I tested the CMF Buds 2 and I'm shocked — they're less than $50 but sound like $100 rivals

The CMF Buds 2 are nothing short of impressive. With a sub-$50 price tag, they’re competing with some of the best cheap wireless earbuds, and boy, do they hold their own. I’ve found these buds super comfortable to wear all day long, and I think they offer very impressive sound quality performance for their price, thanks to Dirac tuning. There’s up to 55 hours of battery life to play with and effective active noise cancellation to keep you focused.

They aren’t perfect. The CMF Buds 2 lack hi-res codecs and have less-than-perfect environmental noise cancellation for calls, but they’re still very impressive earbuds for the money. To find out more, you can keep reading this full CMF Buds 2 review.

CMF Buds 2 review: Cheat sheet

• What are they? Budget earbuds with impressive audio quality
• How much do they cost? $49 / £33
• What do we like? Great for audio enhancement, a long battery life, a comfortable design, and decent ANC
• What don’t we like? ENC for calls struggles and a lack of hi-res codecs

CMF Buds 2 review: Specs

CMF Buds 2 review: Price & availability

The CMF Buds 2 are available at Amazon U.S. for $49 and at Amazon U.K. for £33. Yeah, that’s right, these are some of the cheapest buds on the market, but their sound will have you fooled. The Buds 2 are one of the cheapest offerings from CMF — Nothing’s budget sub-brand — and are $30 cheaper than the CMF Buds 2 Plus. However, this means the buds 2 are a little more basic. If you want more premium features like LDAC, you’ll have to spend a little bit more on the Buds 2 Plus.

The CMF Buds 2 are slightly more expensive than the JLab Go Pods ANC, which cost just $36 and provide awesome sound quality for the money, which outperforms most other budget brands. However, the Buds 2 have an extra hour of battery life, so you win some, you lose some.

If you want buds for detailed listening, the crown goes to the EarFun Air Pro 4+ earbuds for $99, which have the best sound quality we’ve seen from budget buds, plus very impressive battery life. That said, the Buds 2 can still hold their own and cost half the money.

CMF Buds 2 review: Design

• Sleek design with multiple color choices
• Responsive touch controls
• Bluetooth 5.4

The CMF Buds 2 are identical to the CMF Buds 2 Plus and the CMF Buds Pro 2, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. This design is sleek, compact, and functional. They feel a bit more plasticky than higher-end stem buds like the Apple AirPods Pro 3 ($249) or the Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro ($249), but that’s to be expected with the uber-budget price point.

I like the choice of colors you get with the Buds 2, and I think it really makes them stand out. I tested the Dark Gray colorway, but they also come in Light Green and Orange.

The buds themselves are very lightweight at 0.2 ounces, so when I’m wearing them, I hardly feel them in my ears. They measure just 1.3 x 0.9 x 0.8 inches, so they don’t jut out too much, either. The buds have a durability rating of IP55, so they can withstand splashes of water from any direction and are protected against dust.

However, the charging case is only IPX2-rated, which means protection against condensation only. The EarFun Air Pro 4+ earbuds are IP55-rated for the buds and case. The case measures 2.1 x 2.1 x 0.9 inches and weighs just 1.5 ounces.

Controls

The CMF Buds 2 use touch-sensitive controls on the stems. The controls are responsive, and I didn’t have any issues with missed inputs, even during runs. Actions for these controls can be easily changed in the Nothing X app.

Also, In-ear detection makes the CMF Buds 2 a great companion for when I’m rushing around. I was able to quickly take them out to order a coffee and pick up right where I left off.

Connectivity & app

The CMF Buds 2 use Bluetooth 5.4 for connectivity and can be paired to two devices for seamless switching. This was great for switching between my phone and laptop.

The Nothing X app is a handy companion for the CMF Buds 2. It’s very simple to use and easy to navigate. You can quickly make changes to the ANC settings and the touch controls.

The EQ can also be customized too. Nothing uses a circular pattern with spikes for Bass, Mids and Treble for EQ customization, unlike typical banded frequency controls.

These earbuds don’t offer a personalized EQ test in the app like the CMF Buds 2 Plus, but the custom EQ controls should be enough to get the right sound for you on the Buds 2.

CMF Buds 2 review: Sound quality

• Dirac tuning works well
• Custom EQ can improve sound quality
• No hi-res support

Tuning for the buds comes from Dirac, which optimizes the sound despite hardware limitations. This feature did a great job at expanding the sound of most genres I was listening to. This is a feature on the CMF Buds Pro 2, but not on the Buds 2 Plus or the Buds 2A, so I’m glad to see it featured on the Buds 2 (wow, I wish CMF would add some variation to the names of their products).

The buds have Ultra Bass, which enhances bass performance, which can be modified over five levels in the Nothing X app. Combined with the Dirac Opteo EQ, this gives the buds some pretty high-end sound. There are six EQ presets, including Dirac Opteo, and a custom EQ option to get the best sound possible for your listening.

Firstly, I listened to Hang With Me by Robyn. This is an electronic track with a punchy bassline. The Ultra Bass setting enhanced the synth in the bassline. The bass felt like it was driving the song. The Dirac Opteo EQ made vocals sound clear and balanced across the top of the soundstage.

Next, I listened to Falling Behind by Laufey to test the performance in quieter tracks. When listening with Dirac, I felt like the music enveloped me. The soundscape was incredibly wide and immersive.

Finally, I played Nightmare Tripping by Don Broco. This is a fast-paced metalcore track that switches between melodic vocals and screaming. But the rock EQ was the perfect companion for this song, as the heightened treble makes the drums and screams sound more balanced.

While the buds may not support hi-res streaming like other CMF models, they actually sound more like $100 earbuds.

CMF Buds 2 review: ANC

• Good for blocking out most noise
• Struggles with blocking high frequencies
• Adjustable

The ANC on the CMF Buds 2 is effective, but not as good as the pricier CMF Buds 2 Plus, which rivals the ANC on the Apple AirPods Pro 3. The Buds 2 are still impressive and blocked out the chatter around me in the office. But higher-frequency sounds, like the clacking of my keyboard as I was typing, still broke through.

That said, on my morning walk, the buds did a great job of blocking out the traffic around me. But if I needed a bit more awareness when crossing roads, for example, I could simply turn on transparency mode, which fed some ambient sound to me, but didn’t disrupt the music quality.

CMF Buds 2 review: Call quality

• ENC struggles with traffic
• Clear voice replication

Call quality is pretty decent on the CMF Buds 2; they have 6 HD microphones. When I was on the phone while I was walking, the person on the other end of the call could hear the traffic around me, so the environmental noise cancellation isn’t that effective. That said, the sound of my voice was clear, and it didn’t suffer from any sort of static.

CMF Buds 2 review: Battery

• 55 hours ANC off
• 32 hours ANC on
• 90-minutes to charge

The CMF Buds 2 have an impressive 55 hours of playtime with the case when ANC is off, and 32 hours with ANC on. After listening for 5 hours with the buds, they had around 60% battery remaining, so you can expect to get around 12 hours per charge from the buds.

The EarFun Air Pro 4+ earbuds offer a whopping 54 hours of battery life, but the CMF Buds 2 have pipped even them to the post here. This is also 23 hours longer than the rated battery life of the Sony WF-1000XM6 earbuds.

The Buds 2 can fully charge in about 90 minutes, and the buds take about an hour to charge in the case.

CMF Buds 2 review: Verdict

The CMF Buds 2 are the definition of a bargain. For $49, they provide some of the best enhanced audio quality of any budget earbuds I’ve tested. The long battery life is impressive, and the comfortable design means you’ll be able to use them all day long if you need to. The ANC is also ideal for staying locked in.

However, when taking calls, the environmental noise cancellation struggles to block out traffic sounds. The lack of Hi-Res codecs may also leave some listeners wanting to head in the direction of the CMF Buds 2 Plus for LDAC compatibility.

But, honestly, the Dirac tuning does a great job at enhancing the audio and makes the Buds 2 sound worth far more than their sub-$50 price tag. I recommend these to anyone who needs a pair of high-quality budget buds for day-to-day listening.