Neckband-style earbuds have mostly fallen out of fashion these days, but there are still specific use cases where they work better than TWS alternatives. For one, they let you drop the wire but still have good battery life and ensure they don’t fall out while running. If you’re looking for a pair that won’t significantly affect your finances, you should definitely check out the CMF Neckband Pro.
Before we start, a word about the brand. CMF by Nothing is Nothing’s affordable accessories brand with distinct styling and aggressive pricing. The Neckband Pro is possibly CMF’s most powerful headphone, and it retails for just ₹2,000 ($24).
Unbox
In the box, you get two extra sets of ear tips of different sizes.
When you think of neckband-style headphones, you think of sports and fitness, so a few tweaks to the buds themselves could have made the Neckband Pro an even better overall package. But then a valid case can be made that you don’t really need it with this form factor.
Design and features
This reviewer is a TWS user and regular runner and found the CMF Neckband Pro to be a perfect fit.
Doing high-intensity workouts with the buds was a breeze, and they stayed snug and secure in my medium-sized ear canals.
The buttons are small and light – the total set is just under 30 grams.
The way to turn off the Neckband Pro is to attach the two knobs together. They lock nicely into place thanks to built-in magnets and mostly stay put when worn around your neck.
However, the buds would separate as soon as I put them in my backpack, and turn during my car commute to the office, which would drain the battery and cause problems playing music from my car stereo.
Each knob contains a large 13.6mm custom dynamic driver with Ultra Bass Technology 2.0. The drivers can simulate spatial audio and have active noise cancellation of up to 50 dB.
The USB-C port is on the right side of the Neckband Pro. The headphones’ 220mAh battery supports fast charging – you’ll get up to 18 hours of use with just 10 minutes on a charge with ANC off. With ANC on, you’ll get around 11 hours.
The smart dial is a highlight on the CMF Neckband Pro. It is both a click wheel and a button. It gives great physical feedback – you can really feel every step.
By default, the dial changes the volume, while a press pauses/plays, a double press is for the next song, and a triple press is for the previous song.
A press and hold toggles between active noise cancellation and transparency mode.
There’s also a small button on the bottom of the right stem that switches between Bluetooth devices – yes, the Neckband Pro supports dual connection, and it worked flawlessly in our testing.
The Nothing X app
CMF’s products use the Nothing X app on Android and iOS, and you get essentially the same menu.
Sound quality and battery life
We’ve already said that the CMF Neckband Pro has hefty 13.6mm drivers – that’s bigger than the 11mm drivers on the new Nothing Ear buds. The active noise cancellation on the CMF Neckband Pro is also rated higher – 50 dB vs 45 dB. Impressive stats for a set that costs less than $30.
In the real world, we can’t really say we felt that extra 5 dB of noise cancellation. We’d say the noise cancellation felt similar between the CMF Neckband Pro and Nothing’s more expensive buds. That’s to say it’s on par with just about every other set of TWS buds with ANC around, aside from a few very expensive outliers, like the Apple AirPods Pro 2, or Sony’s WF-1000XM5.
Nix’s X app is where you set the sound, and here we’re a little disappointed. The equalizer is a simplified three-channel one with Bass, Treble, and Mids, and you can adjust each from -6 to +6.
It lacks graininess, and we’d prefer the fully adjustable equalizer you get in the same app for the new Nothing Ear. We just left the knobs in Balanced, which seemed to fit the best.
Voice the sound
In terms of sound quality, the CMF Neckband Pro is loud, very loud. When listening to higher-quality audio, such as Spotify, you get solid, overflowing sound.
The low end is very strong even when Ultra Bass is turned off. Turning it on fills it in a bit more, making the sound more rounded. The midrange is not very balanced. Instruments and vocals feel full of presence and life in some songs, while in others we hear crackling. Sometimes instruments came out a little tinny. Turning the volume down a notch helped here.
There’s plenty of presence and clarity with the CMF Neckband Pro, but choosing loud volume levels can cause it to break up at times.
Putting these side by side with the Nothing Ear (2) we’d say it’s a matter of big volume and a booming low end on the CMF side versus a mature soundstage with more presence and brilliance on the Nothing side.
CMF claims you can get up to 37 hours of playback with ANC off and 8 and a half with it on. We didn’t manage to kill these buttons in a week of testing, despite accidentally connecting sessions while the buttons were in a backpack.
Closure
The CMF Neckband Pro is an excellent headset for the lover of neckband-style headphones. They are well-built, have logical and intuitive controls, and fit our use case perfectly.
Their spec sheet is also impressively long. It’s hard to find a better specced device for the money.
We’d say the CMF Neckband Pro is worth it for the big drivers with powerful bass and loud sound, good active noise cancellation and good app integration. Add in the excellent battery life and the outstanding price, and the CMF Neckband Pro is a winner.
The only problem is finding the CMF Neckband Pro at a retailer near you. European users have the CMF Buds and Buds Pro, while the Neckband Pro seems to be available only in India at the moment.