CMF Watch Pro Review: More for Less!

Nothing has made some unique-looking devices so far, including the Nothing Phone and the Nothing Buds, which deliver on the brand’s promise of providing a unique user experience which the brand claims that other manufacturers lack. This unique experience comes at a price. This is why the brand’s products are priced on the higher side and cater primarily to premium buyers. When Nothing founder Carl Pei announced its affordable CMF line of products, it became clear from the price that the brand wanted to cater to the needs of budget users at a lower price point while maintaining their emphasis on interesting designs. CMF, as we know, stands for colour, material and finish.

So, did CMF succeed in delivering products that match up to Nothing’s standards in terms of quality and the oomph factor? I have used the CMF Watch Pro for a couple of months, and here’s what I think about Nothing’s first budget smartwatch.

CMF Watch Pro price

CMF Watch Pro is priced at Rs. 4,499 in India, which is what most budget smartwatches are priced at, and this one focuses on checking all the essential boxes at this low price.

Inside the minimalist retail package, you get the smartwatch, strap, charging cable and a user manual.

It is available in four colour options. There’s an Orange finish with a chrome-finished watch case and an orange-coloured silicone band, which I received for review. Next is the Dark Grey finish, with a matte-finished dark grey watch case and a black silicone band. There’s also an Ash Grey finish that sports the same matte-finished dark grey watch case with a grey-coloured silicone band. Recently, Nothing released yet another option with a silver case and a white strap. In short, there are plenty of options to choose from.

CMF Watch Pro Review: Design and Specifications

I found the Orange finish to be very flashy, especially with the chrome housing that shines whenever light hits it, and the orange colour is quite loud for my taste. The Dark Grey colour option would appeal more to consumers who prefer a subtle look, and the Ash Grey could be chosen if you want the grey-coloured watch band.

The smartwatch offers a pretty straightforward design with a basic button on the right side that can be hard to press sometimes. Also present is a microphone and a speaker grille. 

CMF Watch Pro offers 8 always-on watch face options

The smartwatch sports a rectangular case made of aluminium alloy, but it feels very light when worn. The attached strap is made of high-quality silicone, and I did not feel any discomfort when using it daily. It is soft to the touch, and the hook is not finicky as you might expect from a smartwatch in this price range. Despite feeling quite light (47g with strap), the smartwatch looks and feels much better than anything you can get at this price point in terms of quality. It does share a resemblance with the Apple Watch Ultra in size, which is quite large at 46.9mm x 39.87mm (H X W) and quite thick at 11.4mm.

The smartwatch sports a 1.96-inch AMOLED display with a 410 x 502 pixels resolution and a claimed 600+ nits of brightness. The display is surrounded by particularly thick bezels that you do not notice quite as much, as most of the watch faces use a blacked-out background, but only when you use the fully-coloured watch face. The smartwatch is IP68 certified for dust and water resistance, which is suitable for a smartwatch selling at this price point. It has built-in GPS and Bluetooth 5.3 and all the necessary sensors for heart rate, sleep, stress and SpO2 tracking.

CMF Watch Pro Review: Performance

CMF Watch Pro uses a companion app called CMF Watch, which is available on both the App Store and Play Store. It is essential to pair the smartwatch to the smartphone as it is needed to change or adjust some of the features of the watch. After multiple tries, I managed to pair it with my iPhone, it worked just fine. Despite updating the app and the watch regularly, the application tends to log you out of the account quite often. The brand has already received quite a lot of complaints regarding the GPS tracking feature on the watch and the connection issues between the smartphone and the companion app as well, but the issue persists even four months after its launch. 

CMF Watch Pro is light enough to be worn throughout the day

The app shows data including your steps, exercise statistics, blood oxygen levels, heart rate and sleep data. You can also browse through the pre-installed watch faces, which are limited at the moment (only those available within the app). It also has quite an extensive range of sports modes. The CMF Watch app feels like a polished version of the generic companion apps we usually see with smartwatches in the sub-5k category, which is disappointing. The companion app does not let you sync your recorded health data with Apple Health or Google Fit. This means that your health data cannot be moved to another smartwatch or ecosystem but remains locked within the CMF app.

As for the software on the watch, the CMF Watch Pro has a monochrome look throughout its menus with the black, white and orange colour scheme, which is unusual but can become boring after a certain period. The smartwatch does not support any third-party apps (it appears to be a fork of RTOS) and can be updated through the companion app, given you have it on charging or have enough juice to support the update.

The smartwatch has a 1.96-inch AMOLED display with a 58 fps refresh rate

The custom software feels smooth when browsing the native apps and the interface, with no signs of lag or stutter. However, it only supports one function at a time. Unless you use a timer or a stopwatch, it’s impossible to multi-task otherwise, as it simply does not support it at a software level.

When used outdoors, the smartwatch’s display is quite legible, especially because of the monochrome look and fewer animations. The colours on the display are quite vibrant, and I prefer the full-display watch faces more often than the blacked-out ones.

Notifications on this smartwatch are displayed decently, but it can only show truncated notifications and is not able to display emojis in them. It’s also not possible to reply to any of these notifications.

The CMF Watch Pro works well as a step tracker and for monitoring heart rate. I tracked my walk for around 500 metres. I got the same results from my Apple Watch Series 7 for steps when I used both simultaneously. GPS tracking is a feature that should have worked without your smartphone as well, considering the Watch Pro does have GPS built-in, but you cannot start a walk/run on the watch itself, and the companion app requires you to be connected with the smartphone at all times, which is restricting at times.

After a short workout, I tested the SpO2 tracking on the Watch Pro, comparing it with a pulse oximeter, and the readings were very close, which is a good sign. Sleep tracking works just fine on the watch, but the readings take some time to show up on the companion app. It did track the REM while I slept, and the number of hours I slept through was accurate.

The CMF Watch Pro allows users to answer calls with the watch, but the speaker is tiny, and its audio quality is not very clear. When placing calls, the caller could hear my voice decently well. I didn’t find it as useful, so I wouldn’t recommend using it. The smartwatch uses Bluetooth 5.3, and the connection with the smartphone is stable for the most part. It does show caller ID when somebody calls through the cellular network, but the smartwatch doesn’t show the caller’s details for VoIP calls.

CMF Watch Pro Review: Battery

The smartwatch sports a 340mAh battery, which seems average for a smartwatch at this price point. I used the CMF Watch Pro for receiving calls, viewing notifications, tracking a walk and for the usual health tracking features like heart rate, Sp02 and Sleep tracking. When used with AOD turned on, along with all the above-mentioned activities, the watch lasted for about two days until the watch died out. With AOD turned off, I got two and a half days off the Watch Pro with the same activities and sensors turned on. Considering there are no actual applications that one can use on this smartwatch, this was well below my expectations.

Charging it for 30 minutes delivers around a 50 percent charge, but the CMF Watch Pro takes exactly 2 hours to reach 100 percent. The smartwatch uses a magnetic charging adapter that fits snugly and doesn’t come off easily.

CMF Watch Pro Review: Verdict

The CMF Watch Pro functions more like a fitness band and less like a smartwatch, but it seems to be a solid wearable in the sub-5k price category. It offers a unique-looking design and good build quality and finish, which is hard to find at this price point. More importantly, it provides most of the features they might need and covers the basics, like a smooth and stable watch interface. There are also decent charging speeds, long battery life, and IP68 dust and water resistance.

However, it has a few downsides, including a buggy companion app with limited watch faces to choose from and no official swappable wristbands (even though it comes in plenty of paired case and strap options). If you are ok with the buggy companion app and are willing to go through the early adopter drill, this will still be an appealing buy, given its features. You can check out the Noise ColorFit Pro 5 Max at Rs. 4,999, which has more colour and wristband options. Alternatively, the Redmi Watch 3 Active retails for a lower price and has a robust companion app but lacks a built-in GPS module.