Nothing Ear wireless earbuds: Budget-friendly flagship contender
Nothing Ear. Picture: Noel Campion.
The latest flagship earbuds from Nothing promise to deliver all the features and functionality you'd expect from more expensive earbuds but at nearly half the price. While I find the name a little confusing since the previous model was called Ear (2), the updates to the newer model are worth a look.
The Nothing Ear maintains the same design as previous generations, which is good since I love the style. The classic transparent design is not only stylish but also lightweight and comfortable. I can wear these earbuds for hours without any complaints.
The Earbuds have an IP54 water and dust resistance rating, and the charging case has an IP55 rating. This surpasses the durability of flagship earbuds like the AirPods Pro 2 and other flagships.
The Nothing Ear reduces the loudness of most external noise, but it isn’t as good as the best noise-cancelling earbuds. It’s still effective enough to block traffic sounds and the low hum of aeroplane engine sounds. There’s also an Adaptive ANC mode, which adjusts the level of ANC depending on the environmental noise around you. However, I prefer to leave it set to Max.
The transparency mode works well but doesn’t come close to the class-leading AirPods Pro in terms of how natural it sounds. Still, it’s great for quick conversations or staying aware of your surroundings while out and about.
The Nothing Ear has a new ceramic diaphragm driver, which I found delivers a slightly better sound quality than previous models. These are some of the best-sounding earbuds right now, regardless of price. The microphone reduces background noise for those who take calls on the go, ensuring the person on the other end can hear regardless of the environment.
Earbuds often come with annoying touch controls, but the Nothing Ear uses pinch controls on the stem of each earbud, similar to the AirPods Pro. Although I prefer this method over typical touch controls, they are not as good as Apple's since they lack swipe gestures for volume control. I customised the volume with a double pinch and hold, which isn’t as intuitive or convenient as a swipe.
The companion app for the Nothing Ear has one of the best equalisers I’ve used. It can adjust the gain and EQ band for eight frequencies. I appreciate that not everyone will want or need to play around with the EQ settings, but I’m a huge fan, and it’s awesome to see it present here, showing that Nothing listens to its users.
What’s even cooler is you can also share your EQ profile. If you’d rather not play around with an EQ, you can take the sound personalisation test instead. This will analyse what sounds you can hear and then compensate accordingly. While Nothing isn’t the first to include a hearing test in their app, I was impressed with my results. I admit I didn’t like the personalised sound signature at first, but I retook the test a few times and eventually got a result that I was more than happy with.
The Bass Enhance feature analyses the low frequencies in your music and enhances them in real-time. There are five different levels to the Bass Enhance, but the default bass on the earbuds is more than sufficient for me, so I leave this feature off. Audiophiles will appreciate the LHDC and LDAC codec support, which delivers high-quality streaming over Bluetooth 5.3. It also comes with a High-Res wireless audio certification. However, if you have an iPhone, you can't use these codecs and must use AAC instead.
The Nothing Ear also supports Bluetooth multipoint, allowing you to connect to two devices simultaneously, and a low latency gaming mode improves response time while gaming or watching videos. I paired the buds with an iPhone 15 Pro Max and the Honor Magic V2 for testing, and it could pair and play audio seamlessly between the two devices.
The Nothing Ear comes with a comprehensive set of features, including in-ear detection, Google Fast Pair for Android devices, Microsoft Swift pair, an Ear tip fit test, Find my earbuds, and ChatGPT integration. The latter allows you to use your voice to access ChatGPT through the earbuds.
The Nothing Ear should last up to 8.5 hours, which is quite good and two hours longer than the previous generation. The charging case provides a few extra charges, with Nothing claiming up to 40.5 hours of total charge time. It also supports wireless charging, or if you want to charge faster, you can use USB-C, where 10 minutes of charging will get you 10 hours of playback time.
The Nothing Ear wireless earbuds offer a premium experience without the premium price tag. The Nothing Ear is an excellent choice if you’re in the market for high-quality, affordable wireless earbuds.
Nothing Ear come in black or white and cost €129 Nothing Tech
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