CMF came out with a trio of buds belonging to its Buds 2 series. While we have already reviewed the Buds 2, it is now time for the more pricier one, the CMF Buds 2 Plus, priced at Rs 3,299. Do these sound better than the Buds 2, and should you pay the asking price for them? We’ll answer that in our detailed CMF Buds 2 Plus review.
Design and Comfort
Design-wise, the Buds 2 and the Buds 2 Plus are not different from each other at all. The buds are the same shape and size, which makes them equally comfortable and also hard to distinguish from the cheaper buds and the original CMF Buds that came out last year.
The buds don’t sit loose in the ear, which is a good thing as they won’t fall out during workout sessions. The touch controls work the same as the Buds 2, with no single-tap gesture on offer. Apart from that, the gestures you can perform include double tap, triple tap, tap and hold, and double tap and hold, all of which are customisable.
The Buds are also IP55 rated, so handling dust, sweat, and splashes of water shouldn’t be an issue.
The case, on the other hand, features a sturdy spring-loaded opening mechanism that feels solid and well-built. Inside, there’s a dedicated button for pairing, while an LED light on the front indicates the battery and charging status for both the earbuds and the case. The magnets inside the case are also strong enough to keep the buds in place.
The case also has a dial on the top that can be used to attach a lanyard, but that’s about it. On the right side, it gets a USB-C port to top up the case.
Compared to the Buds 2, the case has a rubberised matte finish instead of the hard plastic matte finish, which makes this one feel slightly more premium to the touch. The light grey shade we received definitely has an eye-catching look, but due to the finish, the case could get dirty sooner than expected.
The only issue I faced with the case is that it didn’t charge the left earbud after I closed it and the earbud was still connected to my phone. In other words, the left earbud didn’t shut off even after it was in the case.
Sound Quality, ANC, App Features
The CMF Buds 2 Plus packs 12mm LCP drivers and supports a Hi-Res LDAC audio codec as well. The support for a Hi-Res codec gives them the advantage over the CMF Buds 2, as the sound is crisper on the Buds 2 Plus and has more details to hear. During my CMF Buds 2 Plus review and the Buds 2 review, I could easily make out the difference in sound quality. I was using Apple Music for lossless audio playback, and the Buds 2 Plus clearly did better.
They don’t have the Dirac Opteo equaliser, but you can choose from other options, including a custom one, which I used during my testing. In terms of bass, the sound from the CMF Buds 2 Plus was even slightly better than the CMF Buds 2 Pro from last year.
The Buds 2 Plus’s bass sounded much more powerful, with those thumping vibrations, while the vocals were clear and the mids were also well defined. Ultra Bass technology further enhances the bass if that’s what you are into. Aside from that, they are loud enough and overall provide a balanced sound signature with no frequencies overlapping each other.
Coming to ANC, the buds support hybrid ANC up to 50dB, and it’s quite effective in most scenarios, except for cancelling out higher-pitched sounds, which do leak in at times. Noise like that of people talking around you, traffic noises, and other low-end Frequency sounds is kept out nicely. Wind noise was also handled decently by the earbuds, also thanks to Wind Noise Reduction 3.0.
The transparency mode, on the other hand, is a little muddy, as it has been with all the CMF earbuds I have tested so far. It works and does let in some ambient noise, but not as well as you’d expect a transparency mode to be.
The Nothing X app offers several useful features. You can turn the low lag mode on or off—it works best if you have a Nothing or CMF phone. In my experience, it handles gaming pretty well. There’s also in-ear detection and support for multi-device connectivity, both of which worked smoothly.
You can use the app to find your earbuds if they go missing or run an eartip fit test to ensure you’re using the right size and wearing them properly.
One of the touch gestures can be customised to launch ChatGPT for voice assistance with a single tap. That said, I didn’t use it much and preferred sticking to the usual touch controls like adjusting volume, skipping tracks, and switching between ANC and Transparency modes.
The app also includes a Spatial Sound feature that creates an echo chamber effect, making it feel like the audio is coming from different directions. This feature is decent for movies as it adds a layer of immersion, but it might not appeal to everyone for music.
Lastly, there’s a Personal Sound feature that customises the audio based on your hearing profile. It takes about 3 to 5 minutes to set up, but honestly, I preferred the sound with it turned off — it just felt more natural that way.
Call Quality, Battery Backup
The CMF Buds 2 Plus come with 6 mics (3 on each earbud) featuring Clear Voice Technology 3.0. The Buds 2 Plus certainly offer better call quality over the Buds 2. While they still cannot completely cancel out background noise during a call, they still do a better job than Buds 2 and moreover, my voice sounded clearer to the person on the other end.
The Buds 2 Plus are claimed to offer a 61.5-hour backup with the case and 14 hours with buds only. If you turn on ANC, these numbers, as per CMF, drop to 33 hours with case and 7.5 hours with buds only.
In my testing, the case fully charged the earbuds about two to three times before running out of juice. With around 3 to 4 hours of daily use—including calls, with ANC at high intensity and volume at 70 to 80%—the buds and the case easily lasted me a full week. That kind of battery life is seriously impressive.