Nothing Ear Noise Canceling Earbuds (2024) Review: Upgraded Internals

Nothing has changed with Nothing's latest $149 Ear noise-canceling earphones. At least, not at first glance. In fact, you'd be forgiven for thinking Bud has taken a step back. It's the successor to the Nothing's Ear (2) earphones, but it doesn't have a 3 anywhere in the name. It also does not follow Apple's generational naming scheme. These are just Nothing Ears and look the same as Ear (2). However, while there are some changes under the hood that bring legitimate improvements to sound quality, noise canceling, and battery life, among others, we encountered a few small issues that brought down our rating slightly.

7.8

No one like it Same eye-catching design with improved sound and noise canceling Longer battery life Rich feature set What we don't like No XL ear tips included Noise canceling settings make the earbuds sound marginal Changes to the same eye-catching design

If you haven't heard of Nothing, it was launched in 2021 by OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei. The company's products, including smartphones and earphones, have focused on design from the beginning, featuring partially transparent exteriors and other sleek accents that initially helped them stand out (at least aesthetically) from their competitors. It was featured in many media. exposure. Performance-wise, the Nothing earphones were good value for the price ($99), but perhaps nothing special.

The case of the Nothing Ear earbuds is the same as the previous model.

David Carnoy/CNET

These $149 Nothing Ear buds use noise-isolating ear tips (the company also makes open-design earbuds called Ear Sticks that sell for about $60), the same as previous models. With the same design, the case is included. It supports wireless charging and is IP55 rated for water and dust resistance.

The new buck model, the $99 Ear (a), comes in white and black, as well as a new yellow color. They have different drivers and include a smaller charging case (lower IPX2 water resistance rating and omit wireless charging), but otherwise have very similar features.

Nothing Ear (a) comes with a new smaller case but lacks wireless charging.

David Carnoy/CNET

As is the case with stemmed noise-canceling earbuds, these earbuds are modeled after Apple's AirPods Pro series and also feature AirPods-like pinch controls. I like the pinch controls. It works well in Ear and Ear (a), but some limited customization options are available in the mobile app.

The earphones fit well in your ears and are relatively lightweight. That being said, the big issue I ran into was that none of the included ear tips made a good seal. The companion Nothing app has a seal test, and despite using the largest tip of the buds, it failed the seal test in both ears. The ear tips are oval so they don't fit my ears. (It would be nice if Apple included his XL chip, since Apple's largest chip for the AirPods Pro 2 can barely make a good seal, but at least it would pass Apple's seal test.)

The lack of a tight seal affected noise-cancelling performance more than sound quality, but the proprietary larger chip had to be replaced to optimize both sound quality and noise-cancellation. Many people may be able to get a good seal with the included ear tips without any problems. But I point this out because a poor seal can affect performance, especially with adaptive noise cancellation settings.

Both Ear and Ear (a) have ear detection sensors that pause music when you remove the earbuds from your ears (left and right earbuds can be used independently), and multi-point Bluetooth pairing that allows you to pair two earbuds. is installed. Operate devices simultaneously.

Improved sound quality

Nothing hasn't said which Bluetooth 5.3 audio chipset it uses, but it touts the earbuds' new drivers, which include a stiffer, lower-distortion ceramic diaphragm that helps deliver clearer sound. . We've also taken the dual-chamber found in Ear (2) and evolved it to include two additional vents, which improves airflow within each bud by 10%. This allows for less distortion and richer clarity overall.”

These drivers are one of the big differences between the Ear and the new step-down Ear (a), which features drivers with slightly less premium materials, but also features additional vents. There is not much difference in the sound quality of the two buds, but the flagship His Ear has a slightly cleaner and more accurate sound, with a slightly different balance of tonal quality.

I tested Buds on an iPhone 14 Pro and a Google Pixel 7 Pro, and generally liked what I heard. The app lets you fine-tune your sound with equalizer settings and create a personal sound profile that includes a hearing test (I used both a personal sound profile and an equalizer). Additionally, there is a “bass enhancement” setting.

Nothing Ear comes in black and white.

Screenshot by David Carnoy/CNET

You'll get a big, bold sound with just the right amount of depth and openness. Compared to the AirPods Pro 2, they feel a little warmer in the ear, and the bass is louder, but the bass definition is slightly weaker. For some tracks, especially bass-heavy ones, I preferred the Ear's sound to the AirPods Pro 2's. However, for other sounds, I preferred the AirPods Pro 2's sound. The midrange, where voices reside, appears to be more forward, slightly more natural-sounding, and slightly better balanced on the AirPods Pro 2.

As for audio codecs, AAC, SBC, LHDC 5.0, and LDAC are available. We tested LDAC playback on the Pixel 7 Pro using the Qobuz music streaming service, which features high-resolution audio tracks. There was a slight improvement in sound quality compared to when I listened to it on my iPhone using the AAC codec, but it was very subtle.

Simply put, these earbuds may not sound great, but they're pretty impressive for a set of earbuds in this price range. I question whether it's worth spending the extra money on the Ear and Ear (a), but the Ear sounds about 10% better to my ears.

Noise canceling and voice call performance

After spending some time testing the earbuds on the streets and subways of New York, I found the noise cancellation to be pretty good, but not as good as what you'd get with more expensive, top-of-the-line noise-canceling earbuds like the Bose QuietComfort. are not quite on the same level as Ultra, Sony WF-1000XM5, and AirPods Pro 2.

Nothing says that both Ear and Ear (a) noise canceling “provides up to 1.8x more powerful noise cancellation” than Ear (2) and can muffle up to 45 dB. ANC has high, medium, and low settings, and there's also an adaptive noise canceling setting. Nothing says high as “plane/subway”, medium as “street/cafe”, and low as “office/indoors”. I mainly maintained my strength except when I was indoors. There's also a transparency mode that allows sound from the outside world. It's not quite as good as the AirPods Pro 2's transparent mode, but it does sound pretty natural.

Testing buds on the streets of New York.

David Carnoy/CNET

One issue I had was that when I was listening to music, changing the noise canceling settings from a high setting would change the sound quality slightly. The earbuds sound slightly different between settings, but this shouldn't happen. The same thing happened when I was using Ear (a) earbuds.

When it comes to voice calls, it's also pretty decent, if not super great. Callers said they could hear me pretty well even on the noisy streets of New York, and that the buds were able to filter out a fair amount of background noise, but that my voice trembled in heavy traffic. Ta. And while the connection with the earbuds was mostly stable, I did run into some audio issues, basically wireless interference, while listening to music in certain spots on the street (New York City This is a torture test for headphones and earphones).

However, battery life is pretty good. The Ear offers up to 8.5 hours of playback at medium volume levels with noise cancellation turned on, while the Ear (a) is rated for up to 9.5 hours of battery life with ANC turned on. .

Final thoughts on empty ears

It's hard to review earphones that don't come with ear tips that provide a good seal. Because that's a fundamentally serious problem for effective noise canceling. However, I may have access to many other ear tips for testing. So, with the included tips, most people should be able to get adequate sound insulation without any problems, but I suspect some people may have problems.

Tips aside, I've always liked the design of Nothing's earphones and felt it was what set them apart from other earphones in this price range. With this latest version, the company is moving in the right direction in terms of performance, and they're mostly very likeable earphones. However, a few nagging issues keep it from being truly top-notch, and I think earbuds like OnePlus' Buds Pro 2 (discounted to $130) hold a slight performance edge. Masu. Perhaps some of these issues will be resolved in future firmware upgrades.

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