Nothing Ear (Open) Review: Clever Earbud Design Around The Back And Inside

In the modern era the most ubiquitous item held and continuously used by any person is the mobile phone. They are everywhere and indispensable, but coming in second place accompanying said phones and nearly as ubiquitous are Bluetooth earbuds. Useful for communication and consumption of a broad array of media, earbuds feel almost as indispensable as the phone with which they are paired. And for this reason, a dizzying array of Bluetooth audio devices are available in many different forms and at price points for every budget.

While it can be tough to find Bluetooth earbuds that perfectly meet your needs while delivering good sound quality along with long battery life, tech startup Nothing is trying to deliver just that. Officially launched in 2021, Nothing is a project from Carl Pei, who co-founded mobile phone maker OnePlus, garnering rave reviews for its innovative design while achieving tremendous sales success in just a few short years. Trying to replicate the same success going solo, Pei is rapidly expanding Nothing in a similar fashion by delivering phones with premium features at prices well below the competitors' flagship models, such as its $350 Nothing 2(a) Android smartphone. 

To accompany its growing line of mobile phones, Nothing now offers three models of earbuds and provided SlashGear with its newest for testing, the Nothing Ear (open), which I will simply refer to as the earbuds to avoid any awkwardness. Here's how they perform.

Packaging of the Nothing earbuds features minimalist design with elegance. A white box with a shimmering metallic circle filling most of the area on top with the simple Nothing logo printed dot-matrix style like a '90s gas station receipt in the corner introduces you to the brand, signifying what you will find inside is more about function than form. The box is constructed from a heavy card stock, which is encouraging as so many brands have gone to greater-than-ever lengths to put their devices in ever fancier boxes full of heavy cardboard destined to become waste. Finally, the actual product is encased in a typical retail box with a glossy image of the product itself across the front and sides. The introduction to the product is well executed and the company's stated commitment to sustainability shows in its packaging.

Removed from its packaging, the Nothing earbuds are kept safe in an oblong case roughly double the size of a Tic Tac box with a clear acrylic lid displaying the devices. It is slightly larger than similar products I have used, but it has a slimmer profile and doesn't feel as bulky in the pocket as some of those others. The lid is held firmly closed with a magnet as the earbuds are also kept in place with magnets. Overall, Nothing has made the unboxing experience straightforward and simple, an indication of how its product will perform.

Before getting into what these are like to use, I think it would be helpful to explain a bit about what they are to help with boost or temper expectations. Clever design is at the forefront of the earbuds as Nothing claims that its case is among the slimmest available at just 19 mm. Like the lid, the earbud housing is also clear, displaying the electronics within, proudly displaying Nothing's craftsmanship. Additionally, the earbuds are said to be placed intuitively to make them easy to access and avoid fiddling to get them out for use.

The structure of the earbuds are designed to feel weightless on the ear with the speaker fitting over the ear at the optimum position. They are meant to feel like wearing nothing, providing all-day comfort. Using what Nothing calls Open Sound Technology and SoundSeal System, the earbuds are designed to create almost no sound audible to those around you while making it possible to listen to them and still hear when others are speaking, eliminating the need to interrupt to pause music or video. Furthermore, the dual mics use AI-enhanced Clear Voice Technology for perfect sound on calls, even in windy conditions.

Nothing offers a dedicated app with equalizer and settings for the earbuds, and they offer a novel integration with ChatGPT and bespoke Nothing widgets, but those are only available with Nothing OS offered on Nothing phones.

Upon trying the earbuds for the first time, I can confirm that they are indeed very comfortable. It took me a couple of days to become acclimated to them as I had been accustomed to using earbuds that stuck directly in my ear rather than over them. At first, I was disappointed that this made them not loud enough, but once I actually looked through the user guide, I found I had to long press the left one to get full volume. Problem solved. They are indeed loud enough to use while doing work in the garage or while in a crowded area. Furthermore, the controls are intuitive, using touch on left or right for play, pause, answer, volumes, etc. Some of those functions can be customized in the app as well.

Once I got familiar with these earbuds, I found them to feel very natural over my ears to the point I barely noticed them. Sitting over my ears also seems to prevent the itching that earbuds can sometimes cause, adding to the overall comfort. Earbud notifications are handled with sophisticated beeps. Pairing and acknowledgment of touches are signified by slightly different beeps, but all of them are pleasant sounding, short, and concise.

Nothing makes a lot of noise in its marketing about the quality of the drivers, which feature a titanium-coated polyethylene terephthalate driver, and the advanced sound reproduction software and design used to recreate the sound in your ears. This is further enhanced by the inclusion of an equalizer in its app that offers you the choice of simple pre-programmed choices or a graphic equalizer to adjust your own frequencies and Q factor.

I get a little lost in all the technical jargon, but I can say the result is stupendous. These earbuds reproduce sound with crystal clarity and bass response as good as can be expected from a tiny driver. When watching YouTube videos, it often sounds as if the people in the video are in the room with me, and music comes through with depth and nuance in a way that cheap earbuds cannot. It was almost unsettling at times. An advantage of this sound reproduction is when listening to a song that you already know and love and have heard many times before, you can hear something new in the nuance between the notes and enjoy it anew. Furthermore, as I write this and listen to Radiohead at an elevated volume, I can still hear my dog breathing behind me, demonstrating Nothing's design to keep you connected while immersed in sound.

Call quality is also excellent. People could hear me clearly even when I was in a noisy room, and I never had any trouble making out others' voices.

In using these earbuds on a daily basis, it seems apparent to me that the designers noticed shortcoming of other devices and sought to correct flaws. The notification beeps are done right and far outshine the annoying voice used by some devices and obnoxious beeps used by others. I have a Google Pixel 6 – although it is not the newest Pixel 9 Pro Fold, it still performs well – and Nothing says these are compatible with Google Fast Pair, which I found to be closer to instant. Each earbud has dual touch sensors on top and bottom requiring both to be touched and that stops accidental touches placing random and unwanted calls that can happen with some devices.

Battery life is stated as providing eight hours of playback and up to 30 hours of use including the charge provided by the case. I used these earbuds pretty much continuously for the past week, only having to charge the case a few times. Even falling asleep with one of the earbuds left me with considerable charge remaining in the morning. Furthermore, They remained comfortable even as I drifted off to sleep.

The case design is also well-done. With other cases, I sometimes find it hard to open with my fat fingers trying to grab a tiny lip while this case just opened up intuitively. Then, grabbing the earbuds from the case went equally as smooth, even while trying to do it in the dark.

The market for earbuds is flooded with products from innumerable companies big and small offering myriad designs and features. Just over the last couple of years, SlashGear has reviewed Beats Solo Buds, Sony WF-1000XM5, Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, Technics EAH-AZ80, and OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro, just to name a few. But for me, none of these will do because I have found that style of earbud to fall out of my ears too easily, and I like the security that the over-the-era style provides, especially when I am spending good money on them.

Nothing is pricing these earbuds at $149.99, which makes them highly competitive. The Beats are $79.99, Sony's are $299.99, Galaxy Buds are $249.99, Technics' are $299.99, and OnePlus Buds are $79.99, placing Nothing right in the middle of the competition. With the features offered along with the high quality materials and intuitive design, I cannot say if another $150 spent on earbuds for other premium brands would be worth it, but I doubt the sound quality is $150 improved. I suspect spending $75 less would reveal some deficiencies though. It appears Nothing is trying to go for the market just below the top of the scale while delivering an experience near equal to those premium products and achieving that goal fully.

I have had many types of Bluetooth headphones and earbuds over the last 10 or so years, experiencing quality from low to medium to above average. I am reluctant to spend $300 on something I can lose so easily, but I have spent $80 on a product I intensely disliked. Lately, I have found $30 earbuds from Amazon that have suited me just fine, albeit with a few minor annoyances.

After experiencing these Nothing Ear (open) earbuds for a week, I would be comfortable shelling out the $150 to get a pair (as sold by Nothing in their Nothing store online). In fact, I would do it eagerly. The experience with these is far better than the best devices I have used to date, and the ease of use and sound quality is second to none. Furthermore, with the extra-long battery life, instant pairing, customized sound output, and intuitive and ergonomic design, I am finding it difficult to find any faults at all. Perhaps some other reviewers might disagree with my assessment and find ways to nitpick these earbuds to death, but for me, they are ideal and I would not hesitate for a second to recommend that you buy a pair right now.