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Review: Nothing CMF Watch 3 Pro - Really good smartwatch for only 120 EUR

Nothing's latest watch feels more polished than the previous ones.

Elias Nordling
Published

Nothing's budget brand CMF has for a few years made charming and incredibly affordable electronics, where especially headsets and mobiles have stood out. They have also made watches with varying results. With the third generation, it now feels like they have found their footing here as well.

It's hard to see a consistent design theme in Nothing's CMF watches, possibly in the choice of colours, but the CMF Watch 3 Pro feels less cheap than the previous models. My sample is in black with an orange strap and orange details on the case. The colour theme in the watch also matches. It is also available in more discreet black or light grey variants.

It's a fairly large but not too heavy or thick watch, with a rather thin case so the screen is also large. It feels reliably robust, the screen is recessed in the frame which should protect it, but you can't swim with the watch, the water protection stops at IP68 which is enough for rain and sweat, and if you're lucky a quick dip in the water.

Shares data

The system in the watch is Nothing's own, and it's not a smartwatch in the sense that you can install your own apps on the watch, but otherwise you find most functions you associate with a fitness watch. Your training data is also not locked to Nothing's app, as there is support for syncing with Strava, as well as Google's Health Connect which in turn can transfer health data to a wide range of other services. Swedish is not available as a language on the watch so you have to settle for English in the menus, but the app on the mobile is in Swedish.

You control the watch with swipes across the screen for settings, notifications, and widgets, and a button on the side. It looks like a rotating knob, but you can only press it, turning has no effect. The watch responds quickly to my swipes and doesn't feel slow.

This is probably partly because the watch doesn't multitask very much. It obviously measures my steps and pulse in the background, but if I, for example, set a timer, I can't do anything else on the watch at the same time, not start a workout, not even return to the watch face.

When the timer is done, the watch vibrates, and it does the same when I receive notifications from the apps I've chosen to send notifications to the watch. It can also play sounds, but that's more disturbing for both me and those around me, so I turn it off. I also increase the vibration strength because I find it very weak, but even at max, I sometimes miss an alarm I've set because I'm focused on something else when it vibrates.

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Otherwise, I think the watch does a really good job of measuring both health indicators and exercise. The watch has its own GPS, even dual band for better accuracy. It almost feels like a bit of overkill, if I buy a watch for 1300 kronor, it's perhaps not super important that the GPS is as accurate as possible, but in my tests, I at least get an accurate route plotted. It should be added that the GPS needs more than half a minute to connect before you can start a workout.

Dictaphone but no payments

Some features you often find in smartwatches are missing here. For example, you cannot tap to pay, and you cannot upload music to the watch to listen without bringing your phone on a run. There is no version with esim and its own connection to the mobile network. You can't have everything for 1300 kronor. However, you can use the watch as a dictaphone if you think of something you don't want to forget when you're on the go. The app has a function to transcribe your voice notes to text, but unfortunately, that function only works in English.

The battery life is stated to be 13 days with typical use, but many functions are off by default to keep battery consumption down. For example, I turn on reminders to move, automatic detection of walks, and automatic brightness on the screen (a must for the watch to be readable outdoors). I still get well over a week's battery life, and to Nothing's credit, they also state 10 days of battery life with heavy use, and 4.5 days with heavy use and always-on display. The fact that charging takes over 90 minutes doesn't matter much when I need to do it so rarely.

As mentioned, you receive notifications on the watch, and emojis and åäö are displayed correctly. If you have an Android phone, you can also reply to messages directly from the watch by selecting one of the preset response phrases. These phrases are in English, but in the app, you can of course enter your own phrases in Swedish instead of the English ones.

Overall, I really like the CMW Watch 3 Pro, its strengths outweigh the weaknesses, and even the price tag allows you to overlook a flaw or two. I can live with not being able to swim with the watch, so really it's just the weak vibration feedback and the fact that the watch doesn't work so well as a timer that bothers me. Most other things are impressively good in a watch for 1300 kronor.

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