CMF Watch Professional 2: One minute assessment
The CMF Watch Professional 2 is undoubtedly one of many best cheap smartwatches you should buy proper now, if not the best possible choose, and it wins enormous factors purely for its extremely inexpensive price ticket.
Regardless of the cost-saving efforts, it has a powerful design and construct and comes with loads of options that make it an ideal newbie smartwatch for anybody new to the shape issue. The display is completely sufficient, the software program works effectively sufficient, and there are myriad smartwatch options together with exercise monitoring, sleep monitoring, GPS, and extra.
Nonetheless, it lacks a few key options, together with NFC funds, and it might probably’t actually be utilized in water. Additionally, a few of its options, like elevate and faucet to wake, in addition to exercise detection, are a bit of temperamental. Maybe my greatest situation with it’s that I desire the bigger, squircle form of the earlier mannequin, however I’ve reviewed it right here by itself deserves.
Nothing nonetheless sells each, and it is a large departure from what I imagine is the last word smartwatch success system. Nonetheless, it does ship some good upgrades, together with a greater show and extra watch faces.
CMF Watch Professional 2: Specs
| Element | CMF Watch Professional 2 (Darkish Gray) |
| Works with | Android & iOS |
| Worth | $69/£69/AU$99 |
| Dimensions (mm) | 4.5 x 4.5 x 1.36 cm (W x H x D) |
| Weight | 48.1g |
| Case/bezel | Steel physique + Liquid silicon strap |
| Show | 1.32’’ AMOLED Show 466 x 466px353 PPI620 nits peak brightness60Hz |
| GPS | GPS/GLONASS/Galileo/QZSS/Beidou |
| Battery life | As much as 11 days |
| Connection | Bluetooth 5.3 |
| Water-resistant? | IP68 |
CMF Watch Professional 2: Worth and Availability
- $69 / £69 / AU$99
- 4 colours
The CMF Watch Professional 2 is offered now in two colours from Nothing’s web site in addition to from retailers like Amazon. It prices $69 / £69 / AU$99 however does often see reductions of as much as 25%.
There’s just one dimension, the 42mm watch face, accessible in 4 colours: Blue, Ash Gray, Orange, and Darkish Gray pictured right here.
Pound for pound, this needs to be the best-value smartwatch you should buy available on the market proper now, contemplating it is suitable with each iPhone and Android and it has a powerful function set. It solely will get a 5/5 as a result of I am unable to award a better rating.
CMF Watch Professional 2: Design
- Cool round show
- Divisive change from the 1st-gen
- Stable, premium construct
You are going to hear plenty of “for a $69 watch” within the subsequent jiffy. However truthfully, for a $69 Watch, the CMF Watch Professional 2 is a very spectacular piece of design.
Nothing is known for making cool-looking tech devices, and the CMF Watch Professional 2 is not any completely different. Nonetheless, we have to discuss in regards to the elephant within the room. I am very a lot group “smartwatches ought to be squircle,” however the CMF Watch Professional 2 eschews the design of the primary CMF Watch Pro in favor of a very round design extra akin to the Google Pixel Watch 3. It is a large change, and one followers of the primary watch won’t like. The 42mm show is housed in a 45mm chassis, and the fairly thick bezel is tapered in direction of the center to create a singular bowl impact.
Whereas the styling is divisive, it is actually not generic. The digital crown can be premium and feels good and responsive to make use of. My solely construct gripe is the liquid silicon strap, which is fairly skinny and never very premium-feeling. That being stated, it’s snug, and I did not expertise a lot in the best way of wrist fatigue throughout any of my testing.
The bezel is interchangeable, so you may pop it off and change it with a bought different to vary up the color and style of your watch fairly shortly. That is one other pretty distinctive function that you simply will not actually discover on different smartwatches.
The show is a 1.32-inch AMOLED measuring 466×466. It is a slight improve on the earlier technology, now placing out 620 nits of peak brightness with a 60fps refresh charge, vs 58Hz and 600 nits within the previous one. The show is significantly smaller than the earlier mannequin, one other divisive change. Nonetheless, the general shift makes the watch a lot smaller in profile, so folks with smaller wrists or those that need a extra unintrusive expertise will desire this.
The display has a brand new auto-brightness function, in addition to 5 ranges you may manually choose from. At 620 nits peak, it is not precisely a looker (even the Apple Watch SE 2 places out 1,000 nits) however it’s completely sufficient. In truth, for a $69 watch, it is undoubtedly an honest show.
Some colours look a bit of washed out, just like the temperature dials on my multifunction face. However colourful faces just like the Prismatic Time face undoubtedly have some pop to them. There are some bizarre pixel-shifting points I’ve seen on a number of the interfaces, traces that ought to be straight are wonky in locations, however I am unable to inform if this can be a {hardware} or a software program situation. At a look, it is probably not that noticeable.
Sturdiness-wise, the CMF Watch Professional 2 comes with an IP68 water ranking. Which means it is dustproof and may stand up to immersion in as much as 1.5 meters of water for half-hour. Nonetheless, Nothing says the Watch Professional is not appropriate to be used whereas swimming, within the bathe, saunas, steam rooms, or any form of water sports activities or exercise. Mainly, water is a no-go, which is certainly a key weak spot.
CMF Watch Professional 2: Options
- A lot of sports activities monitoring and well being metrics
- Bluetooth, GPS, coronary heart charge metrics
- No NFC
For a $69 watch (I will not cease), there’s an terrible lot occurring right here. The CMF Watch Professional 2 provides a myriad of options you’d look forward to finding in a smartwatch, with a few key lacking options reflective of the worth.
Let’s begin with what you do get. Underpinning many of the best smartwatches lately is well being and health, and the CMF Watch Professional 2 provides 120 sport modes, in addition to 5 sensible recognition actions that may detect your exercises with out guide enter (I will get as to if this works within the Efficiency part). Some workouts actually have a warm-up choice that triggers a fast slew of animated warm-up stretches and actions earlier than you’re employed out, one thing you will not even discover on any of the best Apple Watches.
Well being monitoring delivers an Energetic Rating, round the clock coronary heart charge and blood oxygen monitoring, sleep monitoring, menstrual cycle monitoring, step depend, energy, resting coronary heart charge, and alerts for irregular coronary heart charge and blood oxygen.
You additionally get key options like reminders, music controls, a distant digital camera management, a calendar, a calculator, and alarms. The Watch Professional 2 works with each iOS (13 and above) or Android (8.0 and above), so you must get loads of cross-compatibility and synchronization between options like reminders and alarms in your watch and whichever smartphone you employ.
You may additionally get a Discover My Telephone function, flashlight, and a voice assistant performance, though I discovered the latter one is a little bit of a gimmick, it is purported to set off your cellphone’s voice assistant, and whereas I may see the watch waking up Siri on my iPhone, I could not really ask questions or use it for something.
Crucially, the Watch Professional 2 lacks NFC, so cannot be used to make cellular funds out of your wrist, which is likely to be a deal breaker for some.
CMF Watch Professional 2: Efficiency
- First rate exercise monitoring
- Some apparent quirks
- Snappy day-to-day use
- Good battery life
I will begin with the efficiency positives as a result of there are a few quirks with the CMF Watch Professional 2 try to be conscious of.
I typically discovered exercise monitoring to be constant. A direct check with my Apple Watch Sequence 10 for an indoor run measured virtually equivalent readings for distance traveled. The common coronary heart charge was only one bpm off, and the vary was just about spot-on. So far as exercise monitoring on a smartwatch could be correct (the jury is out on simply how helpful it’s typically), I might say the CMF Watch Professional 2 delivers fairly cheap accuracy throughout the board.
I’ve seen different critiques touch upon GPS quirks, however I did not expertise any points with it. Battery life on the Watch Professional 2 is fairly spectacular, rated for as much as 11 days of typical use, 9 days of heavy use, or 25 hours utilizing GPS. I’ve discovered that typically to carry true in testing, and the battery life is certainly one of many positives.
Whereas syncing with iOS and my iPhone was typically seamless, it does not play good with Apple’s notifications as a result of these are restricted for third-party {hardware}. As such, iOS Focus modes do not work, one consideration for iPhone customers. Notifications are fairly restricted in use additionally, whereas you may reply to them in watchOS on gadgets just like the Apple Watch or Put on OS, all you are able to do is learn and dismiss them right here.
As you may need picked up, the CMF Watch Professional 2 runs Nothing’s proprietary smartwatch software program fairly than Put on OS. I really desire the appear and feel over Put on OS, however like Put on OS, some components of the UI stay poorly optimized for the round show. Scrolling and swiping have been very snappy general, and I by no means skilled any efficiency lags. In truth, the Watch Professional 2 is noticeably snappier than even the Garmin Instinct 3 I used to be lately hands-on with.
All through my testing, I could not get ‘elevate to wake’ to work in any respect. I even wrote this portion of the assessment, describing it because the CMF Watch Professional 2’s greatest flaw and one that actually hobbled the person expertise. Then, out of nowhere, the function started to work completely.
Now, at any time when I raise my wrist, the watch instantly springs into life. Faucet to wake is much less dependable, and I’ve seen different critiques flag that elevate to wake is a matter. So whereas I can not say it does not work full cease, it’s undoubtedly quirky and an issue to be careful for.
Exercise detection does work, kind of. Whereas out strolling, my watch notified me that I used to be doing precisely that and requested if I might like to trace the expertise. I tapped sure, however the tracker began from zero. Exercise detection on Apple Watch is at all times working within the background, so when you get a detection discover after 10 minutes of strolling, that 10 minutes of exercise is included in your metrics. The Watch Professional 2 begins from scratch, which is not precisely how I might count on exercise detection to operate. Mainly, it is helpful when you neglect to start out your exercise and wish a reminder.
One ultimate flaw, the vibration motor is not good. It resonates at simply the flawed frequency and shakes the entire watch with an annoying, high-pitched buzz, it is the one a part of the expertise that feels low-cost.
CMF Watch Professional 2: Scorecard
| Class | Remark | Rating |
| Worth | Extremely low-cost, and unbelievable worth for the options and design. | 5/5 |
| Design and display | Very good, premium design and really feel, stable construct high quality. Show will not win any awards, however is greater than sufficient at this worth level. | 4/5 |
| Options | A lot of health monitoring and well being options, however misses NFC and cannot be utilized in water. | 4/5 |
| Efficiency | Very robust battery life and day-to-day responsiveness, correct exercise monitoring, elevate to wake is quirky. | 3/5 |
| Complete | A powerful an bold funds smartwatch, however a really irritating expertise. The value nearly covers the issues. | 4/5 |
CMF Watch Professional 2: Ought to I purchase?
Purchase it if…
Do not buy it if…
CMF Watch Professional 2: How we examined
I used the CMF Watch Professional 2 over numerous weeks, as a each day smartwatch, throughout exercises, and extra. I examined all of its major options and it was related to an iPhone in the course of testing.
CMF Watch Professional 2: Additionally contemplate
| Row 0 – Cell 0 | CMF Watch Professional 2 | CMF Watch Professional 1 | Amazfit Bip 3 Professional |
| Worth | $69/£69/AU$99 | $69 / £69 / AU$131 | $69.99 / £69 / AU$119 |
| Dimensions | 4.5 x 4.5 x 1.36 cm (W x H x D) | 46.9 x 39.87 x 12.89 (mm) | 44.1 x 36.4 x 9.65mm |
| Weight | 48.1g | 47 g | 33.2g |
| Case/bezel | Steel physique + Liquid silicon strap | Aluminium alloy | Plastic + center body spraying |
| Show | 1.32’’ AMOLED Show 466 x 466px353 PPI620 nits peak brightness60Hz | 410 x 502 px, AMOLED | 240 x 280px, 2.5D tempered glass |
| GPS | GPS/GLONASS/Galileo/QZSS/Beidou | GPS/GLONASS/Galileo/QZSS/Beidou | Assisted GPS |
| Battery life | As much as 11 days | As much as 13 days | 14 days, 7 days heavy use |
| Connection | Bluetooth 5.3 | Bluetooth 5.3 | Bluetooth 5.0 |
| Water-resistant? | IP68 | IP68 | resistant?Sure, 5ATM |
First reviewed: February 2025