you can then choose the codec of your choice. They offer a wide soundstage, clear instrument separation, seamless transition between frequencies, and a better bass response than before. The vocals were clear even in bass-heavy tracks.
Earbud of CMF Buds 2 Plus
Turning on Spatial Audio made the music sound more artificial than expected -- you could tell it was software fiddling rather than immersive fine-tuning. I preferred to listen to my music with Spatial Audio turned off, which sounded more immersive.
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The CMF Buds 2 Plus' ANC is on par with the Buds 2 Pro. I got a very good fit with the default eartips, so passive noise cancellation was a good point to begin with. The Buds 2 Plus effectively reduced ambient noise from the fan, air conditioner, and the usual public chatter. I set my ANC preference to High, but you can choose Smart Adaptive Mode to adjust ANC based on your environment.
I used the CMF Buds 2 Plus with ANC on for the most part, and in my 10 days of usage, I've charged them twice. They're a long-lasting pair of earbuds. My usage involves music playback for the better part of the time I'm working and calls. That reminds me, callers on the other side said I sounded clear and they didn't notice the wind in the background.
ZDNET's buying advice
The $79 CMF Buds 2 Plus offers an excellent feature set, including options to personalize sound and adjust the equalizer, a full suite of playback and volume controls, clear call quality, good ANC performance, and long-lasting battery life. That's a very impressive overall package.
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However, if you are a side-sleeper who likes to fall asleep listening to calming music, these earbuds are not for you. They tend to register fake touches from clothes, so you're better off buying something else if that is one specific use case you're looking for in your next pair of earbuds.
That said, the CMF Buds 2 Plus are an easy recommendation for most people. And if you don't care about LDAC or the personal sound profile feature, the CMF Buds 2 are another value-for-money earbuds at $59.
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