It has been almost a month since I am using the CMF Buds 2a as my primary TWS earbuds. I shifted from the Sennheiser Accentum TWS and I wouldn’t say this was a downgrade considering the price difference between the two. Long story short, the CMF Buds 2a sound good for the price. There are some things missing from the Buds 2a which are essential for me. We will be discussing all of that throughout this review of the CMF Buds 2a. Thank you to CMF India for sending this out as part of the Community Review Program. Let’s get started.
Build and Design
The CMF Buds 2a look very good. I have the orange color (not a personal favorite), but you can also choose between the light gray (personal favorite) and dark gray colors. The case is in a squircle shape, has a matte finish, and it looks cute. The figdety lanyard circle is fun to play around with but the case overall is quite big. It takes a lot of space in my pocket and feels kinda bulky. This is an issue if you keep the case in your pocket along with your phone.
The earbuds are on the bigger side as well in terms of the size. The orange color stands out in public (good if you like that) but the bigger size of the earbuds results in ear fatigue. The case and the earbuds get dirty very easily due to the lighter color.
The hinge is of good quality and you can enjoy a satisfying snap while closing the lid. Although, you cannot open the lid with one hand, you would need both of yours hands for that. The magnet to hold the earbuds are strong and the buds won’t fall off easily.
The lid opens up from the side of the LED indicator (it either glows white or red for battery indication and blinks white for pairing status) which is a bit confusing at the start since most earbud cases open up from the opposite side of the usb port. The right side of the case has a USB Type-C port for charging along with the pairing button. Both the case and earbuds are made out of polycarbonate but don’t feel cheap.
Overall, CMF Buds 2a look good and have good build quality as well. The case and the earbuds could’ve been smaller which would’ve helped with portability and a bit more comfort.
Fit and ANC
The CMF Buds 2a fit kinda funky in my ears. They are a bit bigger than your average tws earbuds hence the seal sometimes is bit too tight. You have to twist them up and then down in your ears to have proper seal. It fits worse in my left ear compared to the right one. You get 3 sizes of eartips in the box, try them all out for a proper fit.
ANC on the CMF Buds 2a is not that good tbh. It only manages to block sounds like fans and ac’s, but cannot really block much when you are outside. On top of that, the ANC keeps leaking for some reason on my unit (no, transparency mode was not on). So suddenly you will start hearing everything around you, which is weird. To resolve this, you have to turn on transparency mode and then again switch to ANC mode. This happens alot when you are outside and it is quite annoying. The transparent mode is robotic and has that hissy-airy sound going on. It is not that good honestly for talking to people.
Overall, the ANC is average on the CMF Buds 2a.
Controls, Pairing, and Nothing X App
CMF Buds 2a have a ton of controls through the touch points given in the earbuds. Both the earbuds have touch controls that can be customized from the Nothing X app. My only issue is that there is no option for a single tap control on either earbud. Another thing is that, on my Sennheiser, am used to the single tap option that pauses the music and turns on transparency mode immediately. But here you first have to pause the music with a double tap, and then again tap and hold to turn on transparency mode. There is no in-ear detection as well due to which your music doesn’t pause when you take the earbuds out of your ears. This makes talking to someone so awkward and delayed.
Pairing the earbuds is quick and easy. For the first time you can just open the lid and the earbuds move into paring mode (the LED will blink white). It has support for Google Fast Pair and Microsoft Swift Pair, so you will see a pop up on your devices to pair the earbuds. From the second device onwards, you have to put the earbuds in the case, then press and hold the pairing button (the white LED will start blinking). It has dual device support but the switching between devices has a bit of a delay. Other than that, the pairing process is quick and smooth. There is a low latency mode as well, but I didn’t really test that. The bluetooth connection is strong, I didn’t see any drops while using it either with my phones or my laptop.
The Nothing X app (available on both Android and iOS) is minimal but feature packed. You will have access to all the features and controls of the earbuds from this app, including an EQ which honestly, the earbuds respond well to. You can update the firmware of the earbuds from this app as well. The only issue that I have with this is that when you want to use the app on multiple devices, you have to put the earbuds in the case, start the pairing process and only then does it show the controls of the earbuds (even though the earbuds are already connected to device). This is very annoying when you quickly want to change a setting.
How Do They Sound Like?
When it comes to the sound, the CMF Buds 2a came as a surprise. Out of the box, you will find them quite bass heavy but turning off Ultra Bass and tweaking the EQ a little bit will give some excellent results. This is how my EQ looks like. If you need that bass then you can turn up the ultra bass option (5 levels in total). But nevertheless, once the tweaking is done, you will find the sound of the Buds 2a to be punchy with decently clear mids (the lyrics). The highs are still not that well represented as you can will find guitar strings and other instruments to be a bit grungy. The Dirac Opteo tuning will work for most folks if they don’t want to fiddle around with the EQ.
Other than that, the instrument separation is done well. I have been listening to The Idol from KPop Demon Hunters and the arrangements are very clearly noticeable, the kicks drop with a punch, and the vocals come through cleanly. The sound stage is wide and the imaging has been done well. You will able to hear instruments and other effects all around you in something like Tujhe Bhula Diya. So overall, I feel Nothing has done a really good job in terms of how the CMF Buds 2a sound (you won’t be disappointed).
Battery and Mics
The battery life on the CMF Buds 2a is good. I am getting around 5 hours of playback with ANC on and the case can charge it around 3 times. A bit more battery life would’ve been better considering the size of the buds but this is decent. It charges quite quickly with the type-c port (takes around an hour) but you also get quick charge support (10 minutes of charge gives it 5.5 hours of playback). So, it’s decent I would say.
The mics are decent on the Buds 2a, people can hear you while on calls (although a bit muddy) and there is no issue while taking calls.
Verdict
Overall, I would say the CMF Buds 2a is a decent package for the price, specially in terms of the sound quality it offers. It has some useful features while also missing a few others. The controls could’ve been better. But if you are thinking of purchasing it then go ahead, these are one of the best TWS earphones you can get for the price.
If this was helpful, then share it with everyone. Share your thoughts about the CMF Buds 2a in the comments. Peace! ✌️
