Tag Archives: TWS Earbuds

Nothing’s Ear (open) should have been a CMF product all along… Here’s proof

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I’ll say it: Nothing launched the Ear (open) under the wrong logo. The open-ear buds debuted in 2024 at $149, wrapped in Nothing’s signature transparent look, and they were good enough to win a Red Dot Product Design award. Still, every time I looked at them, my brain kept whispering “CMF.” Open-ear buds are the casual, colorful, sweat-friendly second pair you toss in a gym bag, which describes CMF’s entire personality. Even Nothing seems to have noticed, since the Ear (open) now comes in soft blue for $99 in the US. That’s CMF money in a CMF color, wearing a Nothing name tag.

Apparently I’m not alone in this conspiracy theory. Industrial designer Shreyansh Onial, whose CMF Flip foldable concept got a reaction from Carl Pei himself, built the CMF Ear (open) that Nothing never released, and it looks like it rolled straight off CMF’s assembly line. The over-ear hook stays, but the transparent panels give way to solid Coral, Light Grey, and Dark Grey. Each bud gets a chunky physical button, and the pill-shaped case borrows the knurled Smart Dial from CMF’s $99 Clip Pro. It’s the alternate-universe launch I didn’t know I was waiting for.

Designer: Shreyansh Onial

Trading Nothing’s see-through shell for CMF’s candy-colored hooks

Coral, Light Grey, and Dark Grey carry the whole concept, and they match the Clip Pro’s palette exactly. Transparency is Nothing’s calling card, though on the Ear (open) much of the surface is a silicone ear hook anyway. Onial goes fully opaque, with a soft matte finish on the hook and a glossier coat on the round acoustic pod that sits by your ear canal. The outer face is a rounded pill panel with a single round button and a tiny glyph made of a circle, a dot grid, and a filled dot. The battery tail picks up a fine stippled texture, which gives sweaty fingers something to grip.

A real button on each bud fixes the biggest workout annoyance with the Ear (open), which relies on pinch controls that get fiddly with slippery fingers. CMF already gave the Clip Pro physical buttons for exactly this reason, so the move fits the brand’s own playbook. Flip the bud around and you’ll find a perforated metal grille shaped like a little kidney bean, plus two pogo pins on a short collar for charging. That bean grille is my favorite detail, because it gives the bud an oddly cartoonish face. It also mirrors the soft circles of the dial on the case. The whole thing feels friendly and approachable, which suits a pair built for sweat and sidewalks.

The Clip Pro’s Smart Dial case meets a hook built for runners

The case comes straight from CMF’s Clip Pro, a deep pill-shaped capsule with a knurled metal dial set into one end of the lid. On the Clip Pro, that Smart Dial adjusts volume, controls playback, answers calls, and triggers pairing. CMF put the same dial on its Buds Pro 2, and it has since become the brand’s signature move. Onial adds a dot-matrix “cmf” wordmark on the lid, a front status LED, and a USB-C port on the side. Inside, molded cradles hold the two hooks in a neat V, with a charging pocket waiting for each acoustic pod.

Over-ear hooks anchor behind the ear, which keeps them planted through runs, burpees, and sprints for the bus. The Clip Pro’s C-shaped clip hugs the ear’s outer edge instead, a format better suited to commutes and long desk days. That leaves the runner with a CMF-shaped hole in their gym bag, since CMF currently offers nothing for them (lowercase n). A dial makes even more sense here, because twisting a knob on the case beats digging through phone menus mid-stretch. Pair it with real buttons on the buds and you get a workout setup that never asks for a precise touch gesture.

Where a CMF Ear (open) would land in a crowded open-ear market

Open-ear audio got crowded fast, with Bose’s Ultra Open sitting at the top for $299 and Sony’s LinkBuds Clip, Huawei’s FreeClip, and Shokz’s hook-style buds filling out the field. The Clip Pro landed at $99 with LDAC support, a 10.8mm driver, and up to 32.5 hours of total battery. The Ear (open) counters with a bigger 14.2mm driver, 8 hours per charge, and 30 hours with its case. Each Ear (open) bud weighs 0.29 oz (8.1 grams), while each Clip Pro bud weighs 0.21 oz (5.9 grams). A CMF hook could split the difference, pairing the Ear (open)’s stable fit and big driver with the Clip Pro’s dial, buttons, and price.

The blue Ear (open) already sells for $99 in the US, the same price as the Clip Pro, so Nothing has basically priced its own product at CMF level. Moving it under the CMF badge would make that price tag look like a plan instead of a markdown. It would also free Nothing to return later with a pricier transparent sequel, flipping the usual order where the premium brand gets the good stuff first. CMF became an independent Nothing subsidiary headquartered in India last year, and a signature sport bud would give the young brand another reason to stand apart from its parent. Onial’s renders already look ready for the shelf. Sometimes the little sibling deserves the new toy first.

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Fairbuds 2 Earbuds Let You Swap Worn Batteries Instead of Buying a New Pair

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Wireless earbuds have come a long way, ever since Apple started the trend of removing the 3.5mm headphone jack from smartphones. Most sound fine or even great, but batteries both in the buds themselves as well as charging cases still pose a longevity problem. Taking a cue from its larger Fairbuds XL headphones, Fairphone’s new Fairbuds 2 make both those batteries replaceable, so that declining battery life doesn’t have to send the whole set into retirement.

On the outside, the Fairbuds 2 look fairly conventional, with rounded earpieces and short, flat stems. Forest Green offers an alternative to the familiar black, which is also an available option, and the matching case has softened corners rather than a rugged shell. The useful detail is a removable silicone sleeve around each earbud, hiding the opening that lets you reach its battery when it eventually needs replacing.

Designer: Fairphone

Remove that sleeve and the earbud’s battery compartment becomes accessible without tools. The charging case does require a Torx T5 screwdriver to reach its cell, but nothing you can’t get from a hardware store. Fairphone lists seven replaceable parts, including the case body and individual earbuds. Losing one earbud therefore doesn’t require buying another pair, which is reassuring if your usual storage system involves the bottom of a crowded bag.

Of course, easy repairs won’t make you enjoy a playlist if the sound doesn’t suit you. The Fairbuds 2 use 0.43-inch bio-cellulose drivers, with four presets and a five-band equalizer in the companion app. LDAC support adds a higher-bitrate option on compatible Android devices, but it isn’t a shortcut to guaranteed sound quality, and iPhone owners don’t get that particular audio codec.

Active noise cancellation handles the isolation side, with Fairphone claiming up to 45dB of reduction. Six microphones support noise management and calls, while multipoint connectivity keeps two devices connected simultaneously. You can move between a laptop and phone without pairing from scratch every time. The earbuds remember up to six devices, although that doesn’t mean six audio streams competing for your ears.

Battery life is a separate consideration from battery replacement. Fairphone claims up to eight hours of listening, or 40 hours with the charging case, with noise cancellation switched off. Turn it on, and the earbuds’ estimate drops to six hours. That could cover a commute and some desk time, but charging remains USB-C only, so a wireless charging pad won’t help here.

There’s a practical limit to the repair story, though. Seven replaceable parts don’t mean every internal component can be fixed separately, and continued use still depends on getting the right spares. Fairphone includes replaceable ear tips and silicone sleeves in that count. The IP54 rating provides dust and splash resistance for daily wear, but don’t mistake it for permission to take them swimming.

The US price is $119.99, with a November 2, 2026 release scheduled. Fairphone offers warranty coverage of up to three years, but a battery wearing out isn’t automatically a warranty claim. Fortunately, replacing it yourself doesn’t void coverage when done correctly. That leaves owners with two different ways to keep listening: support for manufacturing faults, and accessible spare parts for things that wear out.

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Huawei FreeBuds Neo Review: Style, Comfort, and a Strong Feature Set

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PROS:


  • Exceptionally comfortable fit

  • Great overall performance for the price point

  • Nebula Pink gives the design real personality

  • Pleasant, well-rounded sound

    CONS:


    • Some Huawei smartwatch features were not available during testing

    RATINGS:

    AESTHETICS
    ERGONOMICS
    PERFORMANCE
    SUSTAINABILITY / REPAIRABILITY
    VALUE FOR MONEY

    EDITOR'S QUOTE:

    The FreeBuds Neo are not about chasing flagship bragging rights. They are about getting the everyday essentials right, and doing it with a bit more style than most.
    award-icon

    Huawei has been on a bit of an audio expansion streak lately. It now offers everything from traditional in-ear earbuds to open-ear and clip-style designs, and the company has openly said it wants to become the number one audio brand. In many ways, it feels like Huawei is trying to repeat the kind of success it has already had with smartwatches, building out a wider ecosystem instead of relying on just one or two standout products.

    That bigger push has also made the lineup more crowded. On the in-ear side, Huawei already has the premium FreeBuds Pro, the comfort-focused FreeBuds, the more affordable FreeBuds i, and the entry-level FreeBuds SE. The FreeBuds Neo feel like the pair meant to fill the gap in between, offering something a little more polished and feature-packed without tipping too far into premium pricing.

    Designer: Huawei

    That alone makes them interesting. I went into this review with fairly high expectations because the Huawei FreeBuds Pro 5 are still one of my favorite earbuds for ANC and sound quality. The FreeBuds Neo are clearly not trying to play in that league, but they do feel like an important part of Huawei’s bigger audio plan, and a pair that could end up appealing to a much wider audience.

    Aesthetics

    The Huawei FreeBuds Neo brings a bit more personality than the usual square or pebble-shaped earbud case. The case has an elongated oval shape, almost like a small American football, which gives it a more distinctive look than most budget rivals. It feels a little more sculpted than the norm, while still fitting nicely in the palm.

    Nebula Pink is easily the most interesting finish in the lineup. Most of the case is a soft pink with a muted metallic sheen, while the bottom fades into a pale light green with a gentle gradient between the two. It adds more depth than a flat single-tone finish and helps this version feel less generic than the plainer Stellar Silver, Ice White, and Starry Black options.

    The earbuds themselves follow a familiar stem-based design, but the stems are relatively short, which helps them look tidier in the ear. They are finished in the same pink tone, with light green accents that tie in neatly with the case. In this color, the FreeBuds Neo feel more expressive than many affordable earbuds, while the other finishes are much more straightforward.

    Ergonomics

    The case is easy to live with. Its elongated oval shape sits nicely in the palm, and the smooth curves make it easy to slip into a pocket or small bag. It is compact without feeling fiddly, which is exactly what you want from something you will be reaching for throughout the day.

    The earbuds are also very light at just 0.17 ounces, or 4.9g, each, and that helps a lot with comfort. The short stems are not just there for looks. They improve weight distribution, so the earbuds feel more balanced in the ear instead of hanging downward like some longer-stem designs. The downside is that they are not quite as easy to handle when adjusting them or placing them back into the case, simply because there is less stem to grab.

    For me, these are among the most comfortable earbuds I have used. I actually found them more comfortable than the Huawei FreeBuds Pro 5, even though that is the more premium model in Huawei’s lineup. The short stems make a bigger difference than expected, especially when lying back or resting your head to one side. On an overnight flight, I could lean against my neck pillow without them digging in or becoming annoying, which is not something I can say about every pair of stem-based earbuds.

    Huawei includes extra silicone tips in XS, S, and L sizes, which is about what you would expect for in-ear earbuds. The companion app also includes a tip fit test, which can tell you whether the seal is good or not. It is a simple feature, but a useful one if you are unsure about fit.

    Performance

    The FreeBuds Neo are tuned for easy everyday listening rather than showy first impressions. They sound clean, balanced, and generally pleasant across music, videos, podcasts, and calls. Vocals come through clearly, there is enough bass to give tracks some weight, and the overall tuning avoids sounding too sharp or tiring over longer sessions. They also support LDAC and Hi-Res Audio, which is a nice bonus on a pair of earbuds at this level, especially for listeners who want access to higher-quality wireless audio.

    The ANC is good for the price. It does a solid job softening the usual background hum of travel or public spaces, though it does not match the stronger, more complete effect you get from premium models like the Huawei FreeBuds Pro 5. For everyday commuting or working in mildly noisy places, though, it is useful enough to make a real difference.

    Awareness mode works well too, and it feels genuinely useful rather than just included for the sake of it. I especially liked the voice mode within Awareness, which seems to let speech through more clearly. That made it easier to catch announcements or have a quick conversation without taking the earbuds out.

    Controls are another area where the FreeBuds Neo do well. Even with the short stems, gesture controls worked reliably for me. You get double tap, triple tap, press and hold, plus swipe up and down, which gives you a fairly complete set of controls without constantly reaching for your phone. Head controls are here too, letting you nod to answer calls or shake your head to decline them.

    Dual device connection is one of the more practical features. Being able to stay connected to two devices at once makes the earbuds much easier to slot into daily life, especially if you switch between a phone and a laptop or tablet. They also support Bluetooth 6.0, which helps keep the overall feature set feeling current.

    Huawei also says that if you have a Huawei smartwatch, you can control music playback from the watch, hear workout notifications through the earbuds while listening from your phone, and adjust settings like ANC and EQ from your wrist. In my testing, though, those extra features were not available with the Watch GT 7 Pro.

    Battery life is solid. Huawei rates the FreeBuds Neo for up to 10 hours with ANC off or 6.5 hours with ANC on, with up to 38 hours in total when you include the case. That should be more than enough for most people, especially since these are the kind of earbuds that will usually be topped up in the case between listening sessions anyway.

    Overall, the FreeBuds Neo gets the important things right. The sound is easy to enjoy, ANC is useful, Awareness mode works well, the touch controls are reliable, and dual device support adds real convenience. They may not feel as polished or as powerful as Huawei’s more expensive earbuds, but for everyday use, they offer a well-rounded set of features without becoming complicated.

    Sustainability

    Sustainability is not a major part of the Huawei FreeBuds Neo story. Huawei does not make any notable environmental claims here, and like most true wireless earbuds, they are built in a compact, sealed form that is not really designed for easy repair.

    The main durability point is the IP55 rating for the earbuds themselves, which adds some protection against dust and splashes. That should help them hold up better in daily use. As with most earbuds in this category, the best way to get long-term value is simply to take care of them and keep them in use for as long as possible.

    Value

    At £119.99 (approximately $160), the Huawei FreeBuds Neo sit in the middle of the market, but they offer a fairly complete package for the price. They are not exactly cheap, though they still come in below more premium earbuds, so the value is less about one headline feature and more about how well everything comes together.

    What you get is a strong all-rounder. There is good ANC, a useful Awareness mode, reliable gesture controls, dual device connection, LDAC support, and a design that feels more distinctive than many rivals, especially in Nebula Pink. In markets like the UK, Huawei is also offering a £20 discount before October 26, which makes them even more appealing.

    They may not be the first choice if you are only chasing the strongest ANC or the absolute best sound for the money. But as a stylish, comfortable, and easy-to-use pair of everyday earbuds, the FreeBuds Neo offer solid value and feel like a well-judged package overall.

    Verdict

    The Huawei FreeBuds Neo get a lot right for a pair of everyday wireless earbuds. They are comfortable, easy to use, and come with enough useful features to feel like a well-rounded option. The short stems, lightweight fit, and palm-friendly case make them especially easy to live with day to day.

    Nebula Pink also gives them more personality than most earbuds in this price range. Add in good ANC for the price, a useful Awareness mode, reliable gesture controls, dual device connection, and strong battery life, and there is plenty here to like.

    The ANC does not reach the level of Huawei’s more premium earbuds, but that is easy to accept given the price. Even so, at £119.99, or about $160, and less if you catch the early bird discount in some markets, the FreeBuds Neo are an easy pair to like and an easy pair to recommend for everyday use.

    The post Huawei FreeBuds Neo Review: Style, Comfort, and a Strong Feature Set first appeared on Yanko Design.

    Anker’s Sleep Earbuds 4 Pro Silence Snoring in Real Time With Adaptive Masking: Hands-on at IFA 2026

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    Anker’s new Soundcore Sleep Earbuds 4 Pro stuff a heart rate sensor into your ear canal and bolt a round AMOLED touchscreen onto the charging case, so bedtime happens without your phone anywhere near the pillow. Each bud is a flat three gram disc with a soft silicone fin that wedges into the ridge of your ear, sitting 20 percent flatter against your head than the old Sleep A30 so side sleepers can actually lie on them. A microphone in the case listens for your partner’s snoring and reshapes the masking audio as the snore shifts pitch. It arrives in November for $349.99.

    Handling them at IFA, the thing that struck me was the hierarchy. The case is the brain here, with its own screen, chip and local storage, while the buds have quietly demoted themselves to sensors you happen to wear. Pop the lid and a circular display shows the time and battery for each side. Tap through for playback controls, a brightness slider, an alarm toggle. Your phone, the single worst object to hold at midnight, has been designed out of the room entirely.

    Designer: Anker

    Sleep earbuds run on a brief that works backward from every other earbud, since the real question is what happens when a skull presses the thing into a pillow for eight hours. Anker’s bud is a flat disc with no stem and no nozzle, and the silicone fin locks into the ear ridge instead of pushing inward. I picked one up at the booth and it felt closer to a hearing aid component than a music earbud, the correct lineage for something meant to disappear under the weight of your head. The case carries the real design budget: a round AMOLED display, its own chip, and local audio storage, so soundscapes play offline.

    Inside the ear, a 100 Hz optical PPG sensor tracks heart rate and HRV through the night, feeding BioSync, a system that checks relaxation roughly every five minutes and nudges the tempo, soundscape and binaural beats accordingly. Anker calls this an experimental lab feature, not a medical grade one, honest framing for a claim this ambitious. Snore masking runs on a separate loop: the case mic picks up snoring nearby and reshapes the masking sound as pitch and rhythm change, rather than looping one fixed track all night. Anker recommends keeping the case within two meters of the sleeping culprit with the mic aimed their way, the most savage guidance to come out of IFA this year.

    The cheaper $229.99 Sleep Earbuds 4 skips the PPG sensor and the touchscreen entirely, yet it can recognize a baby crying or a fire alarm through its case mic and duck the masking audio into transparency. The Pro, despite carrying all the sensor hardware, does not do this. It reads as two products, two timelines, with no merge forced before launch. Paying $120 more buys a heart rate graph and a screen, not the feature that wakes you when something is actually wrong. That tradeoff is worth Anker addressing before the Pro ships in November.

    Anker took the accessory and made it the computer, while the wearable itself got smaller and closer to invisible, the reverse of how most earbud lines evolve. Cases usually shrink as buds gain features. Here the buds vanish and the case gets a face. Whether BioSync improves anyone’s sleep needs real nights and real data, not a show floor. But a screen you check instead of a phone you scroll is the right instinct for something built to sit beside your head while you’re unconscious.

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    Plaud One Hands-On at IFA 2026: AI Earbuds That Transcribe Meetings, Then Draft Emails And Decks For You

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    For three years, Plaud made very good tape recorders with a PhD. You pressed a button, it captured a meeting, and mere minutes later a summary showed up. The Plaud One, launched at IFA 2026 for €249.90, reverses that arrow. Its charging case now holds four beamforming mics, a speaker, an agent button and a built in eSIM, so it stays online without a phone nearby. Hold the agent button and the AI talks back, asks what you meant, then builds the deck or drafts the email while you get on with your day.

    That flip from recording to doing needed hardware nobody had built yet. Not a pendant, not a pin, not another app crammed onto a phone you were already staring at. Plaud built a palm sized aluminum box with a fluted lid that looks like a Rimowa suitcase went through a shrink ray, sitting on a table, listening across a room, and talking back like a colleague who never needs coffee. The Explorer Edition opens for pre order now, capped at 2,000 units worldwide, with deliveries landing in Q4. A public version follows in 2027, once Plaud has watched two thousand early adopters put the thing through its paces.

    Designer: Plaud

    The original Plaud Note clipped onto a phone and did one job, listen to a meeting and hand back a transcript once it ended. The Note Pro added a screen and better mics. The NotePin S shrank the format onto a lanyard clip. Every generation stayed reactive by design, a smart recorder waiting for you to press stop before it did anything useful. That business built Plaud’s 2.5 million user base and reportedly crossed $100 million in annual software revenue by June, which is exactly the kind of runway that lets a company gamble on reinventing its own hardware category from scratch.

    Vertical fluting runs down the case’s aluminum lid, the same visual trick Rimowa has stamped into cabin luggage since the 1950s, giving a 62 gram object a sense of density it has no right to carry. Flip it open and the earbuds sit half in ear, silver capped, in a tray that reads closer to a jewelry box than a charging dock. A speaker grille, a record button and a separate agent button line the case’s edge, the three controls that turn a charger into a device you actually talk to. None of it apes a phone. It reads like furniture for a desk, not gear for a pocket.

    Earlier Plaud devices leaned on your phone for both processing and connectivity, so the intelligence always sat one hop away from the microphone. Plaud One’s case carries its own 4G LTE connection through a built in eSIM, closing that gap entirely. Capture, transcription and agent response now run in one box, independent of any other screen in your life. Leave your phone in a bag, walk into a cafe, and the case still records the table’s conversation, answers a question out loud through its speaker, or fires off a follow up email on command. Every pendant and pin that came before this quietly depended on a phone doing the real work behind the scenes. Plaud One is the first in the category that genuinely does not.

    Plaud Agent drafts a follow up email the moment a client call ends. Feed it a meeting and it builds a slide deck while you sit through your next call, then drops the finished file straight into Notion with zero copy pasting. The platform connects to Gmail, Google Workspace, Microsoft Teams, Slack and Notion today, with more integrations promised as the software matures. Set it loose on a standing task, a monthly competitor scan for instance, and it runs quietly in the background, waiting with a finished report the next time you check. This is the actual bet Plaud is making, that an assistant worth having has to act, not just remember.

    Pre orders for the Explorer Edition are open now at €249.90, with the first 2,000 units shipping in Q4. Buyers get $200 in Plaud Credits toward the heavier agent features on top of a starter transcription plan, so the price buys a running start on the software as much as the hardware. Calling this an Explorer Edition rather than a finished release is the honest move, an open beta wearing genuinely sharp industrial design. Plaud spent three years building the best possible way to listen. Plaud One is its first real attempt at building something worth talking to.

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    Huawei’s FreeBuds Neo Are Small Enough to Forget, Loud Enough Not To

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    Huawei’s FreeBuds Neo makes a case for restraint, proving a pair of earbuds can shrink in size without shrinking in ambition. Announced globally to launch at IFA 2026, the FreeBuds Neo pairs noise cancellation with a shape built for long days of wear, arriving in four colorways that read more like a fashion accessory than typical tech hardware. It’s a design that treats comfort as a feature worth engineering around, not an afterthought.

    That comfort starts with the numbers. Each earbud weighs only approximately 4.8 g, and Huawei built that lightness around a significant number of real human ear feature data points, delivering an ergonomic, pressure-relieving fit that achieves even pressure distribution for pain-free long-term wear. Simulation tests replicating high-frequency movement led to design tweaks in areas prone to loosening, so the buds stay anchored through workouts, commutes, and everything in between.

    Designer: Huawei

    The Mini shuttle case carries that same restraint into its shape, presenting a fully curved form, with a sleek and minimalist silhouette and a lightweight body that slips into a pocket without adding bulk. Four color options, Stellar Silver, Nebula Pink, Ice White, and Starry Black, let the case double as a small style statement rather than a purely functional accessory. The Light Mini Stem carries that philosophy further, conforming to the ear’s contours for a fit that looks as refined as it feels.

    Underneath that compact shell, Huawei packs a dual-channel noise cancellation architecture that optimizes sound paths, cutting down medium and high-frequency noise, like wind and ambient chatter, for a full-frequency depth of up to 30dB. A third-gen audio chip handles the heavy lifting, reacting to shifting noise within milliseconds so a subway platform one moment and a quiet office the next don’t require manually adjusting anything.

    Sound quality gets its own upgrade courtesy of an all-new Turbo driver unit, stretching frequency response from 10Hz up to 48kHz. That range keeps bass hitting hard on a commute playlist while vocals and instruments stay clear during a podcast or a video call, recreating the texture of a live performance rather than a compressed streaming file. Paired with a Huawei phone, the buds support up to 2.3Mbps of lossless transmission, dropping to a still-respectable 990kbps over LDAC with other devices.

    Huawei also built in unlimited spatial audio, using its own algorithms to wrap sound in a 360-degree soundstage regardless of source or device, so a movie watched on a laptop can feel as enveloping as one streamed through a dedicated app. Cross-platform support rounds out that flexibility, breaking down ecosystem barriers to work across Android, iOS, and Windows, with dual-device connections that let someone switch from a work laptop to a phone call without digging through Bluetooth menus.

    Pricing lands at £119.99 (around $162) when the FreeBuds Neo arrives in the UK on 23 September 2026, positioning it as a mid-range option against pricier flagship earbuds. Between the lightweight fit, the four-color palette, and noise cancellation tuned for shifting environments, Huawei seems to be betting that people want earbuds that disappear into daily routines rather than demand constant attention.

    The post Huawei’s FreeBuds Neo Are Small Enough to Forget, Loud Enough Not To first appeared on Yanko Design.

    CMF Clip Pro Review: More Than Just a Pretty Case

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    PROS:


    • Excellent physical controls

    • Distinctive case design

    • Comfortable open-ear fit

    • Balanced, clean sound

    • Polished Nothing X app

    CONS:


    • Limited base weight

    • Price feels a little high by CMF standards

    RATINGS:

    AESTHETICS
    ERGONOMICS
    PERFORMANCE
    SUSTAINABILITY / REPAIRABILITY
    VALUE FOR MONEY

    EDITOR'S QUOTE:

    With smart physical controls, a comfortable fit, and more personality than most rivals, the CMF Clip Pro proves open-ear earbuds do not have to feel purely functional.

    Open-ear earbuds used to feel like a niche product made for a very specific kind of listener. They were mostly aimed at runners, cyclists, and anyone who wanted to stay aware of their surroundings, and the category was long dominated by a small group of specialist brands. For years, that made open-ear audio feel practical rather than desirable, more about function than style.

    That is no longer the case. Open-ear earbuds have quickly become one of the busiest segments in personal audio, with mainstream brands now entering the space and giving the format broader appeal. CMF, Nothing’s budget-focused sub-brand, is the latest to join them with the CMF Clip Pro. As you might expect, it leans heavily on design and distinctive hardware touches to stand out, including physical controls that give it more character than most rivals. On paper, it already feels more interesting than the average pair of open-ear earbuds. The real question is whether that personality translates into a product worth buying.

    Designer: CMF (Nothing)

    Aesthetics

    CMF Clip Pro is a good reminder that an earbud case can matter just as much as the earbuds themselves. Here, the case is not just packaging. It is a big part of the product’s identity, and one of the first things that makes the Clip Pro stand out.

    The shape is essentially a rounded rectangular pod. It is slightly chunky, but softly contoured, with curved corners, a matte finish, and a subtle rubber-like texture that feels warmer than the glossy plastic shells most earbuds still use. It also stands apart from the usual pebble-like cases, which gives it a more distinctive silhouette in the hand.

    The detail that defines the whole design is the oversized circular dial at the top right corner, called Smart Dial. It immediately gives the case a focal point, but it also earns that space by being functional. The metallic finish, ridged edge, and two line markings give it a sharper, more engineered feel, which contrasts nicely with the softer body of the case.

    The rest of the design is restrained. There is only a small CMF logo on top, with the status LED and USB-C port kept discreetly out of the way. That minimalism works in the case’s favor, because it lets the shape and the dial do most of the talking.

    The color options reinforce that identity. Light Gray and Dark Gray are the safer choices, but Coral is the one that feels most like CMF. It is brighter, more playful, and better suited to a product that clearly wants to stand apart. Most importantly, the case feels designed with intent rather than treated as an afterthought, and that alone gives the Clip Pro an edge.

    Ergonomics

    The Smart Dial on the case is one of those details that immediately makes the product feel more thoughtful in hand. Each turn delivers crisp, clicky feedback, and pressing the dial has a satisfying weight to it. It feels tactile and deliberate rather than decorative, which makes everyday use that bit more enjoyable.

    The case has a matte texture that feels soft in the hand, while the earbuds are mostly glossy. At around 52.1 x 26.7 x 51.0mm and roughly 38.8g, the case stays compact and easy to carry. I also like that it can stand upright on a surface, which is a small but practical advantage over the usual round, pebble-like earbud cases. Each earbud weighs just under 6g, and that lightness helps with long-term comfort.

    The Clip Pro is easy to wear for hours without feeling pinchy or awkward. CMF has also built physical buttons into the rear section of each earbud, where they are easy to reach without much adjustment. The earbuds do not interfere with glasses either, which is a nice touch. They can clash slightly with earcuffs depending on their position, but in my experience that is only a minor issue.

    There is still a small ergonomic quirk with the charging case. Putting the earbuds back can be a little confusing at first because the left and right sides are not interchangeable. The rear section needs to sit at the bottom with the C-bridge facing inward, and until that becomes second nature, the process feels slightly less intuitive than it should.

    Performance

    Sound quality is always the challenge with open-ear earbuds because the format comes with clear limits. Without a seal inside the ear canal, you do not get the same bass weight, isolation, or intimacy as you would from a good pair of in-ear buds. The goal here is not to beat traditional earbuds at their own game. It is to sound full and clear enough that the open-ear tradeoff feels worthwhile.

    The CMF Clip Pro uses a 10.8mm dynamic driver and supports LDAC, AAC, and SBC codecs. In practice, the tuning is more restrained than on some of CMF’s other earbuds. I found the CMF Buds 2 and Buds 2 Pro I reviewed last year noticeably bass-heavy, but the Clip Pro does not lean in that direction, even with Bass Enhancement set to Level 2. Instead, it sounds more balanced, which suits this category better.

    Bass still lacks the weight and punch you would get from sealed earbuds, but that is to be expected. The upside is that the sound never feels bloated or as if it is trying too hard to compensate. Clarity is decent, and the overall presentation is clean and easy to listen to. It is not especially rich or immersive, but for casual listening, podcasts, and everyday music, it works well enough.

    There is no noise cancelling, and no real isolation either. Some leakage is still present, as you would expect from open-ear earbuds, but it is mild in everyday use. People nearby are unlikely to notice unless they are very close or you’re listening at high volume. CMF also includes an anti-leakage mode, but while it helps, it also makes the sound noticeably more muffled.

    As for call quality, the CMF Clip Pro uses a four-mic setup, with two mics on each earbud, alongside noise reduction. It does a decent job of keeping voices clear enough for everyday calls, even in busier environments. It is reliable enough that taking calls on the go does not feel like a compromise.

    The physical controls on both the earbuds and the case are easily one of my favorite things about the Clip Pro. In a category where touch controls often feel inconsistent, CMF takes a more tactile approach that immediately helps these stand out. The buttons on the earbuds are easy to use and support a surprisingly broad range of inputs, including double press, triple press, press and hold, and double press and hold. That gives the Clip Pro a level of flexibility that feels more thoughtfully implemented than many rivals.

    What really elevates the experience is the Smart Dial on the case. It handles volume through rotation, and it can also be customized for playback, track skipping, voice assistant access, low lag mode, and call controls. That makes the case feel like more than a simple charging shell, giving the product a bit of personality in everyday use. More importantly, the physical controls work very well in practice. They feel responsive and dependable, which matters far more than simply offering a long list of possible shortcuts. My only complaint is that the sound cue for volume changes can lag slightly behind the actual adjustment.

    The earbuds’ controls work right out of the box, while Smart Dial has to be enabled manually in the Nothing X app. Beyond that, the app lets you adjust features like spatial audio, anti-leakage mode, bass boost, low lag mode, and dual-device pairing. There are also five preset EQ modes, plus a custom three-band equalizer that gives you a good amount of control over the sound. Nothing X is not doing anything radically new, but it remains one of the best earbud apps around. It looks great, feels intuitive, and makes it easy to tweak settings without any fuss.

    Battery life is rated at up to 10 hours on the earbuds themselves and up to 32.5 hours with the case, while a Long Battery Mode pushes that to 36 hours. In my testing, which included a mix of music, video, and a 20-minute video call, the earbuds still had more than 50 percent battery left after about five continuous hours of use, so CMF’s claim appears to hold up well. CMF also says a quick 10-minute charge can deliver up to four hours of playback, which adds to the overall convenience.

    Sustainability

    CMF leaves a few unanswered questions here. The Clip Pro earbuds themselves are rated IP54, which adds useful protection against dust and light splashes in daily use. The case, however, is only rated IPX2, so it is best kept away from water.

    There is also less clarity around environmental impact than I would have liked. Unlike Nothing’s mainline products, CMF does not seem to clearly publish details on recycled materials, carbon footprint, packaging, or manufacturing for this line. That does not necessarily mean sustainability was ignored, but it does make the product harder to assess on those terms. For a brand that puts so much emphasis on design and presentation, a little more transparency here would have made the Clip Pro feel more complete.

    Value

    At $99, the CMF Clip Pro sits firmly in the mid-range. That price feels a little high by CMF standards, especially for a brand that has built its reputation on strong value. Even so, the Clip Pro still manages to punch above its price in a few key ways, particularly through its design, physical controls, comfort, and overall user experience.

    That said, value here depends heavily on what you want from your earbuds. If you are drawn to the look, appreciate the physical controls, like the fit, and want an affordable open-ear option from a recognizable brand, $99 can still make sense. If you are comparing purely on specifications, protection, or feature depth, this one may feel a little less convincing.

    Verdict

    The CMF Clip Pro does not completely redefine what open-ear earbuds can be, but it gets more right than wrong. The sound still carries the usual limitations of the format, yet it is tuned with enough balance and clarity to work well for casual listening, podcasts, and everyday music. The price also feels a touch high for a CMF product. Even so, there is a lot to like here. The design is distinctive, the fit is comfortable, the controls are genuinely excellent, and the overall user experience feels more considered than most rivals in this space.

    What makes the Clip Pro stand out is that it does not rely on one gimmick alone. The Smart Dial is clever, but it is also useful. The physical buttons are unusual, but they are there because they work. Add in a polished app and solid battery life, and you end up with a pair of open-ear earbuds that feels thoughtfully put together from top to bottom. It may not be the obvious value champion in CMF’s lineup, but it is one of the brand’s most interesting products yet, and one that gets the basics right in ways that matter.

    The post CMF Clip Pro Review: More Than Just a Pretty Case first appeared on Yanko Design.

    Sennheiser’s New TWS Earbuds Have a Battery You Can Actually Replace Yourself

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    Sennheiser is shipping a screwdriver in the box with its new flagship earbuds. That’s not a gimmick, it’s the entire pitch. The MOMENTUM True Wireless 5 has user-replaceable batteries in both the earbuds and the charging case, something almost nobody in this category bothers to offer. Most premium earbuds are built to be assembled and never opened again, only thrown away. It’s something Apple pioneered, and everyone just accepted. Sennheiser looked at that premise and said “Hold my screwdriver…”

    Announced August 20 and landing September 3 for $299.95, the True Wireless 5 arrives in five metallic colorways, graphite, cream, copper, denim, and lavender, with Dolby Atmos head tracking, Bluetooth 6.0, and a redesigned IP54 rated shell. All good upgrades, none of them the real story. The real story is that when the battery eventually degrades, you pop it open and swap it yourself instead of retiring the whole product. Most premium earbuds treat that as impossible. Sennheiser just proved otherwise, screwdriver included.

    Designer: Sennheiser

    Sennheiser sculpted the new housing using data pulled from thousands of ear scans, chasing a fin-less, “barely there” silhouette that its own testers rated more comfortable than the outgoing MOMENTUM True Wireless 4 by a 73 percent margin. A micro-perforated acoustic mic plate handles wind turbulence so gusts do not wreck call quality or trip up the noise cancellation. The case got the same attention, trading bulk for a narrower, low-friction shape that slides into a pocket instead of fighting it. None of that reads like a company that treated repairability as a compromise. It reads like a company that treated it as a design brief.

    Getting inside without wrecking the seal, while still holding an IP54 rating, is genuinely impressive. Sealed adhesive construction has always been the industry’s excuse for why earbuds cannot survive sweat and also be opened by a human being with a screwdriver. Sennheiser just did both at once, and did it on a product this compact, packed with a 7mm TrueResponse driver, an eight sensor call array, and enough silicon to run Dolby Atmos head tracking. The battery swap itself is supposedly a few minute job, not a surgery. That distinction matters more than any spec bump on the sheet, because a spec bump gets outdated in a year and a battery you can replace keeps the product alive for as long as you’re willing to keep unscrewing it.

    In July, EU regulators exempted wireless earbuds out of the incoming battery replaceability law entirely, citing water exposure and the risk of a normal person mangling a lithium cell the size of a coin. It was a reasonable enough excuse, and one the industry itself lobbied for. Sennheiser announced a product a few weeks later that quietly makes the excuse look thin. Fairphone got there first with its Fairbuds back in 2024, proving the concept was possible even in a startup’s budget hardware. A flagship brand with an 80 year audio pedigree doing the same thing at premium pricing is a louder statement, and one the rest of the industry will have a harder time waving off as a niche experiment from an ethical hardware outlier.

    What happens next is the part nobody has answered yet. A replaceable battery only means something if the replacement itself stays cheap and available for years, the way Fairphone sells its cells for a few dollars with a published guide. Sennheiser hasn’t said what a spare battery will cost or how long it plans to keep selling them, which we’ll wait and watch. The screwdriver is a promise. Whether Sennheiser makes that screwdriver still useful even after 3-4 years is something worth keeping tabs on.

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    Sennheiser’s $200 Clip-On Buds Defeat Bose Ultra Open on Battery — And Skip the US

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    Clip-on earbuds were always going to go mainstream; the category just got there in the east first. Huawei’s FreeClip became roughly as ubiquitous as AirPods in Chinese cities, building an installed base for open-ear wearables that Western brands are only now beginning to seriously contest. The appeal is not complicated: a form factor that keeps the ear canal open, lets ambient sound in naturally, and eliminates the sealed pressure that makes conventional in-ears uncomfortable after long sessions. Asia ran that experiment at scale, and the results were settled long before the Western audio press started treating it as a breakthrough.

    Sennheiser enters the conversation on July 23 with the Accentum Clip, a product priced at £149 that brings Bluetooth 6.0, LDAC support, IP54 protection, and 36-hour total battery life to a category where Bose has been setting the reference point at a higher price. The launch covers the UK, EU, and Canada. For US consumers, the Accentum Clip joins a lengthening list of globally significant products that simply will not be available at their local retailer, a pattern this publication has been tracking across categories as diverse as electric vehicles, smartphones, and now, apparently, open-ear audio.

    Designer: Sennheiser

    The Accentum Clip earbuds promise nine hours of playback on a single charge, with the case providing a total of 36 hours. This is a deliberate and significant advantage over the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds, which offer around 7.5 hours per charge and a total of 27 hours with their case. In a category built for all-day wear, that extra nine hours is a direct appeal to users who want to leave the charging cable at home.

    The Accentum Clip uses a 12mm dynamic driver, but the more interesting detail is its support for the LDAC codec. Including a high-bitrate codec like LDAC is a bold choice for an open-ear design, which by its nature lets sound escape and ambient noise in. It signals a confidence in the driver’s ability to deliver a detailed audio experience, even if it is not a closed, isolating one. Paired with Bluetooth 6.0, which promises more stable multipoint connections, the package is technically robust for commuters and office workers who need to switch between devices seamlessly.

    Sennheiser opted for a flexible silicone bridge to connect the driver unit and the battery component, quite like Bose’s offering. At 6.8 grams per bud, the design focuses on a gentle, secure clamping force that distributes weight evenly around the ear’s cartilage. The goal is a “barely there” feeling that encourages leaving them on for hours, which aligns perfectly with the product’s impressive battery life. The IP54 rating for dust and splash resistance makes them durable enough for workouts, even if they are not explicitly marketed as fitness gear.

    These engineering choices culminate in a fairly reasonable price tag. At £149 or €179 (around $200 USD), the Accentum Clip is positioned aggressively beneath the Bose Ultra Open, which launched at $299. Sennheiser is not trying to create a new category; it is trying to win the one Bose popularized by being a better value on paper. It is a classic challenger strategy: arrive a little late to the party, but bring a better spec sheet and a more accessible price. For European and Canadian buyers, the choice between the two just became much more interesting.

    Which brings us back to that curious launch map. The decision to omit the United States, the world’s largest single market for high-end audio, feels a lot like a symptom of a broader shift in the tech industry. Whether due to the complexities of FCC certification, a desire to test the product in smaller markets first, or the simple fact that the US is becoming a harder place for global brands to operate, the absence is loud.

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    Health Apps Know You’re Stressed, HealingFit TWS Helps You Act on It

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    Health apps and wearables have become remarkably precise at reading the human body. They can tell you how restorative last night’s sleep was, how stressed your body was during a presentation, and whether your recovery is on track after a hard week. What most of them don’t do, at least not in any concrete way, is hand you a tool to act on what they’ve just told you.

    That’s the gap MobiFren founder and CEO Juwon Heo set out to address with the HealingFit TWS, a true wireless earbud built to go beyond standard listening. It earned a CES 2026 Innovation Awards recognition in Headphones and Personal Audio, but the more compelling aspect isn’t the accolade. It’s the design thinking underneath it, and what that thinking could mean for the broader world of digital health.

    Designer: Juwon Heo, Founder & CEO, MobiFren

    Click Here to Buy Now: $169 $300 (44% off). Hurry, only 11/290 left! Raised over $67,000.

    During normal use, HealingFit TWS functions as a premium pair of true wireless earbuds with Bluetooth 6.0, Hybrid ANC, and five tunable sound modes built on MobiFren’s own MSTS sound tuning system. The shift into wellness mode happens when you attach the Magnetic TES Link, a cable that snaps magnetically onto both earbuds. There’s no separate gadget involved, and no new category of hardware to carry.

    TES, or Transcranial Electrical Stimulation, is a non-invasive approach widely studied in neuroscience. HealingFit TWS translates it into a controllable daily routine, running calibrated microcurrents through skin-contact electrodes built into each earbud. The intensity is adjustable across 15 levels, and most people describe the sensation as a subtle, rhythmic pulse. It’s designed to support the nervous system’s natural shift toward rest or focus, not force it there.

    Three wellness modes organize the experience. Sleep is the bedtime routine, pairing TES with binaural audio tracks to help you gradually settle for the night. Healing is a shorter session for mid-afternoon or post-work moments when the day has felt relentless. Study is a focus-priming routine to run before anything demanding real concentration. Each mode comes with five dedicated tracks, though you can also layer TES over your own music.

    That three-mode framework reads differently from the perspective of a digital health platform. Platforms like Samsung Health, Apple Health, Google Health, and Fitbit have become genuinely capable at detecting sleep quality, stress levels, recovery readiness, and daily activity. They generate scores, flag patterns, and surface recommendations. What they don’t typically offer is a connected, device-level way to act on those signals in the moment they appear.

    HealingFit TWS addresses that with an open Bluetooth LE interface that developers and platform teams can connect to without a licensing fee or a proprietary SDK. The technical entry point is UUID 0xBE00, and documentation is publicly available through mobifrenglobal.com. The intent is clear: the earbud becomes the intervention hardware, while the app or platform provides the health context that determines when and which session a user might benefit from.

    Think about what that could look like in practice. A sleep app detecting elevated pre-bed stress could suggest a Sleep session. A recovery platform flagging low readiness after a demanding training week could prompt a Healing routine. A focus tool that spots declining concentration before a deadline could surface the Study mode. In each case, the platform has done its analysis. HealingFit TWS handles what comes after.

    The core architecture places a TES-generating circuit inside one earbud, with electrodes on the front of each earbud that contact the ear canal, and a TES Link cable that connects both earbuds. Detached, it functions as flagship-grade wireless earbuds; connected, it transforms into a wellness device designed to support sleep, stress relief, focus, and memory.

    What makes the TES architecture appealing to hardware teams isn’t just the open API. The circuit that generates TES signals relies on entirely standard, commercially available components, totaling just 18 parts: a dual-transistor chip, one FET, and a set of RLC components. The earbud’s existing charging contacts also serve as the TES link contacts, so no extra contact points or major structural changes are needed.

    The design has received formal IP recognition across multiple jurisdictions. The U.S. patent application covering the core architecture has been allowed and is proceeding to registration, with the patent expected to be granted soon. There are also registered patents in Korea and Japan, as well as a published application in Europe. FCC certification was granted on July 1, 2026.

    Heo founded MobiFren in February 2002, originally as a contract developer for Samsung Electronics feature phones. The company started building its own Bluetooth audio products in 2005 and brought its first Bluetooth earphones to market in 2006. MobiFren has maintained an ongoing relationship with Samsung through smartphone software verification work ever since. That two-decade grounding in Bluetooth audio is what gives HealingFit TWS its engineering footing.

    The choice to build this platform on earbuds specifically is, in that context, a deliberate one. Earbuds are already the personal technology closest to the human body for most of the waking day. They’re phone-paired, habitually worn, and typically owned by the same people most likely to be using a health app. Embedding TES therapy into a device people already carry daily removes most of the adoption barrier entirely.

    The hardware reflects that audio-first foundation. Alongside the TES system, HealingFit TWS delivers up to 6.5 hours of playback and up to 4.5 hours in TES mode, with Hybrid ANC, three microphones per side, and wear detection for auto-pause when an earbud is removed. Both earbuds and the Magnetic TES Link cable dock in a cylindrical charging case finished in anodized aluminum, designed to carry without fuss.

    What Heo is ultimately proposing is a platform category that doesn’t quite have a name yet. His comparison is to how true wireless earbuds, from AirPods to Galaxy Buds, turned personal audio into a mainstream daily habit. The longer ambition is for this patented TES architecture to be adopted into future products from those same companies, giving their health platforms a connected hardware layer for the signals they already detect.

    The more compelling case might be for the health platforms themselves. Apple Health, Google Health, Samsung Health, and Fitbit have spent years becoming sophisticated at detecting when something is off: poor sleep, elevated stress, slow recovery. What they don’t yet widely offer is a hardware path from that detection to user-controlled action. HealingFit TWS was built to be exactly that path, and it’s open to anyone willing to test it.

    That’s a bold bet, and the category he’s describing doesn’t fully exist yet. But HealingFit TWS makes a credible early case for it, with a patent-allowed architecture, open developer access, and a hardware design that doesn’t ask users to change anything about how they already carry and use earbuds every day.

    Click Here to Buy Now: $169 $300 (44% off). Hurry, only 11/290 left! Raised over $67,000.

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