Never settle! Carl Pei definitely understood the slogan from his days at One Plus, his new company, Nothing just launched their first product, a pair of true wireless headphones called the Nothing ear 1.
There are a plethora of wireless earbuds available on the market. These days a pair of truly wireless AirPods is just one click away, do you have 50$ or 300$ to spend? There’s a pair for every budget. The problem is that almost all, are replicas of the Apple AirPods, and variety like we all know, is the spice of life. So Carl Pei decided to change the narrative and make technology fun again.
You can get the Nothing ear 1 Earbuds on Amazon for $99.99 or #56,000
Table of Contents
Key Features
- Powerful 11.6mm speaker driver
- Active noise cancellation
- 3x high definition microphones
- IPX4 splashproof
- Up to 34 hours listening
- Transparent form
Nothing ear 1: Detailed Features
Design
The nothing ear 1, borrows some design cues from the Apple AirPods pro, like the long stem to the white part that sits in your ear canal, but Carl Pei and his team have done a brilliant job in distinguishing the nothing ear one’s from the crowd.
Design-wise the transparent form factor makes the nothing ear 1 buds are very unique, it makes the nothing ear one’s appear sophisticated and luxurious without being in your face about it.Â
The industrial look of the Apple AirPods pro, is now every day, every bud look. It is easy to fall in love with the look of the nothing ear 1. Although the transparent form factor may make maintenance difficult, it may get scuffed, let’s not get started on keeping it free from grease and dirt. But beauty comes at a price, and it is a price many have paid since its launch in July 2021.
The nothing ear ones feel premium, attention to detail is everything and Nothing really did an outstanding job, little touches like a red dot on the right bud and white on the left bud, the satisfying way the ear one’s case snap shut, A subtle Nothing logo is etched in dotted text, bringing to mind circuit board printing, the buttery smooth way the buds snap into place when in their case, a lot of other little details differentiate premium earbuds from their cheaper counterparts.
The carrying case is flat and square, having a deep circular wedge to stop the buds from moving about, a USB C port behind the case, and the pair button. The case supports both wired and wireless charging.
Comfort & Fit:Â
Generally, lighter earbuds are much more comfortable to wear for a longer period of time, Nothing buds are light by today’s standard with each bud weighing around 4.7grams, for comparison, it is lighter than the apple AirPods pro and Galaxy buds pro, this makes the Nothing ear one’s one of the most comfortable pair of truly wireless earbuds out there. When buying earbuds, it’s important to get a good fit, since in earbuds the fit used is between the buds and the ear canals to create a passive seal so the better the seal, the better the sound quality. In the box, the ear ones come with three different ear tips size, large medium, and small. The small ear tip worked best for me, I didn’t have to sacrifice any comfort.
Sound Quality
Nothing announced their partnership with teenage engineering before we even saw a picture of the actual earbuds, so the stakes were high, and it was definitely not disappointing, out of the box, Teenage engineering is definitely going to be in the spotlight cause of Nothing.
There is clarity, the default sound profile is excellent, voices aren’t distorted even above 80% volume, the bass is punchy and packed enough oooomf, don’t confuse this with an audiophile headphone, the Sony WF-10004 or the AirPods pro offers a better-polished sound profile, but the ear one really delivers and it’s overall sound quality punches above the asking price by a mile.Â
Transparency mode is where the ear ones fall short a bit, it permits background noise, you can get a feel of what’s happening around you, sounds a bit robotic, it’s not as natural sounding as the AirPods pro, but it gets the job done, and for its price, it is more than adequate.
Active noise cancellation used to be a niche feature found only in the premium earbuds, but now they are becoming ubiquitous, they are now basically found in almost every earbud released recently. The ear ones do an acceptable job, they are able to drown out traffic and city noise, but can not handle low hums like a fan, or a vacuum cleaner. It is however great value for money.
With microphone and call quality the ear ones excelled, even on busy streets, one is still able to hear the other person clearly and no complaint about sounding muffled or distorted.
Pros
- Excellent value for money
- Near perfect sound quality
- Rich feature set
Cons
- Average active noise cancelation
- Ear 1 app doesn’t offer a lot of customizations
- Prone to scratches due to its form factor
Alternatives
If you are in the Apple ecosystem, consider the apple AirPods as it offers more value for money. The beat studio buds, for 49$ more, offer a better listening experience. Lastly, if you are not in on the whole transparent form, Galaxy buds+ has a distinct appearance and decent sound quality.
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Conclusion
Minimalism is definitely Pei’s keyword here, Nothing did an excellent job, using the right feature set for the nothing one’s, startup mostly faces the challenge of not being able to filter out the noise, and deliver a feature set their client base actually wants, essential features like wireless charging, find my earbuds and automatic play and pause are all built-in.
The nothing ear one’s is a solid set of truly wireless earbuds, delivers amazing sound quality at an excellent price point.Â
