Smartphone and accessory brand Nothing is bringing its iconic transparent tech design to a new pair of earbuds. While the company already offers the Nothing Ear and the Nothing Ear (a) wireless earbuds, it’s now bringing the same formula to the new Nothing Ear (open) earbuds, which, as the name suggests, offer an open-ear design that allows you to hear your surroundings while jamming out to your favorite tunes.
High Tech and Completely Open
These particular earbuds have a lot going for them. As you would expect, they keep the same overall feel in terms of design, with the transparent stem that allows you to see the earbuds’ internals. It’s a cool look that has become immediately recognizable as a Nothing product. And the transparent body is coupled with the classic white and red dots to signify the left and right earbuds – another Nothing staple. The overall vibe is very retro but still feels modern and unique. The charging case has a transparent lid so you can make sure that your earbuds are there.
The earbuds also have an ear hook design that ensures they stay firmly on your head when you’re wearing them. That’s important considering the fact that open-ear earbuds don’t wedge into your ear canals for stabilization.
The ear hook design means that they’re a little larger, and the charging case, in particular, is much larger than a typical pair of earbuds. Thankfully, it’s still relatively flat, so it should be easy to fit into a pocket or bag without being too bulky.
The earbuds are built for high-quality audio. Typically, open ear earbuds sacrifice some bass and high-end response, simply due to the fact that they can’t isolate as well as other earbuds. The Nothing Ear (open) earbuds attempt to get around this with relatively large 14.2mm drivers, which should help with the bass response.
The earbuds offer a decent battery life, providing 8 hours of continuous listening and 30 hours total, including the battery in the charging case. They connect through Bluetooth 5.3 with Bluetooth Multipoint, and support both Android and iOS.
There are other smart features on offer too. The earbuds work with the same Nothing X app as Nothing’s other earbuds, which means that they’ll get advanced EQ and customizable controls. And like the standard Nothing Ear earbuds, they support ChatGPT integration, so you can set them up to be able to talk directly to the AI app if that’s something you might find useful.
Right for You?
The concept of open earbuds is slightly niche, of course. Traditional earbuds actually fit in your ear canal in an effort to block outside noise so that you can focus better on the music and so the speakers can deliver a more well-rounded frequency response. Open-ear earbuds flip the concept on its head. They avoid blocking your ear canals so that you can still hear what’s going on around you. That makes them helpful for runners who want to be able to hear traffic around them, or parents who want to be able to hear their child.
Of course, because open-ear earbuds are a little niche, they’re also a little underserved, which means that Nothing has a big advantage here. Bose offers a pair of open-ear earbuds in the form of the Bose Ultra, but they’re $300. The new Nothing Ear (open) earbuds are half that, at $149.
For more information on the Nothing Ear (open) earbuds, head to nothing.tech.
