Young entrepreneur Carl Pei has often been compared to Steve Jobs. He once delighted the Android world with his smartphone brand Oneplus, later left and founded a new brand, Nothing, that focuses on price-performance and exceptional designs. The Nothing Phone 1 (test report) and Nothing Phone 2 (test report) caused a lot of media attention. It’s not surprising that Nothing’s first smartwatch is also an interesting product. What is unusual, however, is that it appears in the name of a sub-brand.
Die CMF Watch Pro by Nothing kostet nur 69 Euro, aimed at health-conscious design lovers and offering support for up to 110 sports. In the test we show that the watch is fun and lasts a long time, but doesn’t come close to the versatility of an Apple Watch or Galaxy Watch.
Design and usability
Nothing relies on an angular and robust-looking aluminum housing for the CMF Watch Pro, which is reminiscent of the Apple Watch Ultra. Worn on the arm, it seems light at 47 grams, but also a little bulky; we occasionally got caught with it on our sleeves or objects. The watch sometimes bothered me when I was sleeping. Apart from that, the watch is supple and smooth. The included and already attached silicone bracelet can be worn even on hairy arms without pulling, is quickly attached and holds securely. The tab is on the inside for a secure hold. That’s why there are no eyelets.
The 1.96-inch AMOLED display has a visible but tolerably narrow bezel. The resolution is pleasingly high at 410 × 502 pixels, and the display with 600 nits is easy to read even in bright surroundings. The design language of the watch faces and menus is limited – very minimalistically – to the four colors black, white, red and gray. Designs appear well thought out and extremely easy on the eyes.
The CMF Watch Pro is operated solely via the non-rotating power button and the touchscreen. With a swipe to the left or right we switch between the menus, a swipe from top to bottom or bottom to top shows the quick start menu or the recent notifications. If you hold the display longer, you can select a different watch face. A long press on the power button opens the app menu or starts a workout. Some watch faces have an always-on function. A night mode can be selected in the quick start menu.
App and setup
To use the CMF Watch Pro by Nothing, you need the CMF Watch smartphone app (for Android and iPhone). In just a few steps we located and set up the watch in the app via Bluetooth 5.3. The following is the request to first fully charge the watch using the supplied, proprietary charging plug with USB-A port. By the way, a power supply is not included in the scope of delivery.
When setting it up, the app asks for age, height and weight, although our test device is set to the imperial system by default. With just a few clicks we can switch to the metric and 24-hour system. However, some watch faces still only remain available in 12-hour mode. Otherwise, the app is surprisingly data-efficient; on the iPhone, for example, it does not allow users to connect to Apple Health or Apple Fitness.
The CMF Watch app has the same, very stylish design as the menus and watch faces on the watch. Here we find additional information about activities and all health data such as blood oxygen, stress and pulse at a glance. Updates – at least three in our test period – also reach the watch via the app. In a random sample, despite synchronization, we were unable to find all previous activities in the app, even if they were still saved on the watch.
Activity and navigation
In addition to A-GPS, the CMF Watch Pro by Nothing also supports Glonass, Galileo, QZSS and Beidou. With our test device, waiting for a GPS signal before training is painfully slow and often unsuccessful, despite the daily synchronization of the GPS data. As a result, we didn’t want to wait every time and simply started the training anyway – despite being warned that the measurement was inaccurate. The measurement results still turned out to be surprisingly accurate. 650 meters of a test measurement (without waiting for the GPS signal) from one shop in the city center to the next corresponded exactly to the 650 meters that Google Maps also calculated.
Training
The CMF Watch Pro officially supports over 110 sports from Kendo to horizontal bars and battle rope to hang gliding. In some areas, the activity can also be selected more granularly, such as indoor cycling instead of just cycling or mountain hiking instead of hiking. In the app, athletes can select and sort their preferred training so that frequently selected sports appear at the top of the watch when training begins.
At second glance, however, the CMF Watch Pro doesn’t seem smart for some sports. The fact that the watch only measures heart rate and calorie consumption, but not steps, during weight training, yoga and rowing machines is still okay. In ball sports such as table tennis, the watch does not count the steps taken during training and does not count them towards the daily step goal.
During a workout, the watch sometimes sends messages via vibration. A bit inconvenient that they only light up for a few moments and then disappear without us being able to call them up again later. Occasionally, surprising messages like “Reach your goal” appear. Sure, I’d love to – but which one? Here the CMF Watch Pro remains only approximate.
Several times during our test, the request appeared before training to please start the app and synchronize data. We had already done this a few hours before.
CMF Watch Pro – photo series
CMF Watch Pro – photo series
Sleep
In the first three weeks of our test, the CMF Watch Pro only tracked our sleep once – even though the watch remained on our wrist at night. This only improved with an update to software version 11.0.0.50. A sign that the manufacturer is trying to cure the watch’s teething problems. While the watch only shows how long the wearer has slept, the app provides detailed information about the distribution of sleep phases into REM sleep, light sleep and deep sleep. The watch determined the moment you fell asleep and woke up quite reliably.
Additional features
The only real sensors on the CMF Watch Pro are a heart rate monitor, an oxygen saturation meter (SpO2) and an accelerometer. The watch also determines the steps taken and the load, and from this it calculates the stress level and calories burned.
In the menus, users can switch between activity, heart rate, weather (via app) and sleep. The CMF Watch Pro also has a flashlight function (brightened display), a stress level meter, a breathing exercise function, a calculator, a timer, an alarm clock and a stopwatch. A cell phone finder, music control, voice control, accepting telephone calls and making calls via the watch (thanks to the integrated microphone and mini speaker) are also possible via the paired smartphone. A camera remote control (release button) is also available.
System sounds consist of quite beeping tones, which is why we quickly turned them off again. Other apps, such as those from third parties, are not available at this time and are apparently not planned.
battery pack
The 340 milliamp hour (mAh) battery is lavishly proportioned. Without an always-on display and with little training, we actually get the promised 13 days of typical runtime. With occasional GPS use during some training, it’s not even that much less. So the CMF Watch Pro is a long-term runner!
Just charging with the included magnetic dock isn’t the greatest joy: we were constantly afraid that the plug would fall off and then no longer charge. Recharging takes well over an hour and occasionally it happened that the watch was content with any charge level beyond the 80 percent mark and simply didn’t want to charge to the full 100 percent.
Preis
With just once 69 Euro Exclusive to Amazon, the CMF Watch Pro is a real bargain given its range of functions. The watch is available in silver, dark gray or gray metallic as well as with a black, gray, white or orange strap that can be removed and replaced using a mini lever. Not all colors are available in Germany.
Alternatives
In this form, with its unusually fashionable design for comparatively little money, the CMF Watch Pro is almost in a class of its own. Conceptually similar and not much more expensive in terms of price, but in much more eye-catching colors, the Xiaomi Redmi Watch 4 or the Amazfit GTS 4 Mini are the first alternatives to consider.
Technical data
Conclusion
Decent range of functions, a little trickery, for example in the sports, a few teething problems, which the manufacturer is trying to fix. In addition, a beautiful design of hardware and software and modern technology. Disadvantages include the lack of apps and the inaccurate, slow GPS signal. Overall, the CMF Watch Pro by Nothing is a highly attractive sports watch (best list) that we are reluctant to give away again. Carl Pei and his team have also ported the concept of exclusive designs for little money to the smartwatch. With success.
We show other recommended wearables in these best lists: