Nothing's CMF Buds Neo cost $25. That number matters more than anything else in this story.
Launched in August 2026, the CMF Buds Neo are the budget arm of Nothing's CMF sub-brand pushing into territory where most audio hardware fails on contact. The reviewer went in skeptical and came out surprised. The downsides exist, they are expected, and they are apparently not dealbreakers.
The full hands-on is worth reading because the real question is not whether $25 earbuds are bad. It is how bad, and in which specific ways. The tradeoffs the CMF Buds Neo make to hit that price point tell you something useful about where the floor of the consumer audio market is sitting right now.
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