Hands-on: Nothing Ear are already my new favorite earbuds

Ben Schoon | Apr 18 2024 - 6:15 am PT

Earbuds are a very personal form of technology because there are a million factors to consider and where one might be crucial to one buyer, it might not matter at all to another. But with its latest earbuds, Nothing has landed on something special, and they’ve already become my favorite earbuds.

While Nothing is not really an audio company, the brand kicked off with Ear (1), and earbuds have been the bulk of the three million products it’s sold thus far. As such, the launch of Ear and Ear (a) this week has been one to look forward to. Nothing’s earbuds have gotten a lot of praise in the past few years for their sound quality, pricing, and feature set, and as such I’ve always been eager to give them a shot.

For the past week or so, I’ve been using primarily Nothing Ear as my main wireless earbuds, and I really like them.

I’m no audiophile, so I won’t dive too much into the audio quality – others have already offered far more detail on that than I could ever hope to. But what I really like about the sound coming out of Nothing Ear is that it’s pretty balanced. It’s not full of bass, but it’s also not lacking either (thanks in part to a default-on bass boost setting).

The audio quality is just one part of the equation for me, though. Another point is having decent ANC, and Ear definitely outranks my Pixel Buds Pro here. In my usual lawn-mowing test, Ear was easily able to filter out most of the sound without jacking up the music volume, something Pixel struggles with a little bit.

And, yes, I do think Nothing Ear sounds considerably better than Pixel Buds Pro, even though I don’t think Pixel sounds bad as some do.

One of the biggest things any earbuds have to nail for me, though, is the hardware. They have to fit well, and the case has to be good. For those, it’s a mixed bag.

Firstly, I love Nothing’s signature design. It’s excellent. And the earbuds themselves sit well in my ears. I go back and forth on earbuds with stems, but it’s done quite well here.

But as for the case… I’m not the biggest fan. It’s too big and bulky, and the boxy shape doesn’t sit well in a pocket with other things like the Pixel Buds Pro’s pebble case does. I can put up with that for the sake of the various other benefits, but I do wish Nothing would adopt something more like Pixel Buds or AirPods.

That’s the one thing that I really prefer about Nothing Ear (a). I haven’t used these as much, but I love the case, and the yellow color is excellent. Sound-wise, I’ve found them completely comparable for my use.

We’ll have more to say on Nothing Ear and Ear (a) in the weeks to come but, in the meantime, what do you want to know about them? I’ll try to answer questions below as I can!

Nothing Ear and Ear (a) are available for pre-order now starting at $99.