Nothing Ear (a) and Ear Review: Earbuds for Portable, Comfortable Listening

When Nothing emerged with its flagship phone, known as Phone (1) in 2022, it felt like OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei was just finding a way to change the smartphone game yet again. This time, he had a transparent design aesthetic that’s been carried forward into their future phones and earbuds as well.

The more recent waves that Nothing made in the earphones space, however, were their more affordable CMF Buds (₹2,999) and Neckband Pro (₹2,499), but that’s not to say they can’t keep their Nothing Ear series going strong.

The Nothing Ear (a) is their stab at a sportier, colorful wireless earbuds for anyone who’s on the move a lot (and wants to stay connected to two devices and toggle between them).

The Nothing Ear 2, meanwhile, builds upon the reputation it has as an Android alternative to Airpods and it might just have got it right. It’s not necessarily going to win over any big audiophiles and pro-audio freaks, but it does more than enough heavy lifting compared to other wireless earbuds in its price range.

Nothing Ear review

₹11,999

Contained within a black transparent case which also has wireless charging capability, the latest Nothing Ear earbuds boast features like Clear Voice Technology for calling (and it holds up pretty well in somewhat noisy conditions) and Active Noise Cancelation (ANC) up to 40 decibels. Some handy functionality comes from using the Nothing X app once you sync up the Nothing Ear with your phone – that could be the advanced equalizer, or to switch between three levels of noise cancelation depending on how much you want the outside world tuned out and your music fully taking over.

It’s a nice app to have a look around but we had some figuring out to do with the touch sensor functions on the earbuds. It might take some feeling around the earbuds before you memorize what (and how many) taps lead to what kind of command – from toggling noise canceling to taking/ending calls and playing or pausing songs.

Speaking of play – the Nothing Ear does really keep on playing. Claiming to have up to 36 hours of music playback with the case to keep it charged at intervals, the earbuds can also give you eight hours after 10 minutes of charge. This one lasted pretty long with intermittent use during the tests, often making us wonder when it was finally going to run out. To charge the case – via USB C – all the way back to its full battery also took much less time than anticipated, which means Nothing Ear is for constant use.

Nothing Ear (a) Review

₹7,999

Available in that splashy, eye-catching yellow (which may not be everyone’s thing, so they have white and black and as well), the Nothing Ear (a) wireless earbuds are compact (4.8 grams for two earbuds and 39.6 grams for the case) and cuter, while still measuring up to be a good alternative to others in its price bracket.  

Sure, the earbud sits slightly lesser in length compared to the Nothing Ear – which makes calls not the best – but there is a great amount of active noise cancelation going up to 45 decibels. Through the Nothing X app, you can toggle between high, mid, low and adaptive, which is the tech company’s way of making sure you don’t want to take them off and put them away in the case.

It helps that the Nothing Ear (a) can claim to have up to 9.5 hours of listening on a single charge and goes up to 42.5 hours of listening time with regular charge. The red light begins to blink in the case – which supposedly takes inspiration from “everyday pill packets” – to indicate a low battery level as well.

One feature that we had to test out regularly was the Nothing Ear (a) staying connected tow two devices at the same time. Between the PC laptop and Android phone, it took some time to toggle but it does the job as long as you’re not impatient.

Bottom line

Both Nothing Ear and Nothing Ear (a) are great additions to Nothing’s line of audio products. These wireless earbuds can offer clarity, tweaking and comfortable listening for plenty of musical styles. They aren’t too heavy on the bass – it does have a “bass enhance” mode on the app, but then again there’s also their equalizer on the Nothing X app – so there’s plenty of time to tune in and stay tuned in.

Buy the Nothing Ear here and Nothing Ear (a) wireless earbuds here.