The Nothing (Ear) 1 Earbuds Will Take On AirPods Pro At Just $99
Nothing's debut product, the Nothing Ear (1) earbuds, won't be revealed officially until July 27, but the first details about just what Carl Pei's new startup has in store have already emerged. The new earbuds – which, the former OnePlus chief has previously promised, will be more than just a way to listen to music – will cost just $99, though don't assume that will mean entry-level features.
Pei left OnePlus, the company he co-founded with Pete Lau, in late 2020. Nothing is the tongue-in-cheek new company he established last year, with a focus on transparency: it proved enough to grab the attention of a roster of high-profile investors, including Tony Fadell, Steve Huffman, and Casey Neistat.
Nothing has a big to-do list, Pei has said before, but first it'll be starting with a set of wireless earbuds. Dubbed the Ear (1), they'll be aggressively priced Pei confirmed in an interview with TechCrunch. Despite that, they'll still include features such as active noise cancellation.
"It's going to have leading features like noise cancellation and great build quality," Pei confirmed, pointing to distribution being the key to keeping cost down. "Because we're primarily going to be focused on online sales channels, we are going to be able to [make it] — I wouldn't say 'affordable,' but quite a fair price to consumers."
That's despite not taking the typical route to cheap earbuds. Nothing's concept earbuds' transparent design, for instance, is being carried over to the production model, something which will make them more visually distinctive as well as more expensive to produce. Nothing has partnered with Teenage Engineering, known for their eye-catching synthesizers and other electronic instruments, on industrial design.
"Feature-wise, it's similar to the AirPods Pro," Pei said, "but the AirPods Pro is $249."
Full specifications still haven't been shared, though Nothing says that the earbuds will have three "high definition" microphones to power the ANC system. What there won't be is any of the Essential technology that Nothing acquired, when it bought the shuttered company.
Initially, Ear (1) will be launched in North America, the UK, Europe, and India. Sales in Japan, Korea, and other countries will apparently follow on after that. The earbuds are supposedly the first of three products currently in the pipeline; obviously the big question is whether Nothing will launch its own smartphone, given Pei's background at OnePlus and the IP it snapped up from Essential.