CMF's new Buds Neo earbuds might be its most tempting pair yet

CMF only just dipped its toes into open-ear earbuds, but it clearly isn’t taking a break. Roughly two weeks later, the Nothing sub-brand is already back with another pair, and this time it’s targeting people who want affordable wireless earbuds without sacrificing features.

The new CMF Buds Neo are much more traditional than the company’s recent open-ear experiment, but there’s quite a lot packed into them. Even before you get to what they can actually do, though, CMF has tried to make them look a little different. The charging case has a square, two-tone design with a large circular dial on one side, giving it considerably more personality than the sea of plain cases we’re used to seeing.

That playful design extends to the little details, too. There’s a built-in lanyard hole, so you can attach a strap and clip the case to your backpack instead of inevitably losing it somewhere. The Buds Neo come in Black, White, and Dark Blue, with contrasting colors on the case and circular dial.

Once you pop the earbuds out of that case, things get a bit more interesting. It packs a 12.4mm dynamic driver, with CMF using a titanium-coated PET dome alongside a PEEK + PU surround. This means the buds deliver a fuller low end while keeping vocals and smaller details from getting lost in the mix.

You aren’t stuck with whatever tuning CMF has chosen, either. The Nothing X app gives you six EQ presets for different types of music, including Pop, Rock, Electronic, Classical, and Enhanced Vocals, along with a custom EQ for dialing things in yourself. That means your bass-heavy workout playlist doesn’t necessarily have to sound the same as the podcast you put on during your commute. And if you still want a little more thump, a separate Bass Enhancement setting lets you bump up the low end across two levels.

The Buds Neo also try to make things feel a little bigger with static spatial audio. It’s designed to widen the soundstage around you, so a movie on your phone or a live concert recording should feel less like it’s being squeezed directly into your ears. It isn’t head-tracked spatial audio that reacts as you move your head, but it’s still a nice feature to find on an inexpensive pair of earbuds.

Of course, making your music sound bigger doesn’t help much if your commute is fighting back. That’s where the Buds Neo’s Active Noise Cancelation comes in, with CMF claiming noise reduction of up to 35dB. It should help cut down background chatter in a busy office, traffic noise during a walk, or the steady rumble of your daily commute.

And if the Buds Neo are going to spend that much time in your ears, they need the battery life to keep up. With ANC switched off, CMF says each earbud can last up to 11 hours, while the charging case stretches total listening time to 52 hours. Leave ANC on, and you’re still looking at up to 30 hours altogether. Even forgetting to charge them shouldn’t leave you without music for long. A 10-minute top-up is claimed to provide up to 5.5 hours of listening, which could be a lifesaver when you discover your earbuds are dead just before leaving home. A complete charge takes around 70 minutes over USB-C.

All of those features become a lot more interesting once you get to the price. CMF is launching the Buds Neo in India (exclusively) for just ₹1,999 (roughly ~$20), with sales beginning on August 26. Of course, an impressive feature list doesn’t automatically make a great pair of earbuds. Comfort, microphone quality, ANC performance, and how those 12.4mm drivers actually sound will matter much more once people start using them. But for $20, the Buds Neo certainly pack enough to make them a strong contender for anyone shopping for an affordable pair of wireless earbuds.