CMF Clip Pro review: excellent open-back headphones at a reasonable price

Consumer electronics company Nothing has a history of offering excellent value for money, but its CMF brand generally takes this value proposition further. For example, CMF’s newest product comes in the form of the new CMF Clip Pro open-back headphones, designed for people who like the idea of ​​open-back headphones but don’t want to pay a lot to get them.

These are actually CMF’s first open clip-on headphones, the type that grips the outer edge of your ear rather than plugging into your ear canal, allowing you to hear the world around you while you listen. It’s a category that’s becoming increasingly popular, with companies like Bose, Shokz, and Huawei all offering their own versions. The Clip Pro costs $99, which is significantly less than most competitors. I use the Clip Pro to find out if this price is worth making the inevitable compromises or if you should save a little more money for a more robust option.

The Clip Pro’s design is built around a C-shaped bridge that wraps around the edge of your ear, with a flexible, elastic titanium wire core inside that allows the clip to conform to different ear shapes. Each earbud weighs just 5.9 grams, which is significant for a device meant to stay attached to your ear all day. You can get them in dark gray, light gray, or coral, and I’m reviewing the Coral model, which I like the look of.

The charging case is also unique. It’s the same color as the earbuds and has a touch wheel on the top that you can press. CMF calls this the Smart Dial, and it can actually be used to control volume, playback, calls, and more. It’s pretty cool and I love the tactile feel. On the back, there is a USB-C port for charging. Unfortunately, this is the only way to charge these earbuds as they don’t support any wireless charging.

Besides the case controls, each bud has its own control in the form of a small button on the bud’s main unit. Normally I don’t like physical buttons on earbuds, but these are positioned in such a way that pressing a button doesn’t pose the same comfort issues as on other wireless earbuds. While the housing design looks neat, it makes it somewhat difficult to insert the heads easily at first. You will get used to their integration after a few tries.

Durability is decent, but not exceptional. The headphones have an IP54 rating for dust and splash resistance, which covers sweat and light rain – perfect for workouts and commuting, but not at the level of sportier options that reach IP57 or higher. The charging case gets an IPX2 rating for drop resistance, which is higher than most cases get, but it certainly won’t prevent damage if you forget your earbuds are in your pocket and jump in the pool.

Open-back headphones, in general, have a lot to offer when it comes to comfort because they don’t actually fit into your ear canals. These are no exception. They’re easy to wear for hours without becoming uncomfortable, although you’ll have to get used to the feeling when you start wearing them if you’ve never worn clip-on headphones before.

The grip is soft but secure enough for moving around, working, and doing light exercise, and I never felt like the earbuds were about to fall out. If you’re looking for something to wear for running, for example, these will do the trick.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way: There’s no active noise cancellation here, and there’s not supposed to be. Unlike the CMF Buds Pro, the Clip Pro is designed to let sound in, which also means there’s no dedicated transparency mode – the whole product East a transparency mode. If you want to isolate yourself, open headphones are not the way to go.

What CMF has focused on instead is dealing with the downsides of open-ear listening, primarily sound leakage. This is largely due to the so-called Sound Seal system, which seems to work well in directing sound towards my ear canals – although, of course, there will always be a few leak. There are downsides to enabling it, however: it changes the audio response significantly, making things sound muffled. This may be fine for some when listening to a podcast or audiobook, but music doesn’t sound good when the feature is enabled.

The rest of the feature set is solid for the price. A four-microphone array intended to handle voice isolation and noise cancellation during calls, and the Nothing Connectivity is via Bluetooth 5.4 with Google Fast Pair, Microsoft Swift Pair, and two-device multipoint.

Without needing to power the ANC, battery life is quite good on these headphones. Each earbud has a 60 mAh battery capable of providing up to 10 hours of continuous listening or 6.5 hours of talk time. With the charging case, you’ll get a total listening time of 32.5 hours.

I found that, for the most part, the battery seemed to live up to what the CMF claims. And even when it eventually runs out, a 10-minute charge via USB-C will give you four hours of listening time.

Under the hood, the CMF Clip Pro headphones have a lot to offer. Inside each bud is a 10.8mm dual-magnet dynamic driver with a TPU and liquid crystal polymer diaphragm. The headphones are Hi-Res Audio certified and support LDAC up to 990 kbps alongside AAC and SBC. CMF also touts its “Ultra Bass” technology, designed to compensate for the natural low-frequency attenuation that accompanies any unsealed design.

That’s a lot of marketing, and while they sound perfectly fine, they can’t get around the physics of open-back headphones. It’s simply difficult, if not impossible, to deliver the same bass and clarity that you can get when you have a seal in your ears, or at least something close to it. Much more expensive open-back headphones can’t get around this limitation, and neither can these.

That’s not to say they sound bad. The audio profile is a little mid-heavy, which is to be expected. You’ll get pretty clear vocals, and if you’re listening to a podcast or audiobook, you should be able to hear the words fairly easily. The music is perfectly listenable for casual sessions, but if you’re looking for super detailed highs and deep bass, you won’t really get it here.

The audio also isn’t as good as some other open-ear competitors, although few are as cheap as these. THE a lot The more expensive Bose Ultra Open Earbuds ($299) offer richer sound and a wider soundstage, but it’s three times the price of the CMF Clip Pro.

Call performance is pretty good though. The four-microphone array handles everyday voice calls and Discord chats with ease. Combined with the open design allowing you to hear your surroundings, the Clip Pro really makes a lot of sense as an office and communications tool.

The CMF Clip Pro headphones have a lot going for the price – and if you’re looking for a pair of open-back headphones, you might not be able to do much better at this price point. They offer a comfortable fit, great battery life, touch controls and much more. While they don’t sound as good as sealed headphones, that’s more of a form factor limitation than anything CMF could have solved.

There are a number of competitors to the CMF Clip Pro headphones, but they’re generally more expensive – and those similarly priced aren’t as unique or as feature-rich. The Bose Ultra Open costs $299 with significantly better sound, but that’s a completely different price bracket. And Nothing’s Own Ear (open) offers a richer sound profile, but has a different form factor. So if you want very affordable and ultra-comfortable open-back headphones, you can’t do better than the CMF Clip Pro.