00Context
I wrote about the Clip Pro after five days, before it was on sale anywhere. Five days tells you how something feels and very little else, so this is the follow up after a month of ordinary use.
One thing has not changed since that first text. The Clip Pro is still the only open ear product I have ever used, so what follows is a month with one clip and not a comparison against the rest of the category. Everything here is measured against sealed in ears, because that is what I came from.
That month mattered because the Clip Pro had competition the whole time. My Ear (3), the Headphone (1) and a wired pair at my desk were all within reach, and I was free to take whichever made sense on the day. Where my hand went by the end says more than any single listening session could.
The price is the other thing that changed. They are on shelves now at 79,95 euro, which lets me answer the question the first review could not: who these are for.
01Dropouts and firmware
The one real defect in the first review was playback cutting out for about half a second at a time. An update landed at the end of that week that was meant to address it, and I said I would see how it held up.
It held up. A month later there have been no dropouts and no reconnect problems. If you read the first review and filed the Clip Pro under wait and see, this was the thing to wait for.
02Battery
I cannot give you a runtime figure, and I mean that as praise. At my usage a charge seems to last somewhere between one and two weeks, but I lost track, because the situation that would have made me pay attention never came up. In a month, no bud ever ran out on me mid session.
It is easy to underestimate what that does to daily use. I charge them when it crosses my mind. With every other pair I own there is a small background calculation before a long day, and here there is none. After a few weeks you notice its absence.
03Comfort and fit
Everything I said after five days still holds. No pressure points, no fatigue that builds over an afternoon. They do not turn unpleasant, and I have stopped expecting them to.
There is a limit to how far that claim reaches. The longest I have worn them in one go is four hours, so I cannot vouch for anything past that. Nothing in those four hours suggested a wall was coming, but I have not gone looking for it either.
The small learning curve I described in the first review is gone. Putting them on and dropping them back into the case is automatic now. They also sit more securely than I expected from a clip, essentially rock solid. I have not worn them in rain, so IP54 stays a spec sheet number to me.
04Sound
The character has not changed. Indoors and at low volume they sound full and comfortable, and it is still the treble that thins out first once there is noise around you. In a loud environment you push the volume higher than you should just to keep pace with the room.
Over the month I stopped fighting that. On public transport and on busy streets I reach for the Ear (3) without thinking about it. Sealed in ears with ANC are the right tool there. That limit comes with an open design and I would not put it on CMF.
One point deserves saying clearly, since open ear buds are usually sold on awareness. Awareness is not automatic. At a volume you would actually choose, I would not wear these while cycling or in the car. Engine noise and a distant siren are the kind of sound that gets covered up, and traffic is not where I want to find that limit. Open means the room reaches you unprocessed, which helps in a conversation. It does not mean you hear everything.
LDAC and anti-leakage are both still switched off on my pair, and a month has not changed my mind. LDAC costs battery for a difference I cannot reliably hear against AAC. Anti-leakage costs sound quality and volume to solve a problem I do not have, since indoors nobody hears anything at the levels I listen at, and outdoors the surroundings are louder than what escapes my ears.
05Controls and app
The physical buttons are my favourite part of this product. They never misfire the way touch controls do, and going back to the Ear (3) feels like a small downgrade because of it.
The Smart Dial has held up better than I expected. I enabled it, left it on volume, and the pocket triggering I complained about in the first review has not bothered me since. It works as a proper control, and the haptics still feel better than case hardware usually does.
The equaliser has not improved. Several firmware updates arrived over the month and it is unchanged, with a handful of presets and almost no room to shape anything yourself. Everything else about Nothing X is clean and quick to navigate, which makes this stand out. It is the one thing I would ask CMF to fix.
06Build
They look like the day I unboxed them. No scratches on the case, no slack in the clip arm. For a plastic product at this price, a month of being carried around every day has left no visible trace.
07Where they fit
By the end of the month the split had settled on its own. The Clip Pro is what I wear around the house and on quick trips to the shop nearby. Anywhere loud, above all on public transport, I take the Ear (3). At my desk I have gone back to my wired PC headphones.
The Headphone (1) lost the most ground, and the reason is comfort. Wearing something for hours is easier when nothing sits on your ears, and after a few weeks of that it is hard to go back for casual listening.
08Buying advice
They are worth it if most of your listening happens somewhere quiet and you want to wear something for hours without your ears complaining. The second argument is conversation: audio keeps running while you talk to someone, with nothing processed in between. The third is that you stop thinking about charging.
| Buy them if | Skip them if |
|---|---|
| Most of your listening happens somewhere quiet | You mostly listen on a bus or a busy road |
| You want to wear something for hours without your ears complaining | You want ANC |
| You talk to people while the audio keeps running | You want an equaliser you can actually work with |
| You are tired of thinking about charging | These would be your only headphones |
They are the wrong buy if your listening mostly happens on a bus or a busy road, or if you want ANC. Same if you want an equaliser you can actually work with. I would also not buy them for cycling or driving on the theory that open is safer, for the reason above. And if these would be your only headphones, buy sealed in ears with ANC first and add a clip afterwards.
At 79,95 euro the Clip Pro is one of the easiest second pairs to recommend that I have used. As a first and only pair it is the wrong starting point, no matter how good the battery is.
— nostream