Nothing Ear (a)  Headphones Review

The Nothing Ear (a) earbuds look extremely similar to the rest of the line-up. The clear-plastic housing and stem of our 'White' unit is also white, unlike the Nothing Ear Truly Wireless's white unit, which retains a contrasting stem. This varies depending on which colorway you choose; the 'Yellow' model, for example, has a contrasting black stem. The 'Black' variant is the most under-the-radar visually, with translucent plastic covering the mostly dark mode buds. Each bud has a colored dot to help you differentiate them: white for the left and red for the right. Otherwise, they retain the signature shape and pinch controls we've come to expect and the dot matrix style branding running down the stems.

The Nothing Ear (a) earbuds feel comfortable. They're oblong-shaped, so they sit securely without additional stabilizers, and like other buds by the manufacturer, the fit isn't too deep. The included suite of oblong silicone ear tips is similar to the flagship model Nothing Ear Truly Wireless'. You get three sizes to pick from.

The Nothing Ear (a) earbuds have good controls. They use pinch controls, like those found across the Nothing range, requiring you to hold the stem between two fingers and squeeze. The sensor is located on the stem at the front-facing edge, which you can find by feeling for the indent. Like conventional touch controls, you rely on the buds emitting a sound to know the command registers. These emit a chimey-sounding click for most commands and a subtle breathy sound for ANC listening mode. The pinch controls are helpful for mitigating accidental misfires, but by the same token, they require a little more effort, especially if you're performing gestures like a double pinch and hold. That's totally fine unless you're running, then it's a bit more distracting.

Speaking of double pinch and hold, that gesture is left unassigned by default. Since there's no volume control out of the box, that would be a reasonable reassignment. You can check out a video of the default control scheme and the options you can reassign within the companion app. The only gesture you can't alter is a single pinch for pause and play audio or accept/end a call.

These are superbly portable. You can pop them into virtually any pocket, and they take up very little space.

The Nothing Ear (a) earbuds' case is great. Its rectangular footprint is the most obvious difference from the squared cases of the Nothing Ear (2) Truly Wireless and the Nothing Ear Truly Wireless. It's marginally longer and narrower than the cases of both of those models. The top and bottom are domed see-through plastic, with solid color accents. Inside, color dots help you match the L/R buds to their spot in the case. The Bluetooth pairing button is on the inside, and the case only charges via USB-C. A small light indicates the pairing and charging statuses. The case has an IPX2 against light water exposure, which isn't as robust as the Nothing Ear Truly Wireless' IP55 rating. However, it's not unusual, considering many cases don't have an IP rating.

The Nothing Ear (a) earbuds have great build quality. The buds' housings are made of solid-quality plastic without rough edges and seams. They're certified as IP54 against dust and water splashes, so you don't need to shield them from the rain either. The case's clear plastic design looks a bit cheap, but its hinge and magnetic lid are decent and functional. The case has an IPX2 rating against light water exposure.

These earbuds have good stability. Once you've picked the correct ear tip size, they'll stay in your ears for daily activities like doing errands and desk work. They're not strictly sports-oriented, so if you're doing dynamic movements like box jumps, they might fall out.

• Nothing Ear (a) earbuds
• Charging case
• USB-C to USB-C charging cable (11.2 in / 28.5 cm)
• 3x ear tips (S, M, L)
• User guide
• Safety and warranty paper

The Nothing Ear (a) earbuds output a generally flat sound profile with a little extra thump and a warm top-end when using the 'Balanced' preset. Though boosted, the bass region is still flat and even, so individual bass notes don't jump out of the mix unnecessarily. The mid-range is well-balanced, so voices and instruments sound true-to-life. The treble range is flat up until the mid-treble, when it shelves off. Whether or not you find this sound smooth and tasteful or dull and boring is a matter of taste. In general, this frequency response works well for genres like rock, jazz, and pop.

That said, if you want more low-end thump or prefer to hear more breathy details in the vocals of your favorite chanteuse, you can use their custom EQ or try out their EQ presets. In addition to EQ, they have an UltraBass mode, which elevates the entire low-end response in five incremental strengths. The earbuds sound very slightly different with ANC turned on or off.

Their frequency response consistency is amazing. Your audio is delivered with bass through low-treble, sounding virtually the same between wears. A small amount of variation in the higher treble region can happen between wears and different people, but once you've selected the right ear tip size, it shouldn't pose an issue.

Their bass compliance is superb. The whole region is slightly inflated but still flat, so the added thump and punch is well-balanced and doesn't make your mix sound muddy. If you prefer an even bassier sound, the EQ can alter the tuning to your taste.

The mid-range target compliance is excellent. These headphones adhere closely to our target, so lead instruments and speech come across as present, full, and clear. The busy mix of guitar, samples, and vocals in songs like Groove Is in the Heart by Deee-Lite come across with presence and body.

Their treble follows our target well from the low treble through about halfway through the mid-treble before a bit of a dip that tapers off. As a result, harmonics from vocals and cymbals come across as sounding natural, if a little bit warm and slightly veiled in detail. If you want a brighter sound, the app's EQ can adjust the treble frequencies to your taste.

The Nothing Ear (a) earbuds have great peaks and dips performance. They control their sound profile with very even bass that provides a balance of thump and punch. Most of the mids are fairly even, with minor peaks and dips that would be hard to notice with real-world content. The treble has three peaks that exaggerate detail somewhat, with the tallest one causing cymbal hits to sound relatively piercing.

Their imaging performance is great. This aligns with the imaging in other products we've tested by the manufacturer, indicating solid ergonomics and quality control. Their group delay lands below the audibility threshold, so bass sounds tight, and treble is transparent. They have a slight weighted phase mismatch in the mids and narrow spikes in the treble, but it's not audible with real-world content. Their weighted frequency and amplitude mismatch are within good values for a stable stereo image without holes. Imaging varies between units, so keep in mind that these results are valid for only our unit.

Like most closed-back earbuds, they have a bad passive soundstage. The earbud design doesn't meaningfully interact with your outer ear or with the space you're in, which creates a focused soundstage that sounds like it's coming from inside your head.

The Nothing Ear (a) earbuds have good weighted harmonic distortion performance. It's pretty low in the bass and mids and slightly more elevated in the treble, but the measurements land within good values. Your audio will sound pure and clean.

These are the settings used to test these earbuds, except for medium ear tips, which were used for the noise isolation tests. The 'Balanced' EQ preset was used, which includes UltraBass set to +3. Our results are only valid when using them in this configuration.

Their full-range noise isolation performance is satisfactory. The ANC significantly filters out lower-pitched noise, like the engines on lawnmowers or rumbling bus engines. However, it's a bit uneven when handling mid-range sounds like conversation nearby. So, although it still filters out sounds like chit-chat, the ANC isn't as effective as it is with lower mid-range sounds like ambient din, which are tackled more effectively. Shrill and piercing sounds aren't blocked as strongly as earbuds with a more passive isolating design.

The Nothing Ear (a) earbuds are decent at noise isolation in common scenarios. They reduce ambient din in airplane cabins and traffic on the street well. They're slightly less effective at filtering the lower-range frequencies in offices. However, their isolation and ANC are outpaced by the affordable tiered CMF Buds Pro 2.

The Nothing Ear (a) earbuds don't include a wind reduction mode. The ANC system creates 'Anti-noise' sounds when gusts of wind make contact with the mic, and without a wind reduction mode, this makes a bothersome 'popping' sound. That said, these handle wind noise a bit better than the Nothing Ear Truly Wireless, though they're both sensitive to the angle of the wind.

Their leakage performance is good. The bulk of bass and mid-range sounds don't escape into your space. A portion of trebly content is audible at close proximity if you're in a rather quiet space, producing a thin and bright version of your audio. That said, it's not enough to even register for most people in a hushed library unless they're seated next to you.

The mic system's recording quality is poor. Captured speech sounds brighter than in real life and lacks full body. Your voice is intelligible, but the mic isn't a strength of these earbuds. That said, the total harmonic distortion wasn't calculated because the file's recorded output from the mic was too low in quality for the testing rig to calculate. Subjectively, though, the distortion is relatively mild.

Their mic system's noise handling is satisfactory. It manages to remove constant background noise but at the cost of your voice's clarity. With intermittent and sudden background noises like people talking, the mic struggles to differentiate your voice from the background chatter. It can filter out background noise like subway trains with decent success, but your voice is harder to make out.

Their battery performance is passable. The manufacturer advertises they last 5.5 hours with ANC on, with an extra 3.5 charges in the case. Unfortunately, they're not compatible with our battery testing rig and prematurely shut off, even though we can confirm when worn, they last longer than the period after which they shut off on our rig. However, the advertised battery life matches up well with other battery results we've yielded from the rest of the line, like the Nothing Ear (2) Truly Wireless. It's long enough for most commutes and jaunts to the gym, but if you need all-day audio without breaks to top up the battery, it falls short.

The Nothing X companion app is good, and you can check out a preview of it. It supplies you with EQ presets and a custom EQ alongside an UltraBass mode that slightly elevates the whole low-end. With the Nothing Ear (a) earbuds, the app doesn't include customized EQ based on your unique hearing, which is available on the Nothing Ear Truly Wireless, though you can still check if the ear tips fit using the Fit Test. You can change preset listening modes like ANC. You get options for connectivity, too, like a Low Lag mode for streaming video, dual device pairing, and codec selection. Besides that, you can track your earbuds with the Find My feature and remap the controls to your preferences. A novel addition is its integration with ChatGPT, letting you directly use the AI by asking questions aloud.

These are Bluetooth-only earbuds, and their USB-C to USB-C cable is meant for charging the case.

The Nothing Ear (a) earbuds have amazing Bluetooth connectivity. They have multi-device pairing with up to two devices, which is enabled through their app's Dual Connection option. The figures shown are their latency with the Low Lag mode on, which significantly cuts down on latency. That said, you may still experience lip-sync mismatch, although different devices and apps compensate for latency differently. They include support for the high-quality LDAC codec, but unlike the step-up Nothing Ear Truly Wireless model, they lack the lower latency LHDC codec support. While they lack quick pairing for iOS, they have it for Android and Microsoft's Swift Pair for compatible devices.

These earbuds can only connect wirelessly via Bluetooth to compatible PCs.

You can charge the case via USB-C. It has an IPX2 rating against light water exposure.