Nothing better

First of all let me make it clear that I am not being paid to write this (though if anyone does want to reward me please reach out). No, this is an completely free advertisement for the brilliantly-named Nothing brand's budget stuff, the less-brilliantly-named CMF range.

I had a Mobvoi smartwatch for some years. It ran Google's WearOS, cost about £150 and looked nice, but it needed charging every couple of days, was difficult to read in sunlight, and a bit disappointing. I usually wore my old wind-up Omega.

I looked at other smartwatches but they seemed a bit pricey (I should explain: I was born in Yorkshire) had lots of features I would never use and still needed charging every couple of days. Then I came across Nothing's CMF watch. I did my research - read a review, checked out the price - and splashed out £55. And this time I was very much not disappointed. It doesn't run a swanky Apple or Google operating system or have hundreds of apps and features, but it does have everything I need, and it looks good and does what it does brilliantly and does it for a couple of weeks at a time between charges. I could go into detail, but I'm not being paid, so...

Not many weeks after buying my CMF watch I left the charging case for my cheap earbuds on the bus so, guess what? Yes, I got a pair of Nothing's CMF buds. And yes, they are much better than my old ones* and I would recommend them. They don;t aspire to be high-end but neither am I an audiophile, and they do everything I need them to and do it well (and only need charging every couple of weeks, like the watch).

I like things that just do what I need them to and do it well. I don't need lots of exotic features and bells and whistles I will probably never use. This is evident in the Chromebook I'm typing this on, the clothes I wear, the car I drive and the bikes I ride, the TV I watch, and the house I designed and live in. Nothing makes some more sophisticated stuff including phones that can even tempt long-time iPhone users to consider Android, but I'm glad they do the CMF range because it suits me fine. 

* In case anyone at Nothing reads this, I would just say my old, cheap earbuds had a nice feature where one tap on the right earbud turned up the volume while a tap on the left turned it down, but while I can customise the tapping controls on the CMF buds, I can't replicate this. Just saying.