Affordable ANC Doesn’t Get Much Better

Key Takeaways

• The Nothing Ear (a) earbuds deliver great sound and call quality for the price.
• These earbuds also deliver impressive noise-canceling and fit very comfortably and securely.
• The Nothing X app enhances the overall user experience.

The Nothing Ear (a) earbuds are proof you don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars to get a nice pair of noise-canceling in-ears. With an eye-grabbing appearance, great sound and call quality, fantastic ANC, and one of the best earbud apps I’ve ever used, the Nothing Ear (a) gets a solid two thumbs-up in my book.

Price and Availability

The Nothing Ear (a) currently sell for $100 and are available through Amazon, Newegg, and directly from Nothing’s site. The buds and case are available in Yellow, White, or Black.

Design, Fit, and Controls

It’s not too often that I’m wowed by a pair of earbuds right out of the box, but the Ear (a) buds started to win me over on cosmetics alone. I love a brand that’s willing to take risks with a product’s appearance, and the translucent stems and see-through case of the Ear (a) really worked for me. In fact, I fielded a number of “Oh, where’d you get those?” inquiries while wearing these in public places and around friends and family.

While you can choose between Yellow, White, or Black, my test buds were the Yellow colorway. Beyond the flip-top lid, the case features two magnetized charging points for the buds to rest in. The LED indicator on the left lights up different colors to let you know how much battery is left in the case, and the LED will pulse steadily when you’ve put the Ear (a) into pairing mode (activated by pressing and holding the recessed setup button on the front-right corner of the case). Unfortunately, there’s no wireless charging support, so you’ll be stuck with USB-C whenever you need to top off the charger.

As for the earbuds themselves (and we’ve got a whole roundup of wireless earbuds for you to peruse), I loved them the moment I first put them in my ears (using the already-equipped medium ear tips). Honestly, throughout the week or so, I put these things through the paces; I had to remind myself a few times that I wasn’t wearing my everyday AirPods Pro 2 buds! The Ear (a) fit snugly and didn’t irritate my ears, even when using them for an extended period. They also don’t move around too much when you move your head or neck, which bodes well for those who want to use these as workout earbuds.

One minor issue I initially had was that the automated ear detection feature (enabled by default) kept triggering when one of the buds was ever-so-slightly dislodged from my ear canal. After switching to the next size down of ear tips, this problem seemed to go away.

For anyone who’s used earbud touch controls over the last few years, you’ll know it’s either stems or touch-points on the outer shell of each bud for controls. In the case of the Ear (a), controls are handled by single and long pinches to the elongated earbud stems. I never had an issue using any of these commands, and they can also be re-mapped in the Nothing X app.

Sound Quality

Rocking two 11mm drivers, improved venting for more precise sound, and support for Bluetooth 5.3 and codecs like LDAC, SBC, and AAC, the Ear (a) buds don’t hold back when it comes time to rock your favorite tunes. Admittedly, I was a bit overzealous when I first listened to the Ear (a) buds.

I was literally bouncing around my apartment, telling anyone I could about how awesome they sounded, and only for $100! From a comfort standpoint, I mentioned that I had to keep reminding myself I wasn’t wearing my AirPods Pro 2. At first, I thought I’d feel the same about audio quality, but I think I was just too happy that these fit nicely and sounded good right out of the box.

The Nothing Ear (a) earbuds do sound really good. I’d even be willing to call them great. Before any EQ adjustments, the Ear (a) buds have a well-balanced but enthusiastic approach to music and movies. Tracks like Green Day’s Dilemma off the Saviors album sounded big, fun, and punchy. These buds are also tailor-made for those who enjoy a little more bass in the overall mix. Not only is there a More Bass preset in the EQ, but you’ll also be able to toggle on and off a Bass Enhance feature.

Heading into more subdued musical terrain, Thrice’s Digging My Own Grave sounds like a gentle stroll down a rainy city street at night; visuals that the Ear (a) helped put into my head, thanks to an emphasis on background effects I hadn’t heard so clearly beforehand. Frontman Dustin Kensrue’s tremendous vocal work is the icing on the cake of this melodic dirge, center-stage work that the Ear (a) buds totally went to town with.

My girlfriend and I have been revisiting the classic Pixar era and just recently wrapped a screening of Toy Story 2 (and for those who may be curious, yes, the “When She Loved Me” sequence can make a grown man cry). I was glad to hear how well the Ear (a) buds could hold their own with cinematic material. One standout moment was the third-act plane chase. With a soundstage packed with low-end engine noise, plus a pulse-pounding score, plus loud character dialogue, and the Ear (a) buds still sounded fantastic.

The included Low Latency Mode is another great add-on for gamers who want to use these every once in a while. That being said, I don’t think I’d recommend any set of earbuds for console or PC gaming. That’s where my partiality to headphones comes into play. I also highly recommend you check out How-To Geek’s best headphones list.

Noise Canceling

I really enjoyed the noise cancelation that the Nothing company achieved with the Ear (a) buds. While it’s not the absolute best ANC I’ve ever heard, I liked that Nothing chose to go with an adaptive ANC system that can be easily turned on or off with a simple long-press to one or both of the earbuds.

I liked having the ANC turned to full blast at all times. That’s how I am with my AirPods Pro, and the Ear (a) buds did an excellent job of keeping up with Apple’s finest. During the summer, my apartment community is an outdoor wonderland of old air condensers operating all day, every day. I took a couple of walks through the area with ANC enabled (full blast), and the rumbling of the antiquated appliances was reduced to gentle fan noise. I also tried adjusting the ANC slider to its halfway setting and still thought the noise-canceling was pretty decent.

The HVAC system in my apartment can get loud when it’s running. I was able to walk over to the intake and could audibly hear a quick difference when switching between ANC and transparency. Speaking of which, the built-in transparency mode isn’t half bad, although I did prefer removing the earbuds completely when trying to chat with someone nearby.

I’ve heard better ANC performance, but from earbuds that cost far more than the Ear (a). That being said, for $100, it’s pretty tough to beat the kind of ANC these pups are capable of.

Call Quality

Call quality is the one area I was not too pleased with. The Nothing Ear (a) buds don’t sound terrible for phone and video calls by any stretch of the imagination. They’re just not overly impressive. I was actually pretty excited to test call quality because one of the main improvement areas for the firmware update I was prompted to install was for call quality.

At best, the Ear (a) buds sound a lot like many other pairs of low-cost ANC buds during calls: compressed and a little choppy. Adjusting the noise cancelation levels didn’t really do much to change this, either. I also dealt with a fair amount of background noise filtering in when I opened my porch door.

Nothing’s Clear Voice Technology is designed to isolate your speaking voice while reducing background noise. While I can’t say the buds did the latter too well, my girlfriend did say I sounded crisp and clear.

Battery Life

The folks at Nothing claim that the Nothing Ear (a) should last for up to 9.5 hours with ANC disabled, 5.5 hours with ANC turned on, and that the charging case holds up to 33 hours of extra listening hours with ANC disabled, and 19 hours with it enabled. Conveniently, the buds also support Fast Charge tech, with just 10 minutes of charge time, giving you an extra 10 hours of playback (with ANC disabled).

While I do wish that Nothing would have made the case capable of wireless charging, I had zero issues with battery life when using the Ear (a) buds, and can pretty much stand behind Nothing’s hour-to-hour performance claims.

Using the Nothing X App

Some earbuds and headphone companion apps are truly for the birds, and then there are exceptional audio apps with must-have features and customizations, plus a very pleasant UI backbone. The latter of the two is the case for the Nothing X app, which is available for Android and iPhone.

As long as your Nothing buds are paired to the device the app is downloaded to, they should show up right away on the main screen. From here, you’ll get a quick breakdown of bud and charging case battery life, along with Equalizer, Controls, and Noise Control tabs.

I highly recommend taking some time with the EQ, as Nothing has one of the more unique approaches to fine-tuning sound. Instead of a multi-band EQ, you’ll drag bubbles up and down to adjust bass, mid, and treble levels (when choosing a Custom EQ). Tapping the gear icon at the top-right corner takes you to some additional earbuds and app settings. This is also where you’ll go to download new firmware for the Ear (a).

If you don’t think the ear tips you’re using fit well enough, Nothing’s Ear Tip Fit Test is in the settings dashboard and is well worth your time. I also loved that Nothing thought to include a Find My Earbuds function. Tap the play icon for the missing bud, and said bud will start issuing a cricket-like chime.

Should You Buy the Nothing Ear (a)?

The Nothing Ear (a) will be the earbuds I recommend to anyone who asks me what in-ears I’d recommend for less than $150. Not only do these little titans look cool and fit well, but for only $100, the Ear (a) buds deliver sound quality that I’ve heard $200 earbuds struggle to maintain. They also feature rock-solid ANC and one of the best audio companion apps I’ve seen in a long time.

We also have a great write-up on the Nothing Ear Stick earbuds that the Nothing team put out last year.