CMF Clip Pro Open-Ear Earbuds Arrive With LDAC, IP54 and a Smart Dial Case

CMF, the budget sub-brand of Nothing, launched its first open-ear earbuds on August 4. The CMF Clip Pro costs $99 (around ₱6,000) and clips onto the outside of your ear instead of sealing inside it — and unusually for the price, it supports LDAC, a high-resolution Bluetooth audio codec normally reserved for pricier gear.

Open-ear or "open wearable stereo" designs leave your ear canal uncovered so you can hear traffic, a colleague, or a jeepney barker while music plays. The trade-off is almost always bass, since there is no seal to hold low frequencies in. CMF's answer is a large 10.8mm dual-magnet dynamic driver paired with what it calls Ultra Bass Technology and a Sound Seal system.

CMF Clip Pro specifications

One small inconsistency worth flagging: most launch coverage lists 6.5g per earbud, while 9to5Google's write-up gives 5.92g. Either way these are light enough that weight is not the deciding factor.

The clip design and the Smart Dial case

The hook here is mechanical rather than sonic. Android Authority reports the Clip Pro uses a three-point clip built around a flexible 0.5mm titanium wire C-bridge, which spreads pressure across the ear rather than pinching one spot. Clip-style buds tend to fail on long wear — they either fall off or start to ache — so distributing the force is the right problem to solve.

The charging case carries CMF's rotating Smart Dial, which handles volume, playback and calls without reaching for your phone. It is the same design idea CMF has used across its recent products, and it is genuinely useful when your hands are busy.

There is also a low-latency gaming mode, Google Fast Pair and Microsoft Swift Pair for quick setup, and a four-microphone array with a dedicated voice processing unit for calls. Notably, there is no active noise cancellation — which is expected, since an open design has nothing to cancel against.

Price and when the Philippines gets it

The Clip Pro is $99 (around ₱6,000), with a limited-time pre-order price of $79 (around ₱4,800) through Nothing's own store. Shipping starts August 15, 2026 in the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan, via nothing.tech and retail partners.

For everyone else, SoundGuys and other launch coverage put Europe and the rest of the world at September 15, 2026, with India excluded entirely. The Philippines is not named in either wave, and no official Philippine SRP has been announced. Peso figures above are conversions at roughly ₱61 to the dollar, not local pricing — a real Philippine SRP would land differently once taxes and distributor margin are applied.

That gap is worth watching rather than assuming. CMF and Nothing gear does reach the Philippines on a delay with proper local pricing: the Nothing Ear (3a) arrived here at ₱5,990, and the Nothing Phone (4b) at ₱21,990. If the Clip Pro follows the same pattern, a Philippine price near the ₱5,000 to ₱6,000 band would put it directly against the Ear (3a) — one sealed with strong noise cancellation, one open and aware of your surroundings.

Who this is actually for

Open-ear buds are a poor choice if you want to block out a noisy commute. They are a good choice if blocking it out is the thing you are worried about — riders, runners on public roads, and anyone who needs to hear a colleague or a delivery call without pulling a bud out. Add IP54 sweat and splash resistance and a 10-hour battery, and the use case is fairly clear.

The LDAC support is the surprise at this price. Whether an open design can make use of a high-resolution codec is a fair question — the format matters less when ambient noise is reaching your ear canal unimpeded — but its presence signals CMF is not treating this as a throwaway accessory.