Nothing Ear 1 review - nothing special

### Article Based on Video Transcription: Nothing Ear 1 Review

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#### Introduction to Nothing Ear 1

The Nothing Ear 1 is the first product from Carl’s Nothing tech brand, a pair of wireless earbuds that retail for $100. These earbuds come with active noise cancellation (ANC) and aim to stand out in the budget ANC market. However, as the video reviewer points out, the release of these earbuds is neither particularly exciting nor risky, given that they follow a tried-and-true form factor with some small tweaks.

One of the most notable aspects of the Nothing Ear 1 is their design. Both the earbuds and the charging case are partially transparent, showcasing the inner workings of the product. This feature is meant to create excitement and differentiate them from other budget earbuds.

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#### Design and Build Quality

The design of the Nothing Ear 1 earbuds and their charging case is both their strongest suit and a point of concern for long-term use. The clear case, which supports Qi wireless charging, has a USB-C port, a pairing button, and enough battery to recharge the earbuds around six times with ANC turned on. It closes with a satisfying slap and is spring-loaded, making it easy to open.

The earbuds themselves have color-coordinated dots (red and white) to indicate which bud goes where in the case. A concave dimple on the lid holds them securely in place. While the reviewer was hoping this dimple could serve as a fidget spinning fulcrum, it turns out to be too off-center for that purpose.

The clear design of the earbuds and their charging case is undeniably appealing, but it comes with a caveat: both the case and the earbuds show scratches after just a week of testing. The reviewer speculates that unless users keep the case in another protective case, it won’t remain pristine for long.

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#### Sound Quality and Audio Performance

The Nothing Ear 1 earbuds are tuned by Teenage Engineering, a Swedish music technology company known for its innovative audio work. They feature 11.6mm drivers that deliver a punchy bass response and decent separation of highs and lows. While the sound quality is comparable to the two-year-old Apple AirPod Pro, it falls short of competing with Sony’s WF-1000XM4s or Bose QuietComfort earbuds, which are priced three times higher.

For most listeners, the sound quality of the Nothing Ear 1 will be adequate. However, serious audiophiles who demand the best audio quality will need to invest in more expensive options like the Sony or Bose alternatives reviewed on The Verge.

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#### ANC Performance and Battery Life

The active noise cancellation (ANC) on the Nothing Ear 1 is effective but not as robust as that of the AirPod Pro, Sony, or Bose earbuds. With ANC turned on, they block out low-level hums but still allow higher-pitched sounds to come through. During a train trip to Philly, the reviewer was happy with how much noise was canceled, though they could still hear a lot of the train environment.

The battery life is decent: 4 hours with ANC on and 5.7 hours without it. The charging case provides additional playback time, offering 24 hours with ANC on or 34 hours with ANC off.

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#### App Features and Touch Controls

The Nothing Ear 1 app is sleek and user-friendly, with dark mode support. It offers limited EQ settings, touch control customization, battery levels, and toggles for in-ear detection and transparency mode. However, the app feels limited compared to other earbud apps on the market.

The touch controls include long press, double tap, and triple tap options, as well as sliding up or down the stem of the bud to control volume. While the reviewer understands the reasoning behind avoiding a single-touch option to prevent accidental presses, they wish there was at least an option for one. The touch controls were responsive 80% of the time but occasionally failed to register taps or skip tracks.

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#### In-Ear Detection and Mic Testing

The in-ear detection feature was too sensitive for the reviewer’s liking, often pausing or playing music even when the earbud was fully seated. This issue could be due to a piercing that interferes with the fit, but regardless, it was frustrating enough to disable.

During a mic test, the Nothing Ear 1 struggled to cancel background noise effectively. Running water in the background made it difficult to hear the reviewer clearly, highlighting the limitations of their ANC and mic performance.

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#### Software Bugs and Connectivity Issues

The Nothing Ear 1 earbuds are not without their share of early bugs. The reviewer experienced constant switching of ANC on and off while riding the subway and at home. They also encountered bursts where the buds disconnected completely from the phone, only to reconnect and disconnect again a few seconds later.

One particularly odd issue occurred when the right bud connected to the laptop while the leftbud connected to the phone, creating confusion about which device they were paired with. The reviewer expressed frustration over the lack of audio alerts or voice cues to indicate pairing status.

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#### Overall Impression

The Nothing Ear 1 earbuds are a safe bet for most people looking for affordable wireless earbuds with decent ANC and sound quality. However, their design feels too similar to existing products in the market, making them feel “too little, too late” compared to other budget ANC options available a year ago.

While the earbuds are comfortable for long listening sessions and offer standard features like touch controls and decent battery life, they are currently riddled with bugs that the reviewer hopes future software updates will address. The brand’s focus seems to be on creating a lifestyle around its products rather than reinventing technology or delivery methods.

Ultimately, the Nothing Ear 1 earbuds are neither groundbreaking nor terrible but lack the standout features needed to make them truly memorable. For now, they remain a middle-of-the-road option in the budget ANC market.

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#### Conclusion

If you’re in the market for $100 wireless earbuds, check out The Verge’s comprehensive reviews of countless options to find the best fit for your needs. While the Nothing Ear 1 has its unique appeal, especially with their transparent design, they may not be the best choice for those seeking a reliable and bug-free experience.

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*Note: This article is based entirely on the provided transcription and does not include any additional research or summaries.*

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthese are the nothing ear ones they are a hundred dollar wireless earbuds with active noise cancellation and they are the very first product from carl pays nothing tech startup or should i say brand i should definitely say brand nothing's first product being wireless earbuds is neither terribly exciting nor terribly risky and outside of them being partially clear these earbuds fit that narrative sadly too well so let's talk about nothing okay nothing it's time to show something by far the most exciting part about these buds is their design both the case and the buds are partially transparent to show the inner workings of the product the case supports qi wireless charging has a usb c port a pairing button and enough battery to recharge the buds around six times with anc turned on it closes with a slap and is spring loaded so that the large square top pops open with ease overall the case is the same width as an airpods pro case but about a third longer making it not quite as pocketable the buds have color coordinated dots on them red and white to indicate which divot they fall into and a concave dimple on the lid holds them securely in place when the lid is closed i was really hoping that this dimple would provide like the perfect fidget spinning fulcrum but sadly it's just a little too off center for that so the pixel buds case will remain my favorite fidget friendly case such a good click in just a week of testing this clear case already shows many small scratches in general wear i am interested to see just how transparent this will be after a year of use my bet unless you keep this case in another case it won't be too pretty after even a few months of daily use the buds are the same stem shape as the airbots a bean-like oval sits in your ear with the option of three silicone ear tip sizes well a 3 4 inch stem comes off the side the big difference here is again the transparency of the stem with nothing's logo running along the components on the inside as someone who is always looking at what earbuds people are wearing i mean i'm going to be stoked to see these out in the wild and i'm absolutely going to recognize them as something new and different from afar but for all of the hype created around this design some small transparent tweaks to an old form factor feels safe and hell half of the bud and the case is still wrapped in white now what that old form factor does provide is a comfortable easy fit each earbud weighs only 4.7 grams and has a four hour battery life with anc on and 5.7 hours with anc off i was able to wear these buds for the duration of their battery life with no discomfort and the case has enough battery for 24 more hours of playback or 34 with anc off the buds include the standard touch controls with long press double and triple tap options and then the added control of sliding up or down the stem of the bud to control volume i can understand avoiding a single touch option to prevent mistaken touches but i do wish i at least had the option for one here eighty percent of the time touch controls were responsive but during the other twenty percent the buds would either not register my taps or register them and then not skip to the next song or pause my music i also had to disable the in-ear detection on these buds because i found it far too sensitive it would often pause or play my music even when the earbud was still fully seated in my ear now this could be because of this one piercing that i have that often gets in the way of earbuds but regardless it was just too sensitive for my liking the ear ones app houses some limited eq settings a few touch control settings battery levels a toggle for in-ear detection and transparency mode toggles it is sleek it's easy to use it even has dark mode but it is rather limited oh and yes you can use each bud independently of the other but how do they sound the ear ones have been tuned by teenage engineering a swedish music technology company that produces some amazing scents the buds themselves have 11.6 millimeter drivers that put out a punchy base and they do a fine job of separating highs and lows they are extremely comparable to the now two-year-old airpod pros i have but they are nowhere near as dynamic as sony's most recent wireless earbuds the wf-1000xm4s or the bose quietcomfort though both of those are three times the price and if you want to hear more about either of those we have reviews up on theverge.com the truth is that most wireless earbuds at that 100 price point are going to be indistinguishable sound quality wise between different manufacturers and unless you're one of us lucky earbud reviewers you're very rarely going to get to put headphones head to head and really hear the minute differences between them so for the average listener the average sound quality of the ear ones is gonna sound great and if you really want the best audio quality well just be prepared to shell out the extra cash for say the sony's or the bose now one great feature to see at this price point even if it's not as rare as it used to be is active noise cancellation the ear ones anc is only a few steps below the airpod pros and it's certainly not as robust as the sony's or the bose with anc turned on they block out just as much sound as your pointer fingers do when you plug your ears low level hums are certainly gone but the upper level pitches they still come through i wore these on a train trip to philly last week and i was pretty happy with how much noise they cancelled out though i could still hear a lot of the train around me and i certainly was missing my over your headphones with anc i think it's time for a mic test okay first up in today's test are the enactfire a9s they retail for 66 dollars from an akfire's website and they also include active noise cancellation next we have the soundcore liberty air 2 pros who recently got marked down to also have anc and probably have one of my favorite apps amongst earbuds and the earbud of the hour the nothing ear ones that retail for a hundred dollars how are they sounding and of course it wouldn't be a mic test without the gold standard apple's airpod pros which now retail for around 200 to 250 dollars but how do these 67 dollar headphones sound when there's something in the background say running water for example i chose all these headphones today because they all have stems which allow the mic to get a little bit closer they also all include active noise translations and with a little background noise how are the nothing ear ones holding up are they able to cancel it out can you hear me clearly over something running in the background and one thing the airpod pros always do well is cancelling out noise usually you can pretty much hear anybody over most things with these headphones on yikes uh i'm not sure these headphones would be my very first pick if i needed a good mic with the ear ones being nothing's first product to market i expected some bugs but y'all it has been uh it's been rough out here the ear ones are plagued by so many early hiccups of wireless earbuds the most annoying and noticeable is their constant switching of anc on and off while riding the subway sitting at home working in the office i have had the anc toggle on and off at random now it doesn't happen all the time but it happens enough to be really annoying i've also had burst of the earbuds disconnecting completely from my phone only for them to reconnect and then disconnect a few seconds later and then there was this one time the right bud connected to my laptop while the left button connected to my phone and for a split second i was like bluetooth multi-point but no no no it was just another bug and while we're at it why is it that jabra is the only manufacturer to give us bluetooth multi-point in earbuds i would personally give up in ear detection for that but maybe that's just me and one more small annoyance i really wish these buds had a voice to alert me that they were pairing or a voice to let me know what device the earbuds are connected to the only audio indications these buds have are in the form of beeps which in my week of testing i have not even come close to memorizing the ear ones act a lot like many earbuds at their price point the anc works okay they sound good enough for most people and they are comfortable for long listening sessions but they are currently riddled with bugs that i'm sure future software updates will hopefully address these buds are a safe bet that offer few surprises outside of a unique design and much like the countless wireless earbuds at this price point there is very little outside of that design that would inspire me to recommend them to most people sadly they feel too little too late to the budget anc market hell even a year ago this would have been far more impressive but really these headphones sent a pretty clear message about where nothing is headed as a brand i don't think nothing's going to reinvent the tech that we use or the way that we use technology they're going to strip away some paint they're going to continue to make products that are good enough for most people and they're going to attempt to create a brand that draws a following and ultimately it's going to come down to how many people that brand resonates with and how well they do it creating a lifestyle around the products that they put out these headphones they're not nothing but they're not really something either at least not yet but it was so good to see you back here i hope that you and everyone you care about as well uh if you are in the market for 100 wireless earbuds chris welch and i share this beat on theverge.com and we have reviewed countless number of wireless earbuds so uh theverge.com for more on that we'll be seeing you real soonthese are the nothing ear ones they are a hundred dollar wireless earbuds with active noise cancellation and they are the very first product from carl pays nothing tech startup or should i say brand i should definitely say brand nothing's first product being wireless earbuds is neither terribly exciting nor terribly risky and outside of them being partially clear these earbuds fit that narrative sadly too well so let's talk about nothing okay nothing it's time to show something by far the most exciting part about these buds is their design both the case and the buds are partially transparent to show the inner workings of the product the case supports qi wireless charging has a usb c port a pairing button and enough battery to recharge the buds around six times with anc turned on it closes with a slap and is spring loaded so that the large square top pops open with ease overall the case is the same width as an airpods pro case but about a third longer making it not quite as pocketable the buds have color coordinated dots on them red and white to indicate which divot they fall into and a concave dimple on the lid holds them securely in place when the lid is closed i was really hoping that this dimple would provide like the perfect fidget spinning fulcrum but sadly it's just a little too off center for that so the pixel buds case will remain my favorite fidget friendly case such a good click in just a week of testing this clear case already shows many small scratches in general wear i am interested to see just how transparent this will be after a year of use my bet unless you keep this case in another case it won't be too pretty after even a few months of daily use the buds are the same stem shape as the airbots a bean-like oval sits in your ear with the option of three silicone ear tip sizes well a 3 4 inch stem comes off the side the big difference here is again the transparency of the stem with nothing's logo running along the components on the inside as someone who is always looking at what earbuds people are wearing i mean i'm going to be stoked to see these out in the wild and i'm absolutely going to recognize them as something new and different from afar but for all of the hype created around this design some small transparent tweaks to an old form factor feels safe and hell half of the bud and the case is still wrapped in white now what that old form factor does provide is a comfortable easy fit each earbud weighs only 4.7 grams and has a four hour battery life with anc on and 5.7 hours with anc off i was able to wear these buds for the duration of their battery life with no discomfort and the case has enough battery for 24 more hours of playback or 34 with anc off the buds include the standard touch controls with long press double and triple tap options and then the added control of sliding up or down the stem of the bud to control volume i can understand avoiding a single touch option to prevent mistaken touches but i do wish i at least had the option for one here eighty percent of the time touch controls were responsive but during the other twenty percent the buds would either not register my taps or register them and then not skip to the next song or pause my music i also had to disable the in-ear detection on these buds because i found it far too sensitive it would often pause or play my music even when the earbud was still fully seated in my ear now this could be because of this one piercing that i have that often gets in the way of earbuds but regardless it was just too sensitive for my liking the ear ones app houses some limited eq settings a few touch control settings battery levels a toggle for in-ear detection and transparency mode toggles it is sleek it's easy to use it even has dark mode but it is rather limited oh and yes you can use each bud independently of the other but how do they sound the ear ones have been tuned by teenage engineering a swedish music technology company that produces some amazing scents the buds themselves have 11.6 millimeter drivers that put out a punchy base and they do a fine job of separating highs and lows they are extremely comparable to the now two-year-old airpod pros i have but they are nowhere near as dynamic as sony's most recent wireless earbuds the wf-1000xm4s or the bose quietcomfort though both of those are three times the price and if you want to hear more about either of those we have reviews up on theverge.com the truth is that most wireless earbuds at that 100 price point are going to be indistinguishable sound quality wise between different manufacturers and unless you're one of us lucky earbud reviewers you're very rarely going to get to put headphones head to head and really hear the minute differences between them so for the average listener the average sound quality of the ear ones is gonna sound great and if you really want the best audio quality well just be prepared to shell out the extra cash for say the sony's or the bose now one great feature to see at this price point even if it's not as rare as it used to be is active noise cancellation the ear ones anc is only a few steps below the airpod pros and it's certainly not as robust as the sony's or the bose with anc turned on they block out just as much sound as your pointer fingers do when you plug your ears low level hums are certainly gone but the upper level pitches they still come through i wore these on a train trip to philly last week and i was pretty happy with how much noise they cancelled out though i could still hear a lot of the train around me and i certainly was missing my over your headphones with anc i think it's time for a mic test okay first up in today's test are the enactfire a9s they retail for 66 dollars from an akfire's website and they also include active noise cancellation next we have the soundcore liberty air 2 pros who recently got marked down to also have anc and probably have one of my favorite apps amongst earbuds and the earbud of the hour the nothing ear ones that retail for a hundred dollars how are they sounding and of course it wouldn't be a mic test without the gold standard apple's airpod pros which now retail for around 200 to 250 dollars but how do these 67 dollar headphones sound when there's something in the background say running water for example i chose all these headphones today because they all have stems which allow the mic to get a little bit closer they also all include active noise translations and with a little background noise how are the nothing ear ones holding up are they able to cancel it out can you hear me clearly over something running in the background and one thing the airpod pros always do well is cancelling out noise usually you can pretty much hear anybody over most things with these headphones on yikes uh i'm not sure these headphones would be my very first pick if i needed a good mic with the ear ones being nothing's first product to market i expected some bugs but y'all it has been uh it's been rough out here the ear ones are plagued by so many early hiccups of wireless earbuds the most annoying and noticeable is their constant switching of anc on and off while riding the subway sitting at home working in the office i have had the anc toggle on and off at random now it doesn't happen all the time but it happens enough to be really annoying i've also had burst of the earbuds disconnecting completely from my phone only for them to reconnect and then disconnect a few seconds later and then there was this one time the right bud connected to my laptop while the left button connected to my phone and for a split second i was like bluetooth multi-point but no no no it was just another bug and while we're at it why is it that jabra is the only manufacturer to give us bluetooth multi-point in earbuds i would personally give up in ear detection for that but maybe that's just me and one more small annoyance i really wish these buds had a voice to alert me that they were pairing or a voice to let me know what device the earbuds are connected to the only audio indications these buds have are in the form of beeps which in my week of testing i have not even come close to memorizing the ear ones act a lot like many earbuds at their price point the anc works okay they sound good enough for most people and they are comfortable for long listening sessions but they are currently riddled with bugs that i'm sure future software updates will hopefully address these buds are a safe bet that offer few surprises outside of a unique design and much like the countless wireless earbuds at this price point there is very little outside of that design that would inspire me to recommend them to most people sadly they feel too little too late to the budget anc market hell even a year ago this would have been far more impressive but really these headphones sent a pretty clear message about where nothing is headed as a brand i don't think nothing's going to reinvent the tech that we use or the way that we use technology they're going to strip away some paint they're going to continue to make products that are good enough for most people and they're going to attempt to create a brand that draws a following and ultimately it's going to come down to how many people that brand resonates with and how well they do it creating a lifestyle around the products that they put out these headphones they're not nothing but they're not really something either at least not yet but it was so good to see you back here i hope that you and everyone you care about as well uh if you are in the market for 100 wireless earbuds chris welch and i share this beat on theverge.com and we have reviewed countless number of wireless earbuds so uh theverge.com for more on that we'll be seeing you real soon\n"