Nothing's budget sub-brand CMF has launched the CMF Clip Pro, its first open-ear earbuds, priced at $99 and available in the US on the day of announcement, August 4, 2026 (The Verge). The product is an OWS (open-wearable stereo) device, meaning it clips onto the outside of the ear and leaves the ear canal open rather than sealing it the way traditional in-ear buds do.

That $99 price point matches Nothing's own Ear 3A and the original Ear (a), which means CMF is pricing its open-ear entry at parity with the company's in-ear offerings rather than treating the form factor as a premium tier. Open-ear designs face a built-in tradeoff: leaving the ear canal open reduces bass response, since low frequencies rely on the sealed chamber an in-ear bud or over-ear cup creates. CMF's answer is what the company calls Ultra Bass Technology, which balances frequencies and distortion while compensating for the natural bass loss inherent to open-ear products.

Each earbud weighs 6.5 grams and is designed to flex to fit any ear shape, with the stated goal of remaining comfortable during continuous wear. The IP54 rating provides protection against dust and light splashes, making the Clip Pro viable for outdoor activity, though not for submersion.

The audio pipeline centers on a 10.8mm driver (the component that physically produces sound) with codec support spanning LDAC, AAC, and SBC. LDAC inclusion is notable at this price, as it enables high-bitrate Bluetooth streaming from compatible Android devices, delivering better audio quality than standard Bluetooth codecs allow. Connectivity runs on Bluetooth 5.4 with multipoint support for simultaneous pairing to two devices. Google Fast Pair and Microsoft Swift Pair are both supported, and a Low Latency Mode is included for gaming.

The charging case is color-coordinated with the earbuds across three variants: light gray, dark gray, and coral, which CMF describes as white, black, and orange respectively. The case incorporates a built-in Smart Dial that handles volume adjustment, playback management, call answering, and device pairing without requiring the user to unlock their phone. That physical dial is the kind of hardware control decision that distinguishes CMF's design language from touch-only competitors, and it echoes Nothing's broader emphasis on tactile interaction over capacitive surfaces.

Battery life is rated at up to 10 hours of continuous playback per charge, with nearly 33 hours total when the charging case is factored in. For a clip-on open-ear product at $99, those numbers are competitive with, and in some cases exceed, what sealed in-ear options deliver at the same price. Four built-in microphones handle call duties with environmental noise separation designed to isolate the user's voice from surrounding sound.

Customization options are available through the Nothing X app, which serves as the unified software companion across Nothing and CMF audio products. The launch was timed for 9:00 a.m. EDT (6:00 a.m. PDT) on August 4, 2026, with pre-announcement coverage from late July and early August confirming the OWS categorization and unveiling date (SoyaCincau; Yahoo Tech).

The broader context here is that the open-ear and bone-conduction segment has historically occupied a niche between fitness accessories and audiophile afterthoughts. Products from Shokz and others built the category around running and cycling use cases where situational awareness is a safety requirement, not a preference. What CMF is doing with the Clip Pro is bringing the open-ear form factor into a mainstream consumer price band with specifications, LDAC codec support, and battery life that read like a conventional in-ear bud spec sheet. Whether the Ultra Bass Technology adequately compensates for the physics of an unsealed ear canal is a question that will require hands-on evaluation, but the spec positioning signals intent to compete on audio quality, not just form factor novelty.

The $99 price also matters because it removes the premium surcharge that has typically applied to open-ear products. If the audio and bass compensation hold up in practice, CMF has effectively collapsed the price gap between open-ear and in-ear options to zero, which could pull the form factor out of its fitness-specialist niche and into broader daily-use territory.