A wonderfully unique Bluetooth speaker with decent features, great battery life, and surprisingly strong audio considering its size and price. You won’t find another portable speaker that’s as fun as the Speaker S.
- Fun, cute design with 3D printable covers
- Excellent Stereo Mode with two units
- Great value for the features
- Audio won't blow you away
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1 x full-range driver
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Bluetooth 6.0, USB-C
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Up to 18 hours of playback
The CMF Speaker S isn’t your typical Bluetooth speaker. Its distinctive design, portable features, long battery life, and excellent connectivity make it a formidable, low-cost wireless speaker.
Bluetooth speakers are the latest product category for Nothing and its affordable CMF brand. At just £49 / $59, the Speaker S is certainly competitively priced, and it stands out from the crowd with its milk carton shape. Unusual, yes, but I really dig it.
I was sent a pair for review, as you can connect them together for stereo playback, ensuring they keep pace with the competition at this end of the low-cost portable speaker market, with the likes of the JBL Go 5 and Clip 5 vying for your attention alongside the CMF Speaker S.
Is the milk carton the future of Bluetooth speakers? I’ve put CMF’s latest offering to the test to find out.
- Unique, playful ‘milk carton’ design
If you think the CMF Speaker S looks a little bit like a milk carton, you’d be right. Nothing, the parent company of the affordable CMF brand, says it’s “inspired by the sharp geometry of a milk carton”.
It might sound like an odd source of inspiration for a Bluetooth speaker, but the result is a distinctively cute device that will turn heads.
Available in four colours (white, dark grey, orange, and turquoise), the Speaker S sees the design of its main command knob go from a single line on the white and grey models, to a cross on the orange, and a circle on the turquoise variant.
And on the top edge of this ‘milk carton’ you’ll find a circular hole, designed to allow you to attach a carabiner hook.
Turn the Speaker S around and towards the top you’ll see a slider switch. This isn’t to mute and unmute a microphone – there is none here, which means no voice assistant – rather it’s to lock and unlock the faceplate.
Slide the switch to unlock and, like Nokia phones of old, you can remove the command knob and then slide the front plate off the speaker base. Nothing is encouraging its community to get creative with their 3D printers and design additional covers for the speaker.
When attached to the speaker, the command knob has a multitude of functions – a single press controls play/pause, double press skips forward, triple skips back, and a long hold toggles ‘ultra bass’ mode. However, you’ll likely be using this dial mainly for adjusting the volume by rotating clockwise and counter-clockwise.
There’s NFC on one side of the speaker for fast pairing, while round the back you’ll find two buttons next to the USB-C charging port that also supports input for wired lossless audio.
The first button is Bluetooth, and there’s a small indicator light next to it, telling you if the speaker is in pairing mode, or whether it’s paired to a device. And the second button is Auracast – more on that in the next section.
At 334g, the Speaker S can be tossed into, or clipped onto a bag without adding much weight, and its compact dimensions (130.5 x 85 x 44mm) means it doesn’t take up much space. It’s not the smallest speaker in its price range, but it’s by no means bulky.
And this portable speaker is just as happy on the beach or by the pool, with IP68 dust and water resistance allowing it to cope with the elements, wherever the party is.
- Bluetooth 6.0 for up to 100 meters of range
- Nothing X app provides customisation options
- Auracast for Party Mode
The CMF Speaker S might be small, but there’s a pleasing number of features squeezed inside its playful design.
And Nothing is hoping you and your friends all pick up the Speaker S, or its larger sibling, the Speaker M, as Party Mode is one of the key selling points.
Auracast technology has been built into the speakers, allowing you to press the button on the back of the speaker and it’ll automatically connect to another speaker that has Party Mode enabled. You can then keep adding speakers for some big noise.
This is not a feature that’s unique to these CMF speakers though. JBL has been using Auracast for years on its range of speakers, but annoyingly you can’t connect cross-brand. I wasn’t able to get my JBL Flip 7 to link with the Speaker S for example – you’ll need Nothing or CMF Auracast-supported speakers or headphones if you’re looking to make a big noise from multiple devices.
Thankfully, I was sent two Speaker S units so I could try out Party Mode. And I can confirm it works well. It’s simple to link the speakers, and you can then crank the volume for that party atmosphere.
If you happen to pick up a pair of these S speakers there’s another party trick too – Stereo Mode. In the free Nothing X app on your phone (available on iOS and Android) you can assign the two speakers to be a stereo pair, giving you dedicated left and right channels.
It works really well, and I loved listening to Pink Floyd’s Money and Radiohead’s Paranoid Android with the audio dancing between my ears thanks to the utilisation of left and right channels in these tracks.
The Nothing X app also lets you tweak other settings including the equaliser, allowing you to tune the output to suit the audio you’re listening to. There are also toggles for Ultra Bass (to up the bass response), Night Mode (that caps volume at 60% and rolls off deep bass) and Low Lag Mode.
Pairing is easy, with NFC Fast Pair letting you tap your phone against the side of the Speaker S to connect and disconnect. Plus there’s support for Google Fast Pair and Windows Swift Pair, allowing you to connect to the speaker with a single tap on Android and Windows devices.
I was able to connect two devices to the Speaker S at the same time, allowing me to easily switch between my phone and laptop for playback.
And with Bluetooth 6.0 connectivity, the Speaker S will remain connected to the device you’re streaming from at a distance of up to 100 metres. That’s excellent range, and I was able to take one of the stereo pair to another room, on another floor of my house, and both speakers continued to play with my phone in my pocket the whole time.
Sound quality
- 45mm full-range driver, 10W output
- Two passive radiators
- Stereo and Party modes enhance playback
Let’s be honest, the CMF Speaker S isn’t going to give you booming audio that’ll fill big rooms. But it’s not designed to do that. This is a compact, portable Bluetooth speaker – but that doesn’t mean it can’t provide a decent sonic offering.
Nothing has packed in a 45mm full-range driver, with a 10W output and the result is a speaker that delivers balanced, clear audio.
Switch on Ultra Bass, and the two passive radiators on either side of the Speaker S boost low-end resonance for deeper bass. This isn’t floor-shaking, window-rattling bass, but there is a noticeable uptick in lower frequencies when you enable Ultra Bass for a fuller experience.
The frequency response is 70Hz – 20kHz, making it slightly better than the JBL Go 5 at the low end, and I was impressed with what the Go could deliver – going to show the Speaker S is no slouch in its class.
Pump the volume up past 80% and the Speaker S still manages to hold its own, even if the audio tightens up a little. It doesn’t become an uncomfortable tinny mess though, which is good as you might find yourself reaching for the higher volume if you’re outside with a large group of people.
Playback is enhanced as soon as you bring more than one Speaker S to the party. Stereo Mode delivers clear left and right channels that I experienced by placing the pair on either side of my desk when listening to A Day In The Life by The Beatles.
Alternatively, you can group a bunch of Speaker S and Speaker M together in Party Mode to deliver that room-filling, house party vibe you just can’t get with a single Speaker S.
Battery life
- 2,600mAh battery delivers all-day playback
- 10-minute charge = 1 hour of playback
- Recharge via USB-C port
Battery life on the CMF Speaker S is excellent. Nothing claims its dinky speaker can offer up to 18 hours of playback with Ultra Bass on and volume at 50%.
From my tests, this claim holds up. The Speaker S comfortably provided me with all-day listening, and even cranking up the volume will get you several hours of playback before you need to consider reaching for a cable. It’s enough to keep a party going for five hours at 80% volume.
When it is time to recharge, it takes around two and a half hours to get the 2,600mAh battery to 100% via the USB-C port on the back. If you’re looking for a quick music fix though, 10 minutes will get you one hour of playback.
Should you buy it?
You want a low-cost speaker that’ll turn heads
The CMF Speaker S looks like no other Bluetooth speaker, but its unique design and 3D printable covers, along with a host of useful features and connectivity options, and long battery life, makes it an ideal buy for those looking for tunes on the move.
You want big sound
The Speaker S is a small, portable Bluetooth speaker. For its size and price, the sound it delivers is great, but if you want true room-filling audio for a party, the larger Speaker M is worth considering.
Final thoughts
I have a huge soft spot for the CMF Speaker S. Its playful design will win a lot of admirers, but the beauty is more than just surface deep.
Nothing’s excellent app and the array of features packed into this low-cost speaker make it surprisingly versatile – and that’s before people start designing their own faceplates and producing them with a 3D printer.
IP68 water and dust resistance provides peace of mind when travelling, and the long battery life keeps the party going longer than many rivals.
And while you’re not going to get booming bass, nor will a single Speaker S make much of a particular splash at a house party, grab a second one and make a stereo pair, or invite your friends round with their Speaker S units and enable Party Mode to elevate playback.
| CMF Speaker S review | |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Nothing |
| Size (Dimensions) | 85 x 44 x 130.5 MM |
| Weight | 334 G |
| Release Date | 2026 |
| Driver (s) | 45mm full-range |
| Ports | USB-C |
| Audio (Power output) | 10 W |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth 6.0, Auracast, NFC |
| Colours | White, Dark Grey, Orange, Turquoise |
| Speaker Type | Portable Speaker |
| UK RRP | £49 |
| USA RRP | $59 |