Say goodbye to the Nothing Ear (2) and the Nothing Ear (Stick) and say hello to the Nothing ear (the numbers are gone, which is both cleaner and a bit confusing) and the slightly more affordable Nothing ear (a)both of which can now be reserved via Nothing’s site.
How affordable? Well, neither of these little earbuds are aiming for AirPods and Bose-level prices: you can buy the Nothing Ear for £129, and the Nothing Ear (a) for £99.
I’ve had my hands on both products over the past week – below you’ll find my first review of the new flagship, and you can head over to a separate review for my thoughts on the even more budget-friendly Ear (a) model.
Nothing Ear: First impressions
First up: the Nothing Ear. They are familiar if you have used the Nothing Ear (1) or the Ear (2). And there were substantial upgrades between generations in the transition from the Ear (1) to the Ear (2), so is it more of the same story here?
The Ear (a) is perhaps the most obvious “new” product with its fresh design, but I think the Nothing Ear gives me the clearest sign that the brand has refined its audio offering. Ear (2) owners may not need to rush for an upgrade, but this will be a revelation to anyone coming from Ear (1) or cheaper headphone or AirPods alternatives.
Nothing Ear: Design and comfort
Put the Nothing Ear and Ear (2) next to each other and you can no longer tell them apart. That doesn’t mean there aren’t tweaks and upgrades, but like I said, these are refinements. The transparent buttons are available in white and black at launch, so luckily you don’t have to wait for the black variant (our favorite) like last year.
The transparent case design is similar, but intended to be more crush and scratch resistant – it retains the same IP55 rating as before, while the earbuds are IP54 rated for sweat and dust resistance.
The comfort is fantastic, just like on the ear (2). That’s mainly because these earbuds are much smaller than many of their rivals. Even though the price is much lower, the design is about as close to the AirPods Pro as we’ve seen, and that means I barely notice them and they stay comfortably in my ears for years to come. And to get a great seal, you get small, medium and large tips in the box. Speaking of the box, it obviously doesn’t make much of a difference to the product itself, but I’m still impressed with how small and plastic-free the packaging is here.
Nothing ear: sound and noise reduction
When I reviewed the Nothing Ear (2) last year I noted that they “stand out for delivering a refined and dynamic sound experience with a level of customizability rarely seen at this lower price” and the new Ear continues this approach continues in 2024.
These 11mm ceramic drivers sound great right out of the box, with one small caveat. By default they are in a new “Bass Enhance” mode. Unless you’re addicted to bass, disable it in the companion app first. Afterwards, the audio reproduction is beautiful and balanced, with enough power for the bass and detail for the treble without being tiring to listen to for long periods of time. Compared to the predecessor, they sound slightly more natural and clearer, but the difference is difficult to see without testing them side by side.
As with the Ear (2), I think this is a sound signature that will appeal to audiophiles and casual listeners alike. I haven’t yet come across any of my test tracks, streamed in high resolution from Tidal, that don’t sound good, and I’ve listened to everything in the past week from Massive Attack, Nirvana, Billie Eilish and Arctic Monkeys to Mozart, Kendrick Lamar, Four Tet and Dua Lipa. Testing headphones requires you to have a bit of eclectic taste.
Active noise cancellation (ANC) and transparency are also similar to what I experienced on the Nothing Ear (2) – however, the adaptive ANC has now been slightly improved. Nothing says it’s a 13% increase over Ear(2) and I feel like there’s a little more noise cancellation compared to last year’s earbuds. These are more than enough to eliminate the droning train noise and chatting colleagues in the office, but they’re not going to beat Apple, Bose or Sony in this area. The same story applies to transparency: it’s good for situational awareness, but not as brilliant as transparency on the AirPods Pro.
Nothing ear: controls and app functions
There are many benefits to the additional features available in the Nothing X app, which is well designed and easy to understand. On the ear you get the same batch of extra app-compatible powers as on the ear (2) – so that means there’s an eartip fit test, the ability to take a hearing test that generates a personalized sound profile, both a simple equalizer as a next level advanced equalizer with all the knobs and sliders – catnip for audiophiles.
As mentioned, I find the standard sound super attractive once the bass enhancement is turned off, and the personal sound profile makes it just a little richer and more tailored to my hearing. I appreciate all the little tweaks that help you get the most out of your earbuds – many rivals have much higher price tags and don’t give you this level of customization for such a personal product. These also have the same squeeze controls as the Ear (2) – where you squeeze the stems instead of touching inputs – which is all fine by me, they work well and are intuitive, responsive and fully customisable.
Within the app you can also adjust the high-resolution codecs used and enable Bluetooth multipoint to keep them connected to two devices at the same time. This is an ideal addition if you enjoy listening to music from your phone but want to be able to jump straight into a Zoom call on your work computer without having to disconnect and reconnect. It’s getting to the point where this is so essential that if earbuds don’t have this feature in 2024, I’ll be a little disappointed with the overall package.
Nothing ear: battery life
Battery life is undoubtedly one of the areas where nothing falls behind the competition. The ear lasts longer than the ear (2), offering just over five hours of playback time with ANC, and a total of 24 hours if you include the charging case. This increases to eight and a half hours, and a total of 40.5 hours if you turn ANC off, which shows how much the noise cancellation and ambient sound features drain the battery.
While this isn’t all that competitive, especially compared to the likes of the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC (which lasts 10 hours on a single charge – with ANC enabled), it’s good for the small button size and essentially matches what you’re looking for. can get from Apple’s second generation AirPods Pro. Ask yourself if you actually listen to music for more than five hours at a time. In practical use I think this is more than enough, but I understand if you want to go to a rival with a bigger battery. For charging, these have both a fast charge function (10 minutes of charging gives you 10 hours of playback with ANC turned off) and support wireless charging, something the Nothing Ear (a) doesn’t have.
Nothing Judgment
These make a great argument as the best value earbuds in 2024. You’ll normally have to pay a lot more for the sound quality, personalization features, noise cancellation and compact design of the Nothing Ear. The stylish earbuds are a further refinement of the Nothing Ear (2) and offer significant upgrades to the audio experience, noise cancellation and battery life.
They’re not reinventing the product, though, so if you already have the Ear (2), don’t rush for the upgrade. However, if you’re moving up from an older pair of earphones, these are a fantastic update that deliver many of the features you could easily spend over £200 to get from competing brands.
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