Nothing Ear (open) Review: Unbelievable Open Ear Bass

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Need-to-knows

• Superb level and quality of bass
• Perfect weighting means they feel light but secure, although it can take a bit of fiddling to find the right positioning
• Brilliantly simple pinch control system

Nothing’s marketing has worked on me. Every time they release something, I get a little shot of anticipation. I want to experience how their novel takes on product design. Therefore, I was suitably excited to try the Nothing Ear (open) earbuds.

Add in the fact that I’m a runner and have a particular interest in open-ear designs, I was doubly excited. Even before putting them on, the Nothing Ear (opens) had a high bar to clear; the Shokz Open Run Pro 2, my favourite open earbuds.

Without spoiling too much, the Nothing Ear (open) earbuds don’t quite reach that level, but the excellent control system and nicely weighted fit means they run them close. Here’s my full review!

How I reviewed the Nothing Ear (open)

The key to testing open earbud designs is using them in a variety of environments. So that’s exactly what I did! I used these earbuds for two weeks as my main earbuds when exercising. I used them when running and at the gym as well as at home when I was working.

I tested the microphone quality by having a friend use them to call me and assessed comfort levels by wearing them for multiple hours on end at work. To test sound quality, I compared them directly to other open earbuds like the Shokz Open Run Pro 2 using the same songs in the same environments.

Design – takes a bit of getting used to

I panicked a little bit when I first put the Nothing Ear (open) earbuds on; they felt a bit weird. I thought I was going to hate them. Something about how they sat on my ears seemed loose and not optimally positioned to fire audio back in the right direction.

I still can’t get them to fit exactly like they do in the marketing images, but now I’ve worn them for a few runs, I’ve come round to them. Thanks to what seems like a perfect weight balance and the flexible ear hook, the Nothing Ear (open) feels both secure and unobtrusive. There’s a bit of a paradox going on; you forget you’re wearing them because of how light they are, but there’s enough weight to hold them in place.

They have that signature Nothing look which I personally love with see-through casings so you can see all the wiring and boards. You get a pair of earbuds that look absolutely nothing like anything else on the market.

But what really wins me over in terms of the design is the control method. Lots of earbuds nowadays go for touch controls instead of physical buttons. I find touch controls really frustrating, especially on earbuds meant for exercising where your dexterity is more limited.

I can’t quite work out if the controls on the Nothing Ear (open) are real buttons or simulated through haptics, but either way, they are brilliant. Each bud has an indented area on the side of the main casing where you pinch to do things like pause music or skip a track.

The pinch controls work every time and they’re so precise because of that little indent; your finger naturally positions itself correctly. The casing is chunky too which is especially useful to stabilise your finger when you’re running. It’s ingenious and might be my favourite thing about these earbuds.

Sound quality – just about loud enough with respectable bass

Nothing has really managed to get some cracking audio out of these things. There are some areas that falter, but I’ll cover the good stuff first!

The first thing you notice when you start listening to music with these is the bass, which is a feat in itself considering these aren’t actually inside your ears. Nothing boasts about the bass enhancement algorithm that adds depth when lower frequencies are detected and they are right to. It really works.

The bass not only satisfyingly thumps along but it also sounds rich, there’s a smoothness there rather than blunt force booming. The only other open earbuds that do this are the Shokz Open Run Pro 2 and they have an advantage because they use bone conduction. Nothing does this through plain old air conduction.

There’s a custom diaphragm too that Nothing claims reduces distortion at low frequencies which might also be helping. Speaking of the diaphragm, it has a titanium coating which should help with producing crispr high frequencies. I found this to be the weakest part of the Ear (open)’s audio profile.

Often, the really piercing highs like high hats or trumpets were noticeably tinny. This is, in part, down to the open-ear design. Ultimately, you can’t avoid losing some clarity. And in truth, I’m splitting hairs here, the highs sounded fine most of the time. Besides, you shouldn’t be expecting studio-quality sound from such devices.

As for vibrancy, you get that in spades thanks in large part to the whopping 14.2mm driver size and resulting volume. These are the loudest open earbuds I’ve ever used. That helps to bring out the mid-range frequencies, especially when the bass is prevalent, as is the case here and means you can hear quieter podcasts when exercising.

I will note that Nothing’s claim that their ‘Sound Seal System’ keeps what you’re listening to private is largely inaccurate. You just can hear what someone is listening to if you’re near them. But honestly, who cares? That’s the open-ear design for you.

Case – needs to be smaller

The case is actually my least favourite thing about the Nothing Ear (open). It is very thin and flat. Tick. But this means it is also very wide, about the same size as two AirPods cases next to each other. This means they take up a lot of pocket space and stick out of some smaller pockets.

I’d love it if the second-generation design had a case with the earbuds stacked on top of each other.

You charge the case via USB-C which holds 22 hours of battery. The earbuds themselves carry 8 hours of playback time, so in combination, you get 30 hours of battery. I found this to be mostly accurate. I could do a whole day’s work without needing to charge them.

App and extra features – you’ll love it if you have a Nothing phone

The Nothing X app is available across all platforms, including iOS and Android. On the app, you get access to advanced EQ settings so you can really tune the Nothing Ear (open) to your tastes. You can select different equaliser settings and adjust the EQ curve.

In typical Nothing fashion, the interface for the app is great and really accessible. There’s a cool feature where you can share EQ profiles with other users which I thought was a nice touch.

There’s more too if you have a Nothing phone. With Nothing OS, you have voice-activated Chat-GPT integration which is unique to the Nothing ecosystem.

Talking about voice, there is AI at play there too to help with microphone call quality. In my tests, the microphone sounded fine. Not crystal clear but good enough to get you by, especially indoors.

Conclusion – top-tier open earbuds, but room for improvement

I’ll be honest with you here. At first, I didn’t really get on with the Nothing Ear (open). But after a few weeks of using them, I’ve done a full 180^o and now absolutely love them. And that’s down to two main things; the perfect weight balance which gives a secure fit and the bass.

As I said, it’s not just any old bass, there’s a smoothness to it that sets these earbuds apart from most of the rest. It means the sound quality is top-tier in the realm of open earbuds which, in my books, matters quite a lot!

Oh, and the pinch controls are perfect. I don’t want to use any other form of touch controls from now on.

Should you buy them? At $149/£129, they are some of the cheapest open earbuds around, much cheaper than the Bose Ultra Open for example. So if you want to maximise value for money, the Nothing Ear (open) makes absolute sense.

There is a small caveat though. The Shokz Open Run Pro 2 are still my favourite open earbuds for exercise by a minute whisker. They cost a bit more at $179/£169 but I like the extra oomph that the bone conduction gives in noisy environments. I will say that the Ear (open) is louder though. And honestly, it all comes down to personal preference in the end as is always the case with audio equipment.

I’m excited to see how Nothing progresses these earbuds in the second-generation design!