Nothing Ear (1) gets a huge 50% price hike to $149

Ben Schoon | Oct 18 2022 - 7:06 am PT

The first product from Carl Pei’s Nothing was the Ear (1), a pair of truly wireless earbuds that garnered fairly high praise from critics and users alike. But now, Nothing Ear (1) is getting a major price hike, now costing $149.

Debuted in 2021, Nothing Ear (1) delivered a unique design and a compelling feature set. With Active Noise Cancellation, support for Google Fast Pair, and solid sound quality, the earbuds saw moderate success among a sea of competing options. A big part of the appeal, though, came from the price tag, which was a reasonable $99 from the point of launch.

The price of Nothing Ear (1), though, is about to change drastically.

Nothing founder Carl Pei took to Twitter this morning to announce that Nothing Ear (1) would see a price hike to now start at $149. That’s a 50% increase over the original price, and drastically changes the value equation on the product.

Pei cites an “increase in costs” in a thread regarding the increase, noting that the earbuds have received 15 firmware updates – including one that added Google Assistant integration – since their launch and that the team of engineers at the company has now expanded to 185 employees.

Pei says that Nothing Ear (1) has sold around 600,000 units to date.

Ear (1) was our inaugural product that will always have a special place in my heart. With almost 600k units sold, this product proved our team's capability to the world and enabled us to leap forward with Phone (1).
— Carl Pei (@getpeid) October 18, 2022

This price hike comes just a few months after Nothing launched its first smartphone, the Nothing Phone (1), which has integration with the company’s earbuds. Nothing is also teasing the Ear (1) Stick – a new pair of earbuds with a similar design, but a unique case that should be arriving relatively soon.

This new price tag kicks in on October 26, a little over a week from today. If you’ve been hoping to get your hands on Nothing’s earbuds, it seems now is the time. You can pick up a pair from Amazon or Nothing’s own shop.