No thanks, I'm cutting down on dairy. Oh, these are speakers are they? Shaped like milk cartons? Go on then.
These are the first Bluetooth speakers from Nothing's budget sub-brand CMF, and as you would expect, they are very affordable indeed. But we'll get to that in a minute.
They're certainly eye catching. The Speaker M (the larger one) and Speaker S (seen below) both come in white, dark grey, orange and turquoise, with swappable front panels and knobs. Both support standardised, 3D-printable custom designs, if you want to add a personal touch.
Both are built to be taken with you – the Speaker S has an "attachment point" for hooking on a strap or carabiner, while the M has a built-in handle.
The M is the more powerful of the two, boasting a 25W woofer and 10W tweeter with an output of 35W RMS across 60Hz-20kHz. This should mean "deeper bass, clearer highs and more separation for vocals and instruments" than the Speaker S's 45mm full-range driver and dual passive radiators, which deliver up to 10W RMS across 70Hz-20kHz.
Both speakers feature an Adaptive Tuning algorithm that continuously analyses playback and optimises the output and EQ in real time to make sure the sound remains balanced.
Or you can dive into the Nothing X app to pick from four equaliser presets (Balanced, More Bass, More Treble and Voice).
Ultra Bass mode adds even more low-end weight (though it's "controlled", CMF insists), while Wide Soundstage makes for a more open sonic landscape.
You can control Ultra Bass from a knob on the device itself, which also handles playback, track navigation and volume. There are also dedicated buttons for power, Bluetooth pairing and Auracast.
You can pair two of the same model to create a stereo sound, or use the Auracast-based Party Mode to sync multiple speakers, including those from other brands. (Portable speaker bigwig JBL uses the same tech.)
Both speakers have Bluetooth 6.0, and can pair quickly using NFC, Google Fast Pair and Microsoft Swift Pair. They can connect to two devices at once so you don't need to re-pair every time you switch between them, and they can also connect over USB-C.
Speaker charging? It can wake automatically when a paired device reconnects to it, thanks to Auto Wake.
Battery life for both is a healthy 18 hours, which is two hours shy of the JBL Charge 6, our pick as best overall in our best Bluetooth speakers guide. And both CMF speakers are IP68 dust- and water-resistant, so will survive a dunk in up to 1.5 metres of water for up to 30 minutes.
They're both out today. The Speaker S is just £49 / $59 / €59 (around AU$85) and the Speaker M £99 / $109 / €99 (around AU$156). Which is very cheap indeed, though it all comes down to how they perform.
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