Nothing came from the same mind that brought OnePlus to us, which is why it isn’t much of a surprise that such a new company was able to establish its position so firmly in the smartphone space. Of course, phones alone weren’t enough, and Nothing found its way to releasing accessories like smartwatches and earbuds.
To expand the company’s audio portfolio, Nothing has just made its very first open-ear headphones, the Nothing Ear (Open) official. They’ve got a very interesting shape but still retain some of that instantly recognizable Nothing DNA.
The Nothing Ear (Open) Use Have A Long Curved Design To Hold Onto Your Ear
Open-ear headphones are the kinds that don’t actually sit inside or block your ear canal. Instead, they essentially sit around the entrance of your ear canal and project sound into them. This way, they keep your ears somewhat open to ambient sound. Plus, if you have discomfort or pain with earbuds, these fix that problem. Nothing decided it wanted in on that segment.
Since open-ear headphones aren’t inserted into your ear canals and anchored there, they need another way to be worn. In the case of the Nothing Ear (Open), that’s a curved stem that has the drivers on one end and a cylindrical bulb on the other — ignore that they look like fallopian tubes. The only colorway (for now) is white.
You’ll notice that the part with the drivers — let’s say the headphones proper — come with Nothing’s iconic transparent design showing off the internals. The unit for one ear has a red circle and the other ear’s has a white circle, because assymetry is cool. There are touch surfaces on each headphone and they’re IP54 certified — perfect, since open-ear headphones are popular amongst runners. The headphones weigh 8.1 grams a piece.
The Features That The Nothing Ear (Open) Comes With Aren’t Shabby Either
It’s hard to get open-ear headphones sounding as good as in-ear headphones (which Nothing offers too), but Nothing is certainly trying its best to. Each headphone has a large 14.2mm driver inside, and Nothing promises heavy bass with its Bass Enhance algorithm. The headphones support Bluetooth 5.3 and come with Nothing’s Clear Voice tech, powered by AI (because why not?).
There’s a 64 mAh cell in each of the headphones, but with the elongated carrying case that they come in, you get access to a 635 mAh battery. If you forget the case at home, you should still get eight hours — a full workday — of music playback out of them. For road trips, with the case, you get a total of 30 hours, which is certainly impressive.
If you’re pairing the Nothing Ear (Open) with a Nothing smartphone, they’ll gain ChatGPT support, so you can simply talk to the assistant to ask it for directions, the time, a good place to eat, and pretty much anything else. That’s certainly useful to keep your phone in your pocket. You’ll also get Google Fast Pair and Microsoft Swift Pair support.
The Nothing Ear (Open) Will Cost You $149
The Nothing Ear (Open) is available for pre-order right away with open sales starting on October 1st. If you want a pair, they’re going to set you back $149. This puts their pricing on the exact same level as the standard Nothing Ear headphones.
