CMF Debuts First Bluetooth Speakers With Swappable Panels and 18-Hour Playback

CMF, the budget-minded sub-brand of Nothing, has entered portable audio with its first two Bluetooth speakers: the compact Speaker S and the dual-driver Speaker M. Rather than chasing the loudest output in the mid-range bracket, CMF is betting on tactile, rearrangeable hardware and a silhouette borrowed from the supermarket dairy aisle. Both models are on sale now through Nothing’s store and selected retail partners, priced at $59 / £49 / €59 and $109 / £99 / €99 respectively.

• Swappable hardware: the front panels and the top-mounted multi-function dial detach via an unlock switch on the rear, so owners can change colours or 3D-print replacements.
• Two sizes: the portable Speaker S clips onto a bag, while the larger Speaker M adds a carry handle and a dual-driver setup for deeper bass.
• All-day endurance: both are rated for up to 18 hours at 50% volume with Ultra Bass engaged, and ten minutes of charging buys roughly an hour of playback.
• Rugged rating: IP68 dust and water resistance, surviving immersion in up to 1.5 metres of water for 30 minutes.

Design first, drivers second

CMF describes the design in unusually literal terms — a milk carton, complete with a built-in handle and removable panels. Both speakers use an angled, upright chassis with a mechanical rotary dial on top controlling volume and playback, plus dedicated power, Bluetooth and Auracast buttons at the rear. Colourways run to Clean White, Dark Grey, Orange and Light Turquoise, with orange positioned as the hero shade.

Inspired by the strong lines and sharp geometry of a milk carton, Speaker M comes with a built-in handle and removable panels for easier customisation.

CMF’s official product description

The dimensions settle the hierarchy: the Speaker M measures 220 × 85 × 54 mm at 602 g, while the Speaker S is 130.5 × 85 × 44 mm and 334 g. Early launch material described the M as the smaller of the two, a claim CMF’s own published figures do not support.

Inside the acoustic package — and the open question

The Speaker M pairs a 70 mm woofer with a 16 mm tweeter for a rated 35 W RMS across a 60 Hz–20 kHz range, drawing on a 4,900 mAh battery inside a sealed enclosure. The Speaker S opts for a custom-tuned 45 mm full-range driver plus two passive radiators, covering 70 Hz–20 kHz at 10 W RMS with a 2,600 mAh cell.

Software does much of the work through the Nothing X app: four EQ presets — Balanced, More Bass, More Treble and Voice — plus Custom EQ, Ultra Bass, Wide Soundstage, Adaptive Tuning and a Night Mode that caps volume at roughly 60%. Stereo Mode pairs two identical units into left and right channels, while Party Mode synchronises multiple speakers over Auracast. Connectivity covers Bluetooth 6.0 with a range beyond 100 metres, NFC tap-to-pair, Google Fast Pair, Microsoft Swift Pair, dual-device switching and USB-C wired audio with latency under 60 ms.

One caveat on specifications: earlier launch reporting placed the Speaker S on Bluetooth 5.4 and gave the Speaker M an IP54 splash rating. CMF’s published documentation now states Bluetooth 6.0 and IP68 for both, and the vendor’s figures are the safer reference.

What no spec sheet can answer is tuning. Nominal wattage says very little about how a speaker actually sounds, and Nothing’s track record is genuinely mixed — the Buds Pro 2 outperform their price, while the Phone (1) shipped with underwhelming speakers for its class. Early reaction to the pricing has been similarly split, with critics noting that €59 buys only 10 W while rivals such as Xiaomi offer more power for less.

Why the modular pitch matters more than the wattage

The real argument here isn’t acoustic. In three years Nothing has built an aesthetic identity and a community that treats design as a headline specification, and CMF pushes that logic into the cheapest tier, where design is normally the first thing sacrificed. The interchangeable panels and knobs — compatible with accessories already sold for CMF’s earbuds — create an ecosystem that encourages repeat purchases without the cost of maintaining a software platform.

The most revealing comparison isn’t JBL’s Go and Clip or Harman Kardon’s Go+Play Mini, the obvious shelf rivals at this price. It is IKEA’s Symfonisk range, developed with Sonos, which made design the primary purchase argument in a category ruled by spec sheets. CMF lands at a lower price with a level of personalisation Sonos has never offered.

If the tuning holds up, the Speaker M becomes the easiest outdoor recommendation under €100 now that real pricing is on the table. If it doesn’t, CMF will have sold a handsome object rather than a good speaker, and its swappable panels will read as decoration instead of strategy.