CMF by Nothing launched its CMF Buds Neo, the company’s entry-level TWS earbuds, earlier this week. This lies below the CMF Buds 2a but still has ANC and promises a long battery life of up to 11 hours. Are these good in the Rs. 2000 price range? Let us dive into the review to find out.
Box Contents
- CMF Buds Neo
- Ear tips in Small and Large sizes (Medium pre-installed)
- User Manual
Design and Build Quality
The Buds Neo comes in a familiar square case with rounded corners. It has a ring on the top left that rotates and lets you connect a lanyard. It has a PC + ABS body with a matte finish that doesn’t attract fingerprints. In addition to white, it also comes in black and blue with different colored ring.
It measures 54.3 x 54.3 x 23 mm and 50.3 grams, including the buds, making it slightly smaller and lighter than the predecessor. The case even has IPX2 ratings for splash resistance, which is a good addition.
Opening the case, you can see the earbuds. The case has magnets so that it locks securely. There is also a magnet connecting the two parts of the case, and the earbuds also have a strong magnet that secures them in their place. The color of the eartips is different in the blue and white models.
You can see the LED light on the front.
The USB Type-C port is present on the side, but it doesn’t have a pairing key.
The in-ear earbuds have a matte finish for the stem, and the rest of the earbuds feature a glossy finish. The earbuds weigh about 4.5 grams, which is almost similar to the CMF Buds, and measure 33.4 x 20.6 x 22.8 mm. There are two mics on each earbud, which promise better wind noise cancellation.
This doesn’t have an optical sensor for wear detection, so it doesn’t automatically pause the audio when you remove it from your ears. The earphones have IP54 ratings for dust and water resistance. It can withstand splashes or light rain, but you can’t use it when swimming.
The fit was perfect, and it doesn’t come out easily, even during strenuous activities like running or workouts. Since they are light, you don’t feel like wearing the earbuds.
Connectivity, Pairing, and Controls
The CMF Buds Neo supports Bluetooth 6.0 with AAC and SBC codecs. The pairing process is very easy for Nothing and CMF devices. Just enable Bluetooth on the phone, open the charging case of the buds, place the charging case close to the phone, and follow the prompts. To connect to other devices, press and hold both the earbuds for a few seconds to enter the pairing mode, then select the CMF Buds Neo.
There is a fast pair option which works on the latest Android phones. We tested it on the iQOO Z11 5G and Pixel 10 and never faced any pairing or disconnection issues. There is also Microsoft Swift Pair to connect it to Windows.
You can enable dual connection option that lets you connect to two devices at the same time and switch the audio playback between them. But the headset gets rebooted every time you need to disable or disable the feature.
This uses touch controls, same as the old CMF Buds. This lets you skip tracks, switch between noise cancellation modes, and adjust volume – all with a press. The controls can be customised in the Nothing X app.
| Function | Left earphone (L) | Right earphone (R) |
| Play / Pause or Answer call / Hang calls | Double tap | |
| Next track | Triple tap | |
| Switch between ANC and Transparency Mode | Tap and hold | |
| Volume control | Double tap and hold | |
Volume control is disabled by default, but you can customise it with the Nothing X app on Android and iPhone. You can change actions for double tap, triple tap and double tap and hold. Tap and hold is set for noise control.
Audio Quality
The CMF Buds Neo has a custom 12.4mm dynamic driver, titanium-coated PET dome, flexible PEEK + PU surround driver tuned for deep lows and clear highs.
It has Ultra Bass Technology. This also adds a spatial audio effect for an immersive sound. As the company says, the bass is on the higher side, and you can enable ultra bass option to make it better. High and mid-range frequencies were decent as well, offering a balanced sound tuning.
It features five equalizer presets – Immersion Boost, Rock, Electronic, Pop, Classical and Enhance vocals – so that every song can be heard how it should. You can also create custom EQ with the custom option. It doesn’t have the Personal Sound Profile feature.
Noise Cancellation and Call Performance
Regarding the noise cancellation, the Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) blocks the ambient sound up to 35 dB, which is less than 42dB in the original CMF Buds, but the quality is still good.
You can feel the difference when you are listening outdoors, since 35dB is enough to block AC and fan noise easily. For the price, it does a good job for indoors. The transparency mode is also useful. You can also turn off the noise cancellation directly from the headset by enabling it from the settings, even though it only switches between ANC ON and Transparency modes by default.
There are four modes, Low, Mid, High and Adaptive Mode, that automatically adjust the noise reduction level based on your environment in real-time. You can switch between noise cancellation, transparency and no noise cancellation with tap controls on the earbuds. This also has low latency mode, which is called low lag mode.
Coming to the call noise cancellation, it uses Clear Voice Technology and the system utilizes a total of 4 HD microphones (two per earbud) integrated to filter environmental interference.
Battery Life
The earphones pack a 45mAh battery that promises 11 hours of standalone battery life without ANC and 8 hours with ANC. During my use with AAC and mixed use, I got around 9.5 hours in about 60% volume, which is good.
For calls, it lasts only for around 7 hours with ANC enabled, as promised, since it uses call noise cancellation tech. This is way better than the CMF Buds.
With the 460mAh charging case, it promises up to 52 hours of total battery life without ANC and 30 hours of total battery life with noise cancellation enabled. Charging the case fully with the earbuds takes about 1 and half hours. It also has fast charge, so that you get 5.5 hours of playback without ANC for the buds with 10 minutes of charging.
Conclusion
At a price point of Rs. 1,999, the CMF Buds Neo stands out as a well-rounded entry-level pair of TWS earbuds. It manages to retain core strengths from CMF’s higher-tier lineup, offering punchy audio, effective everyday ANC, reliable call clarity, dual-device pairing, and standout battery endurance.
While it skips an optical wear-detection sensor and scales back maximum ANC strength compared to the original CMF Buds, these trade-offs are completely reasonable given the aggressive pricing. If you are looking for an affordable, stylish pair of earbuds with balanced daily performance under Rs. 2,000, the CMF Buds Neo is an easy recommendation.
Pricing and availability
The CMF Buds Neo will be sold at an exclusive launch price of Rs. 1,999 in India. Sales commence on 26 August 2026 via Flipkart and retail partners including Croma, Reliance Digital, and Vijay Sales.
Pro
- Compact, lightweight build with IP54/IPX2 ratings
- Balanced, bass-forward sound with customizable EQ profiles
- Decent 35dB ANC and effective 4-mic Clear Voice call quality
- Impressive standalone and total battery life with fast charging
- Dual device connectivity and Bluetooth 6.0 support
Cons
- No optical sensor for automatic wear detection / auto-pause
- ANC level is lower compared to higher-end CMF models