Nothing Ear (1) earbuds use the popular handle-shaped in-ear design. However, in terms of appearance, the design boldly adopts a transparent shell and a highly unified perspective design, which is eye-catching in the stereotyped earbuds shape.

Nothing Ear(1) has resolution and transient response similar to armature earphones. This makes the sound output by earbuds more ethereal and tactful, and the high frequency part more straight to the heart when listening to electronic music. If you have friends who are obsessed with appearance and electronic music, you may wish to try this product.

• $85 – Check latest price on: AliExpress, Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany or other Amazon countries

Appearance Design

The charging case is a square box design with rounded corners and adopts the same translucent design as earbuds. The light black upper cover has a circular groove for easy grip with fingers, and there are two circular protrusions corresponding to the headset stem position, which brings a strong three-dimensional effect to the charging case.

At the bottom of the charging case, you can see the magnets that adsorb the earbuds, and the magnets are symmetrically distributed. The black trays are irregularly shaped, creating a geometric interlacing visual effect.

The back of the charging case is designed with a Type-C charging interface and a bluetooth pairing key.

Take out the earbuds, the magnets of the charging case corresponding to the left and right ears are also designed separately. The left ear is silver and the right ear is red.

A charging case working status indicator is hidden in the lower right corner of the charging case.

Nothing Ear (1) earbuds have a handle-shaped in-ear design. There are imprints of different colors on the top of the headset stem, which are convenient for users to distinguish the left and right ears, and the right ear is a red imprint. The headset stem shell adopts a transparent shell design. Through the transparent casing, we can directly see the circuit board, MEMS microphone, touch patch and other components inside the earbud.

The most important thing is that Nothing Ear(1) does not simply make the shell transparent. In order to match the theme color of black, the circuit boards, touch patches and even components inside the earbud are made of black as much as possible to improve the visual unity of the product.

The product name “NOTHING ear (1)” is printed on the back of the left earbud, and the interior is decorated with black bump texture consistent with the charging case, which increases the layering of the earbud. The two silver metal plates at the top and bottom of the headset stem are the protection plates for the noise cancellation microphone and the pickup microphone of the earbud.

The overall sound cavity of the earbud is relatively large. There is a pressure relief hole on the side of the earbud head, which is used to balance the internal and external air pressure of the earbud and improve the acoustic performance of the earbud. The main microphone at the bottom of the headset stem is used for the earbud’s voice/call pickup.

The inner side of the headset stem can directly see the circuit board inside the earbud. Also on the headset stem are metal contacts for charging the earbuds. The microphone near the earbud sound outlet works with the noise cancellation microphone on the top of the headset stem to realize the dual-mic ANC noise cancellation function.

After actual measurement, the weight of a single earbud is 4.5g. The overall weight of Nothing Ear (1) earbuds and charging case is 65.9g.

Nothing Ear (1) Black and white version comparison. Black is calm and low-key, while white has a more ceramic texture, both of which have their own characteristics.

Nothing Ear (1) All items in the box: earbuds, charging case, Type-C cable, 3 pairs of eartips (S/M/L), instruction manual.

Comfort Fit & Calls

In terms of wearing, the earbud fits the human ear as a whole. However, the size of the sound cavity behind the earbud is large, and users with small ear holes may face the phenomenon that the earbud head is exposed, which may lead to unstable wearing.

In terms of call experience, Nothing Ear (1) provides an ultra-high-definition call experience in daily use through the cooperation of six microphones on both sides and Clear Voice technology. When we use a decibel tester to measure the external environment at 58dB, when using Nothing Ear (1) to make a call, both parties involved in the call can clearly hear each other’s voice.

APP Support & Battery Life

Nothing Ear (1) earbuds supports users to customize the earbuds adjustment through the ear (1) APP.

On the main interface of the app, the power of earbuds is displayed. On the left is the selection of earbuds listening modes and sound effects. There are two listening modes: transparent mode and noise cancellation mode. The sound effect provides 4 options such as equalization, treble, bass, and vocals.

In the APP, earbud supports the control and customization of gestures such as single-click, double-click, and sliding, and users can make control settings according to their own needs.

On the details page, we can also upgrade the firmware of the headset, switch the low-latency mode, and let the earbud make sounds through the APP to find the earbuds.

In terms of battery life, Nothing Ear (1) has a single battery life of 5 hours and a comprehensive battery life of 34 hours (ANC OFF). It supports charging for 10 minutes, listening to songs for 1 hour, and wireless charging. Use a power tester to test Nothing Ear (1) for wired charging. The charging voltage is about 5.06V, the charging current is about 1.07A, and the charging power is about 5.41W.

Acoustic Configuration & Sound Quality

Let’s talk about the tuning and hearing of earbuds first. The tuning curve of the earbuds feels close to a flat tuning with slightly higher mids, followed by lows and highs. The vocals are positioned further forward relative to the instruments, and under the coverage of the vocals, the earbuds still have obvious low frequencies and high frequencies. The overall sense of hearing is relatively thin and light, which is more suitable for electronic music songs.

In the song “处处吻”, we can clearly feel the crisp and slightly vibrating sound of cymbal in the background music. The drum sound in the low-frequency part is very bouncy. In the vocal part, earbuds restore the singer’s timbre in place. The thickness of the vocals is slightly worse, and when listening to some female voices, the sound will feel sharper.

When listening to songs like “Faded”, the earbuds have a relatively strong ability to process singers, pianos and electronic sounds. The climax part after the drum beat is powerful, and earbuds have a better performance in electronic music type songs.

• $85 – Check latest price on: AliExpress, Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany or other Amazon countries