Recently, London-based Nothing introduced a sub-brand called CMF by Nothing, which is meant to deliver affordable devices. So far Nothing has proven to be a promising brand that is partial towards design and user experience, which the market needed. The sub-brand doesn’t dilute that philosophy with its three new products — CMF Watch Pro, CMF Buds Pro and CMF Power 65W GaN charger. Today, we look at the smartwatch, which we have used for six days.
Clean design and bright display
It starts at Rs 4,499 rupees and has a different design philosophy than the Nothing premium phones. What we expect from Nothing devices at this point is a transparent design but this is different. The squarish design is fine and there is nothing much to complain about the metal casing or the build quality.
The metal casing on the CMF product is on the thicker side but the bezels have the same thickness all around. There is a microphone, a speaker and the sensors are obviously on the back. The watch is even IP68 rated, so you can take it for a swim. The strap you get in the box is silicon and the buckle on it is easy to use. You can also change straps with ease, thanks to the quick-release pin. The watch is comfortable to wear and weighs only 47g with the strap. It is available in a single dial, single size, which might be a little too big for some people.
The companion app is well-designed and there are plenty of granular controls
That brings us to the display, which is large and stunning. It’s a 1.96-inch AMOLED display that’s sharp, features 58Hz refresh rate, and 600-plus nits of brightness, which is fantastic for a budget smartwatch. Overall, the display is responsive and you can read it under direct sunlight. Having always-on-display makes sense and the raise-to-wake feature works smoothly. What it doesn’t have is auto brightness but there are five brightness levels and you can change it from quick settings. Is it very different from that of other smartwatches under Rs 5,000? I wouldn’t say that but CMF has done a brilliant job on its first smartwatch.
User experience
Where CMF has done better than rivals is in the UI and software experience. Nothing is known for offering user-friendly software and you get that here. On the home screen you can press, hold and change watch faces. There are a lot of watch faces to choose from in the app. It also has a minimal design with grey, red and black.
To access quick settings, swipe down and here all the handy options are present. Swipe up to access notifications although these aren’t actionable. Swipe right or left to access widgets or tiles. There’s one for activity, heart rate, weather, which has a very Nothing feel to it.
You even get a full dialer to make a call. As for the calling experience, you can take calls on the watch easily and the call quality is impressive while the speaker is loud enough and the mic quality too is quite good.
The Watch Pro has only one button which brings up the app list. In the exercise section, all the popular modes are present while the app gives you access to a longer list. There’s also exercise record, which shows you details from your workouts. Access the heart rate app, blood oxygen app, sleep details, stress app and you can also control the music on your phone. Voice assistant activates Google Assistant from your phone. Needless to say, there’s flashlight and Find My Phone feature.
You may say that many of these features are on some inexpensive smartwatches from other brands but what CMF has done is bring it all together in a friendly way without compromising on its core design philosophy. As for how the fitness tracking works, there are all the sensors you need and it’s fairly accurate.
There are a couple of drawbacks but those I am sure will be smoothened out in future iterations, like tiles need to be made customizable and notifications should be actionable. These will help make CMF gain an edge over others.
Should you buy it?
To get the watch going you have to download the new CMF Watch app. I used it with Nothing Phone 2. The watch has Bluetooth 5.3, so there are no connectivity issues. The app has been designed well, offering a clean overview of workouts and stats. You can also start a workout from the app itself.
Like most non-WearOS smartwatches, battery life is good. CMF says the 340mAh battery can give you 13 days of battery life but don’t expect more than seven days with heavy usage (includes 24/7 health monitoring and calls) and nine days on moderate usage.
The only problem I see is the name CMF by Nothing. CMF is not the catchiest of brand names and people may soon start calling this the ‘Nothing Watch’, which would be a problem if the main brand decides to make a smartwatch. For the time being, I would say that it’s a good start for CMF and it has managed to make an important point — inexpensive technology can be enjoyable and user-friendly.
At a glance
Device: CMF (by Nothing) Watch Pro
Price: Rs 4,499
High notes
Good software experience
Sturdy device
Accurate readings
Excellent battery life
Muffled note
The squarish casing is slightly thick
