The Nothing Ear (1) the first headphone product and brand developed by OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei offers a unique design, great sound quality with additional features such as active noise cancellation, wireless charging and longer battery life.
The Nothing ear (1) is priced at Php5,990 now available in all Digital Walker stores nationwide, Digital Walker website and official e-commerce stores on Lazada and Shopee.
- DW Website: https://digitalwalker.ph/collections/nothing/products/nothing-ear-1-true-wireless-earbuds
- Nothing LazMall: https://www.lazada.com.ph/shop/nothing-ph/
- Nothing ShopeeMall: https://shopee.ph/shop/799814580/
We’re excited to see and share more of what the Nothing ear (1) can offer so let’s check it out.
Unboxing
The Nothing ear (1) comes in a condensed packaging box made of thick cardboard paper material. You get a unique unboxing experience as you need to pull a tab that needs to be torn open exposing a silver box inside.
Opening the silver box holds the contents you’ll be getting like the earbuds, charging case, extra silicone ear tips in three different sizes, and a short USB-C cable.
You also get a small user manual that comes in a black paper with the text in color white which is again uncommon from some manuals we see out there.
Design and Build Quality
In terms of industry design trends of every existing earbuds in the market, the Nothing ear (1) gets the familiar rounded bulb head, silicon tips and a short stem design. They just made it more interesting that can grab more attention in its overall aesthetics.
In general, the earbuds is made of durable plastic material except for the ear tips in silicone rubber in color white. With the white ear tips and prolonged use it will be very difficult to keep them pristine.
The bulb head is also in white color but gets an opaque finish not letting you see its drivers.
The stem on the other hand is transparent allowing you to see some of the internals. It’s so cool to look at those circuits and magnets as well as how clean everything is laid down without any glue showing off.
Found on the outer side of the stem are two small colored dots in red (right ear) and white (left ear) to guide you which earbuds goes into your ears. For branding, you can also spot the Nothing logo on that area. The tip of the stem has a slightly squared off corner.
The charging case of the Nothing ear (1) is made of durable plastic material and compliments the same transparent design like its earbuds. It has a square shaped flip-top case design with its overall size a bit larger than other competitors but still it can easily fit in your pocket or bag.
The case has a metal hinge that’s sturdy and stable when opening the cover lid. Then there’s another metal plate with magnets with a serial number printed on it that holds the earbuds securely inside the case.
On the right edge of the case you’ll find a USB Type-C port and a circular button to activate and initiate the pairing process.
Inside the case, the earbuds are arranged facing away from each other with the charging contacts and magnets in an angled design. You also have a small LED located below the earbuds and a printed “ear (CASE)” on the opposite side.
Another unique feature on the case is a deep and large dimple visibly seen on the top cover lid. It can assist to help pull out the case inside your pocket or it can be a nice fidget spinner as you rest your thumb and spin it in your hand. However, seeing it closely, it provides additional support to make sure the earbuds stay in its place.
The ear (1) gets an IPX4 rating making it resistant to dust and a bit of water especially sweat if you need to use it to the gym.
Controls and Connectivity
Controls on the Nothing ear (1) offers touch to tap and slide mostly on the stem part of the earbuds. To play/pause just double tap and triple tap to skip for the next or previous track. Sliding your finger up and down the stem adjust your volume. To switch between noise cancelling modes just press and hold.
With In-ear detection removing your earbud will automatically pause the music and putting them back on plays it again.
The connectivity on the ear (1) has been good and stable using a Bluetooth 5.2 with audio codec support of SBC and AAC. Even if I go to the other room or a couple of feet away from the table we were able to get no connectivity issues. Pairing the ear (1) for the first time took only just a couple of seconds but you can connect the earbuds to one device at a time and seamlessly switch right away to your other paired device.
Nothing ear (1) App
It has its own app available for download on both Android and iOS phones.
With the Nothing ear (1) app you can assign other functions of the controls or deactivate it. Support for a voice assistant on the earbud can also be setup there.
Other useful features on the app are a battery indicator, select latency mode and find your earbuds in case you misplaced them.
Sound Quality and Performance
The audio quality of the Ear (1) sounded pretty good. It gets more emphasis on its treble section and there’s enough bass authority letting you hear those low rumbles and thumps. The bass is not too overpowering but very much controlled.
Listening to songs like Andy, You’re A Star by The Killers and I Wanna Be Your Slave by Maneskin we can clearly hear the guitar riffs, lower mids, sharp vocals, kick of the drum and bassline play nicely. Sound performance is also very pleasant if you’re watching video content or playing games with the Nothing ear (1).
The active noise cancellation (ANC) feature on the Nothing ear (1) offers three modes: Full Noise cancellation, Transparency and Off. The ANC mainly cuts down low-frequency or ambient noise like the rumbles and hums coming from air conditioners, electric fan or engine sounds outside.
The Nothing ear (1) offer a good latency performance on video and music but if you should use it for playing games there’s a little bit of delay that we experienced. So, if you are just a casual gamer then this would be less of a problem for you.
Battery
Battery capacity on the Nothing ear (1) is equipped with a 31mAh battery while the charging case has a 570mAh battery.
Nothing claims that battery life on the earbuds offers up to 5.7 hours and the charging case can extend usage to 34 hours.
In our test, we paired the earbuds to our MacBook Pro using it for two hours straight watching YouTube videos with the ANC enabled and volume at mid-high. From 100% battery we were left with a remaining 60% battery. We had it for almost 4 hours with the ANC on till the battery eventually exhausted. You can even extend it probably to 5 hours if the ANC is off.
To juice up the charging case you have two options either plug in via the USB-C charger or just place the case on a Qi-certified wireless charger pad.
What We Like
- Design and Comfort
- Decent Sound Quality
- Active Noise Cancellation
- Wireless Charging
- Water and Dust Resistant
- Stable Connection
What We Want
- Less Bulky Charging Case
- Short USB-C Cable
Conclusion
The Nothing ear (1) set of features can almost be the same as any other earbuds out in the market today. But the most striking feature or highlight of the ear (1) is no doubt its overall design. The transparent plastic that shows the circuit, battery and magnets as well as the case looks very appealing and nothing like the existing market out there. It really draws attention and curiosity when I first showed it to my friends.
In terms of sound quality it is pretty decent with good treble and a large amount of bass. You can further fine-tune your audio experience thru the ear (1) app as you can toggle the EQ feature on it.
The Active Noise Cancellation feature just does a basic function to cut down noise environment with three modes you can choose from.
Some other notable features we like are the wireless charging, IPX4 rating, lightweight and comfortable even for hours of use. On the touch controls, we love that it has volume controls using a slide gesture but we have difficulty using the triple tap to go to the next or previous track.
In general, the Nothing ear (1) is reasonably solid for its built-in features. If you want earphones that looks funky and very different plus with good sound quality then we recommend the Nothing ear (1).
Nothing ear (1) Full Specifications:
- Price: Php 5,990
- Colors: White, Black
- Earbud Dimensions (mm): 28.9 Height x 21.5 Width x23.5 Depth
- Earbud Weight: 4.7grams
- Case Dimensions (mm): 58.6×58.6×23.7
- Case Weight: 57.4grams
- Driver: 11.6 mm Dynamic
- Diaphragm: Graphene
- Chamber size: 0,34 CC
- Tuning: Teenage Engineering
- Codec: AAC and SBC
- Controls: Customizable touch and slide equalizer
- Active Noise Cancellation Modes: 3 Levels, AI Powered Environmental Noise Cancellation
- Mics: 3 High Definition Microphones
- Full charge: Up to 34 hrs in the case (ANC Off); 24 hrs (ANC On)
- Charge Compatibility: ear (1) charges inside the case; ear (1) case charges with QI compatible wireless chargers or USB-C chargers.
- OS Compatability: Android 5.1 and above, iOS 11 and above
- Bluetooth Version: v5.2
- Bluetooth Profiles: A2DP, AVRCP, HFP
- Contents of the Box: Nothing ear (1) unit, ear tips, wireless charging case, USB-C cable and safety information & user guide
