The Nothing Ear (1) was the first product from the stylish phone and audio brand that it released just three years ago, and now there are two brand new earbuds preparing for launch: the Nothing Ear and the Nothing Ear (a). Both sets of buds are going to be launched later this month, and according to Nothing they represent the "ultimate iteration" of the firm's audio expertise (see X post below).
We started Nothing with audio in 2021 and since our very first product, we’ve relentlessly refined our design and engineering with every new addition to our audio product suite. 2024 is the year we’re unveiling the ultimate iteration of Nothing Audio with two new products that… pic.twitter.com/bRrFzk9wUlApril 5, 2024
The naming is a little confusing: you'd expect the sequel to the Nothing Ear (1) and the Nothing Ear (2) to be the Nothing Ear (3), but in a move that comes with a little bit of marketing bollocks attached Nothing says that the newly stripped-back naming system is more "true to Nothing" and will "center the focus around the product and the unique experience it delivers for each user". You can't see me but I'm rolling my eyes here.
What I'm not rolling my eyes about is the prospect of even better Nothing buds, because we rate the Nothing Ear (2) highly. In our four-star Nothing Ear (2) review, we said that they were "packed with features, extremely comfortable to wear all day and have a distinctive design". But there was also room for improvement, which hopefully the Ear and Ear (a) deliver.
Nothing Ear and Nothing Ear (a): key features
Nothing is keeping details of its new buds close to its corporate chest – so we don't yet know whether there will be a new design that nods to the frog we saw in the teaser video last week – but the new Nothing Ear buds are believed to be coming in at the same £130-ish as the current Ear (2) headphones.
Hopefully they'll deliver better battery life than the current models, like the Nothing Ear (Stick) for example, as that was their main drawback in our tests. The sound quality was pretty good and so was the active noise canceling, but the battery life wasn't as long as we hoped.
Nothing says: "We’ve relentlessly refined our design and engineering with every new addition to our audio product suite" and the new earbuds will be "the ultimate iteration of Nothing Audio... What we envisioned from the start - premium for everyone that isn’t about market price, but user preference." Which doesn't really tell us anything but sounds very impressive nevertheless.
We won't have to wait long for some actual details and specifications, though: the new Nothing Ear and Nothing Ear (a) will be launched on April 18.
