The budget headphone segment has started to blur into one long, boring pattern. Walk into any store or scroll online and you’ll see the same safe designs repeated over and over. Black plastic, familiar shapes, and a heavy focus on specs, often at the cost of how these headphones actually feel to live with day after day. That’s the space CMF, Nothing’s sub-brand, is clearly trying to shake up.
With the CMF Headphone Pro, the idea doesn’t seem to be about racing to the lowest price. Instead, CMF is leaning hard into design and personality, trying to stand out in a category that rarely takes risks. The headphones first showed up in a few global markets in September 2025, and now they’re finally making their way to India on January 20.
I’ve been using the Light Green version, and at least on paper, it ticks a lot of boxes. There’s a bold, industrial-inspired look, a colour that doesn’t try to disappear, big battery claims, and features like LDAC that you don’t usually see at this price. The real test, though, is everyday use. At ₹7,999, does all that style translate into something you’ll actually enjoy using, or is the appeal mostly skin deep?
Design, Build & Comfort
Let’s call it like it is: most budget headphones look painfully safe. Black, beige, plastic, and forgettable. The CMF Headphone Pro clearly didn’t get that memo. It does the exact opposite and makes sure you notice it. I’ve been using the Light Green version daily, and I genuinely enjoy how bold it looks. The almost toy-like pop design feels playful and confident, not like it’s trying to blend in with everything else on the shelf.
Yes, the body is mostly plastic, but it doesn’t feel flimsy or hollow in the hand. The matte finish avoids that greasy shine cheap headphones often pick up, and the metal reinforcement inside the headband adds some real confidence when you adjust the size. CMF says these went through 66 different durability tests, including drops and twists, and based on daily use, I believe it. They feel sturdy enough to survive being tossed into a backpack. That said, the included drawstring pouch feels like an afterthought. A proper hard case would have made a lot more sense here.
The modular ear cushions are easily the most talked-about feature. Are they necessary? Not really. Are they fun? Absolutely. Swapping them out is strangely satisfying and lets you change the look whenever you want. Just be careful while putting them back on. If they’re even slightly misaligned or flipped, the seal gets messed up. Also worth mentioning: the Light Green headphones and orange pads I tested attract dust like crazy. If you’re not someone who constantly wipes your gear, they won’t stay clean for long.
Comfort is mostly solid. At 283 grams, they don’t feel heavy on the head, even during long sessions. The ear pads are big and cushy, and they form a good passive seal around the ears. However, the clamp is a bit tight. After about two hours of editing, I could feel the pressure, along with the usual heat build-up that comes with leatherette pads on closed-back headphones.
The controls are where CMF really leans into experimentation. The buttons themselves are on the smaller side, which took some getting used to. On the right cup, you’ll find the USB-C port, a customizable Action Button, and a clicky roller for volume and playback or ANC, depending on how you set it up.
But the standout is on the left cup. Alongside the power button and the 3.5mm jack is the Energy Slider. It’s smooth, has no clicks, and lets you adjust bass and treble on the fly. It feels more like a fidget than a control, and I caught myself sliding it around even when I didn’t need to. It did take a few days to build muscle memory for the smaller buttons, though.
In the end, the CMF Headphone Pro clearly isn’t trying to be subtle. It goes all-in on bold design and tactile controls. The tiny buttons and dust-prone pads aren’t perfect, but the overall build and comfort punch above what you’d expect at this price.
Audio Quality
Before getting into how these headphones sound, a bit of context matters. I don’t treat music as background noise. For the past six years, I’ve spent a lot of time actively listening, breaking tracks down layer by layer. I pay attention to small details most people gloss over; faint guitar lines tucked behind vocals, overlapping instrument layers, and those subtle melodic elements that give a song depth. So when I say the CMF Headphone Pro got serious listening time, it really did.
CMF is using 40mm custom drivers with nickel-plated diaphragms and a copper voice coil. That looks fine on a spec sheet, but numbers don’t tell you much until you actually hit play. To get a real sense of what these could do, I jumped between very different genres, moving from the emotional softness of Ali Sethi’s tracks to the hard-hitting, bass-driven delivery of Divine.
Straight out of the box, the tuning feels clearly aimed at everyday listeners. It’s smooth, easygoing, and doesn’t try to sound overly technical. That said, things noticeably improve if you’re using an Android phone. Switching over to LDAC brings an immediate lift in clarity and separation, and it’s not subtle.
To test dynamics and staging, I started with Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen, a track that exposes weak headphones very quickly. The CMF Headphone Pro managed the layered vocal sections better than expected. Individual harmonies remain audible, although during the most crowded moments, the instruments do push forward and slightly overshadow the vocals. It’s the kind of compromise you only really notice if you’re used to much more expensive gear.
For vocal-focused tracks, I played Gulon Main Rang and Qayede Se. The midrange is handled well. Ali Sethi’s voice comes through warm and textured, without sounding artificially sharpened. As arrangements become busier, vocals do slip just a touch behind the mix. It never turns muddy, but they aren’t always front and centre either.
Bass tuning is where these headphones become genuinely enjoyable. Using the Energy Slider with tracks like All Black, 3:59, and I’m an Albatraoz shows that this control actually does something meaningful. At lower levels, bass stays clean and restrained. Push it higher, and you get a deep, physical thump. On 3:59, the sub-bass hits with authority without completely overpowering the vocals. Max it out, though, and it does get heavy; great for workouts, less ideal if you’re listening critically.
I also spent time with binaural tracks during quieter moments to check clarity and background noise. The soundstage isn’t massive, but it’s wide enough to make spatial effects feel convincing. The Cinema and Concert modes add extra width that works well for movies, but for music, I preferred sticking to the standard stereo profile.
I ran the Personal Sound test in the Nothing X app as well. It takes a few minutes and is worth doing. For me, it slightly opened up the upper mids, making percussion hits feel sharper and more immediate.
Overall, the CMF Headphone Pro delivers a lively, engaging sound that feels well above what its price suggests. It captures small details: a vocalist's breath, the tail end of a drum hit better than expected. It’s not trying to replace studio gear, but for everyday listening, it’s genuinely satisfying.
ANC and Call Quality
This is one of those cases where the spec sheet sets expectations a little too high. CMF talks about 40dB hybrid adaptive ANC, and in calm, everyday situations, it does what you’d want it to do. Around the house or on quieter streets, the effect is obvious. The constant stuff in the background; fan noise, AC hum, distant traffic just drops away enough that you stop paying attention to it.
Once you step into properly noisy places, though, the picture changes. I used these during peak hours on the Delhi Metro and in a crowded local market, and that’s where you start noticing the limits. The noise cancellation is still doing something, but it doesn’t match the promise of the numbers. With ANC on and no music playing, plenty of sound still gets through. I’d roughly put it at cutting about half the noise. Even with music playing at a comfortable volume, crowd chatter, announcements, and street sounds don’t vanish. It takes the sharp edge off the chaos, but it doesn’t create that bubble of silence you get from much more expensive headphones.
Call quality feels like a different story altogether. The Headphone Pro uses a three-mic setup with Clear Voice Technology, and in quieter environments, it works really well. Indoors, my voice sounded clean and natural, and calls stayed stable without any weird drops. For home or office use, it honestly performs better than you’d expect at this price.
Outside is where things get messy. The microphones are very sensitive, and that sensitivity isn’t always helpful. During calls in busy areas, my voice came through clearly, but so did everything else around me. Traffic, nearby conversations, and random street noise all made their way to the other end. The headphones struggle to separate your voice once the environment gets loud and unpredictable. The mics pick up a lot of detail, but in crowded markets or packed streets, switching to your phone’s earpiece is still the safer bet.
Connectivity and Controls
I didn’t run into any connectivity issues during daily use, which is honestly the best compliment I can give here. The Headphone Pro uses Bluetooth 5.4 and supports AAC, SBC, and LDAC. That LDAC support still feels rare at this price, and if you’re on Android, the difference is noticeable with higher-quality streams. Music sounds cleaner and less compressed than what you usually get from budget headphones. Pairing was completely hassle-free too. I switched them on, got a Google Fast Pair prompt, tapped once, and that was it.
The dual-device connection ended up being more useful than I expected. I kept the headphones connected to both my laptop and phone most of the time, and the switching just worked. I could be watching a video on my laptop, get a call on my phone, and the audio would jump over instantly. No menus, no reconnecting. That kind of reliability isn’t guaranteed in this segment, so it stood out.
The physical controls deserve a mention. Between the rotary dial for volume and playback, the Energy Slider for bass tweaks, and the customizable Action Button, CMF has clearly tried to make things more interactive. I mapped the Action Button to the voice assistant using the Nothing X app. One press brought up Google Gemini, which made quick checks and reminders surprisingly convenient. It worked smoothly enough that I actually kept using it instead of defaulting to my phone.
Gaming performance was solid as well. With low-latency mode enabled, audio sync felt tight. While playing CODM, gunshots and effects lined up properly with what was happening on screen. I stopped actively listening for lag, which is usually a good sign. For casual gaming, the Headphone Pro does the job without any obvious issues.
Battery and Charging
This is the point where the CMF Headphone Pro clearly separates itself from most rivals. CMF talks about up to 100 hours of playback with ANC switched off and roughly 50 hours with noise cancellation enabled, and in real use, those figures don’t feel like marketing exaggeration. Battery life quickly stopped being something I paid attention to, which says a lot.
Right out of the box, the headphones were sitting at around 60% charge. That single charge level lasted me close to three full days of fairly heavy usage, including long stretches of YouTube and OTT content. I first saw the low-battery alert at 10% midway through an episode, and even after that warning, I still had nearly two hours of listening time before it dropped to 5%. That level of endurance is hard to ignore.
Charging behaviour is equally sensible. CMF claims that a five-minute charge can give you around four hours of playback with ANC on, and from what I saw, that estimate holds up. A brief top-up during a short break was enough to get me through extended viewing without any breaks.
As for charging from empty to full, I honestly didn’t track it closely because I almost never managed to drain the battery completely. According to CMF, a full charge takes about two hours using the USB-C port, which feels perfectly reasonable given how rarely you’ll need to plug these in.
Price and Availability
The CMF Headphone Pro has officially arrived in India with an MRP of ₹7,999, though early buyers can grab it for ₹6,999 as part of a limited-time launch offer. Sales begin on January 20, with availability confirmed on Flipkart as well as select offline retail outlets.
When you factor in features like LDAC support, claimed 40dB active noise cancellation, and the class-leading battery life, the pricing comes across as extremely competitive for this segment.
Final Verdict: Should you buy it?
If long battery life and standout design matter more to you than total noise isolation, the CMF Headphone Pro is very easy to recommend. That near-100-hour stamina genuinely changes how often you think about charging, and the physical controls add a sense of playfulness you rarely see at this price.
Yes, the noise cancellation doesn’t completely wipe out the chaos of the Delhi Metro, and the microphones can be a bit over-eager outdoors. Still, the lively sound tuning, LDAC support, and overall comfort balance those compromises well. At ₹6,999, it isn’t perfect, but it’s easily one of the most interesting headphones you can pick up right now.
