Nothing Ear Review

Spent a week with the Nothing Ear [2024]. this was an impulse buy because on Amazon Australia, it was on pre-order for AUD170 while the Nothing website was selling it for $249. This appears to be the correct price as Amazon also is selling the earbuds for $249.

I have previously tried the 2023 version of these earbuds and those were not satisfactory to my standards. Silly me, did not document the reasons why. I am attempting to correct that mistake by publishing this blogpost. It is funny that the reasons are pretty similar to the 2024 version.

Pros

• the black colour looks beautiful. 👍
• The case is a nice fidget toy 🧸
• Noise cancellation is good, at times feels at par as AirPods Pro but it’s not consistent 🎉🤷‍♂️. Thus far, no earbuds can outclass the Bose QuietComfort in noise cancelling. Sadly, they are not consistent.
• USB C and wireless Qi charging 👍
• Multipoint works well 👍
• iOS and Android is very cool and provides lots of options and features.

Cons

• volume adjustment is done via long pressing the right ear buds to increase and left ear buds to decrease. This doesn’t feel right and it appears to me that the volume changes automatically between songs or podcasts episodes. This may be a bug.
• They do not fit as well to my ears as I would like. It’s not that it falls off but more the way it sits on the ear is uncomfortable for longer listening session. Your mileage will certainly vary.
• Unlike most cases, the Nothing Ear buds’ case opens horizontally, meaning it has a much wider mouth when it’s opened. This is fine in most cases but when on the move, with one hand, it’s cumbersome to take the buds out or put the buds in. because of this design, the case is larger than it needs to be.

• Difficult to photograph 📸 , especially the black one but that’s not a reason not to get them. Its looks pretty compact in the image before but in person, the entire case is on the larger size.

In concluding, Nothing built a solid pair of earbuds. They are good but nothing spectacular. However, I am comparing these with the AirPods Pro (which admitted a lot more expensive) and these are pretty comparable.

For an iOS user, the AirPods Pro a no brainer since there are ecosystem benefits that are not available to non Apple earbuds. On the same note, for an Android user, these are comparable, it not better, than the Google Pixel Pro buds. I have spent some time with those previously. These are definitely better in all aspects. However, those are also due for an upgrade now.

I have returned mine. For me, the cons outweigh the pros. If the Nothing Ear buds had noise cancelling that were as good as the Bose, I definitely would have kept these.