When everything sets into a pattern and the segment becomes a collection of uninspiring devices herding after a handful of industry leaders, someone comes up with a breath of freshness that disrupts the flow. Nobody had heard about Nothing, till OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei’s name emerged in tech circles as the founder of this company. Now their first product is out, and it is a pair of TWS earbuds called the Ear (1).
Literally, Nothing hides nothing in these earbuds. The first thing you would notice about these earbuds is that these are transparent, revealing the tiny, but neatly packed components inside. In fact, as Nothing says, they redesigned the components and circuit to look classy. The buds are very light, weighing 4.7 g each and the stalks are flat. The square case complements the transparent buds well. The case might not be small enough when compared to most of them out there, and is certainly heavier than most at 57.4 g. But this is certainly one of the sturdiest and least confusing. Even the hinges and magnetic closure offer a touch of class. The square design lets it fit comfortably into any pocket without the chance of falling off, unlike round and pebble type cases.
Most TWS earbuds users must have faced this embarrassing problem of interchanging the sides because the markings are either not clear or not at an easily visible corner. Nothing Ear (1) solves this with prominent red and white dots for right and left earpieces respectively. Even the case has corresponding colour codes on the respective slots. The buds are laid flat in the case with the contacts outside, which makes it easy to clean. The case includes a USB Type-C charging port and a reset/pair button. The buds offer a very comfortable fit, and I feel these are among the best fitting earbuds out there. It comes with three sizes of silicon earplugs.
The Ear (1) supports both Android and iOS platforms and the app integrates with both seamlessly. The app allows you to personalise the sound with four equaliser settings – Balanced, More Treble, More Bass, and Voice. You can also switch ANC off and on or switch to transparency mode. Nothing offers a ‘Light’ ANC mode in addition to the full ANC to relieve that uncomfortablyhigh pressure in the ear. This is one mode that I loved in these earbuds. Gesture controls can also be customised via the app. In addition to these, the app allows you to switch in-ear detection on or off, find your earbuds if lost, update firmware and monitor the charge remaining in the buds and case.
The Nothing Ear (1) uses 11.6 mm drivers along with graphene diaphragm and the sound has been tuned by Teenage Engineering. It uses three high-definition mics for effective ANC and clear voice in addition to AI-based ENC. The whole stalk is touch responsive and hence you don’t need to fumble around for that small touch sensor. The buds are IPX4 splashproof.
Coming to performance, the Nothing Ear (1) has a balanced sound profile, neither leaning towards bass nor treble. Of course, you can boost bass or treble, but it is not tuned for neither extremes. The vocals were clear and the device showed good latitude while listening to spatial audio content on Apple music. Please note that most initial reviews you would see online have been done without the latest production firmware, which has greatly improved the connectivity and other features of the device. Call quality was good enough both on the listener and speaker side. In our test, the earbuds provided under five hours of play time at 50 percent volume with ANC (mostly at the lower level) and the case provided around five full charges. The device offers wireless charging via a Qi standard charger, and we could charge it easily via the Apple MagSafe charger
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