Quick Verdict: The CMF Clip Pro is a genuinely comfortable, well-priced entry into the open-ear earbuds category, with a standout Smart Dial control on the case and battery life that comfortably beats most rivals. It’s not going to replace proper in-ear buds for commutes or noisy environments, and the touch controls can lag slightly, but for office, home, or light outdoor use, it delivers far more than its price suggests. Important for Indian buyers: CMF has confirmed the Clip Pro will not be launching in India — see the availability section below before you get too attached to that price tag.
Important: CMF Clip Pro Is Not Launching in India
Before going further, this needs to be said upfront since it changes the calculus for most readers on this site: CMF has officially confirmed the Clip Pro will not be sold in India, unlike most of CMF’s other recent products (the CMF Phone 2 Pro and CMF Watch 3 Pro both received India launches).
The earbuds go on sale August 15, 2026 in the UK, US, and Japan at $99 / £79, with Europe and other markets following September 15 — India is notably absent from that expansion list. Industry speculation points to India’s price-sensitive market and the fact that a ~₹9,500 open-ear product would compete directly against more fully-featured ANC earbuds from OnePlus, Samsung, Sony, and even Nothing’s own lineup, making the category a harder sell locally at this price point.
If you’re in India and still want a pair, your realistic options are: import via a UK/US retailer that ships internationally, or wait to see if grey-market listings show up on Indian marketplaces post-launch — both come with the usual caveats around warranty support and after-sales service not being available locally. Worth checking back closer to or after the August 15 launch date in case this changes, but treat this as unlikely to launch officially in India based on CMF’s current messaging.
Design and Comfort: The Actual Standout
The CMF Clip Pro uses what Nothing/CMF calls an “open fit arc” design, built from three parts: a titanium wire connecting a small “listening ball” (which sits just outside your ear canal rather than inside it) to a “comfort pod” that rests behind your ear to hold everything in place. The titanium wire is wrapped in a soft-touch rubber material that flexes to fit different ear shapes while still feeling durable.
In extended wear testing, these proved comfortable enough to wear for hours at a stretch, with a light grip that doesn’t feel like it’s clamping down on your ears. Because nothing is inserted into the ear canal itself, comfort holds up noticeably better over long sessions than typical in-ear buds — and they don’t interfere with glasses or sunglasses either. The main comfort complaint: in hot weather, sweat can cause the buds to slowly slide down and require readjustment, likely due to the comfort pod’s weight.
They carry an IP54 rating for sweat and splash resistance on the buds themselves — the charging case is not rated, so keep that dry. Three colorways are available: Light Grey, Dark Grey, and Coral.
Sound Isolation: What Open-Ear Actually Means Here
Since nothing seals your ear canal, there’s essentially no noise cancellation — active or passive. That makes the Clip Pro a poor fit for commuting on trains, buses, or busy streets, where ambient noise will compete directly with whatever you’re listening to.
Where they genuinely work well: quieter environments like cafes, home offices, or actual offices, where staying aware of your surroundings and being able to respond to someone talking to you matters more than full immersion. They’re also a reasonable fit for light exercise like jogging, scooting, or cycling, where situational awareness is a safety consideration rather than a compromise.
Controls: Buttons, Not Touch — Plus a Novelty Dial
Despite “touch controls” being how they’re often described, the Clip Pro actually uses physical buttons positioned at the top of each comfort pod — tap to play/pause, with customizable double- and triple-press actions (skip track, voice assistant) configurable separately per bud through the Nothing X companion app. Press-and-hold on either bud adjusts volume gradually.
The one real complaint: there’s a noticeable lag (around a second to a second and a half) between pressing a button and the action actually happening — a minor but real gripe, and about what you’d expect at this price tier.
The case also features a “Smart Dial” — a clicky, rotatable control that can be customized for play/pause, track skipping, and voice assistant access. It’s a genuinely fun, tactile feature, though arguably unnecessary given the buds already have working controls, and it occasionally failed to respond, requiring the buds to be placed back in the case and reworn to reset. If you don’t find it useful, it can be disabled entirely in the companion app.
One design nitpick: buds aren’t fully reversible (unlike some rivals such as Huawei’s FreeClip), so there’s a dedicated left and right bud, marked with a small letter that may be hard to read for some users.
Audio Quality: Better Than Expected for Open-Ear
The Clip Pro packs 10.8mm dynamic drivers with LDAC and Hi-Res Audio support (LDAC needs to be manually enabled in your device’s Bluetooth settings). A bass enhancement feature is on by default, though don’t expect it to deliver deep, room-shaking bass — that’s a fundamental limitation of the open-ear format, not a flaw specific to this product.
That said, for an open-ear budget pair, overall sound quality held up well across rock and metal genres — not muddy or distorted even during busier passages, with clear, crisp vocal reproduction even without enabling the vocal-boost EQ preset. The EQ itself is a basic 3-band setup (bass, mids, treble) rather than a full parametric EQ found on some of Nothing’s pricier in-ear products, but it covers the basics along with several presets.
One practical note: the “listening ball” component can shift slightly out of position during wear, which noticeably degrades audio clarity — a quick readjustment usually fixes it.
An anti-leakage mode is available in the app to reduce sound bleeding to people nearby, applicable to calls only or both calls and audio. It works, but audio quality takes a real hit while active — described as sounding muffled, as if a blanket were thrown over the speaker — making it more of an occasional-use feature than something you’d leave on by default. Also worth noting: it disables the EQ while active, so you can’t use both simultaneously.
Call Quality
The Clip Pro includes dual microphones per bud (one standard, one wind-resistant). In testing against real background noise — traffic, engine rumble, ambient beeping — voice pickup remained clear enough that every word came through intelligibly, a solid result for a budget-tier pair of open-ear buds.
Battery Life: A Genuine Strength
CMF claims roughly 10 hours of playback per charge, and real-world testing (with LDAC and bass boost enabled) matched that closely. A hidden “long battery life mode” in settings disables power-hungry features (bass boost, spatial audio) and drops from LDAC to AAC codec, extending playback to nearly 12 hours on a single charge — genuinely excellent for open-ear buds in this category.
The case delivers just over two full recharges before needing its own top-up via USB-C, and supports fast charging — a 10-minute top-up in the case yields roughly 4 hours of playback. Magnetic alignment for charging pins worked reliably throughout testing, with a front LED confirming charging status.
CMF Clip Pro vs the Competition
The reviewer’s honest take: the Clip Pro doesn’t quite match the Huawei FreeClip in overall polish, but it undercuts it meaningfully on price, and sits in a growing but still fairly small field of open-ear options that also includes brands like Shokz.
Who Should Buy the CMF Clip Pro?
If you split your time between quiet environments (home, office, cafes) and want to stay aware of your surroundings — or you’re specifically looking for all-day wearable comfort over noise isolation — the Clip Pro delivers a genuinely solid experience for the price, assuming you’re buying from a market where it’s actually available. If you need noise cancellation for commuting or noisy environments, this isn’t the right category of product for you regardless of brand.
FAQ
No. CMF has confirmed the Clip Pro will not launch in India, unlike several of its other recent products. It launches only in the UK, US, and Japan on August 15, 2026, with Europe and other markets following on September 15.
Around 10 hours per charge in standard use, extending to nearly 12 hours with the long battery life mode enabled, plus just over two additional full charges from the case.
Bummed the CMF Clip Pro is skipping India? Let us know in the comments if you’d still consider importing a pair, or if you’d rather wait for a locally-launched alternative.
