There’s been a resurgence of open-ear earbuds on the market lately, and Nothing’s here to jump on the bandwagon with the Nothing Ear (open). Nothing has had a pretty nice track record with all of their earbuds so far—I’ve been using the Nothing Ear (2) for more than a year now, and it’s still going really strong for me.
Now, we have the Nothing Ear (open), which, like its name suggests, is a pair of open-ear earbuds that sits right outside of the ear canal. Would Nothing still manage to provide the same amazing audio experience with such a pair of earbuds? Let’s find out.
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Jennifer chevron_right
Table of Contents
Design & Comfort
The design of the Nothing Ear (open) aligns with Nothing’s signature transparent aesthetic. The case itself is flat and long, not as compact as I would like, but it still slips easily into a (deeper) pocket. There’s a little thumb divot right in the middle of the case, which is also a signature Nothing design.
Inside, the over-the-ear hooks are pretty simple and minimalistic. The speaker part looks pretty similar to the Nothing Ear (2), and there are little counterweights at the ends of the hooks so that the open-ear earbuds sit securely on your ear.
Both the earbuds and case are protected with an IP54 rating, offering resistance to light rain and sweat, making them suitable for workouts or outdoor use.
Overall, the Nothing Ear (open) has a pretty unique design. Unlike traditional in-ear buds that form a seal in your ear canal, the speakers on the Nothing Ear (open) just sit outside your ears, allowing ambient sound to mix with the audio.
Comfortability-wise, I would rate the Nothing Ear (open) a solid okay. Since there’s no need to insert anything into the ear canal, it’s less invasive than regular earbuds, so there’s none of the painful pressure you get when wearing in-ear earbuds for particularly long periods of time.
The hooks are meant to hook over your ear, but if you wear glasses like me, it’s going to take some manoeuvring to make sure that the arms of your specs don’t clash with the hooks. Also, if you have long hair and have a habit of putting your hair behind your ears, keep in mind that the Ear (open) will get easily dislodged if you keep moving your hair around.
Performance
Open-style earbuds all have the same vices: without a proper seal, they not only have pretty much no noise cancelling, but it’s also challenging to deliver a proper bass. The Nothing Ear (open) suffers the same issues. While the sound is clear and balanced, they are physically unable to replicate the bass output of their in-ear counterparts.
However, for a pair of open-ear earbuds, the Nothing Ear (open) performed quite decently. The audio is loud and clear enough, so it’s not drowned out by excessive ambient noise, which is a problem I had with other open-ear earphones.
The Nothing Ear (open) does best in the mid-to-high ranges, especially vocal-heavy pop music. For classical and instrumental music, the open-ear earbuds did well in reproducing a proper orchestra, though once again, due to the physical limitations, the audio is less detailed, especially in the lower ranges.
Like all Nothing earbuds, the Nothing Ear (open) connects via the Nothing X app. The Nothing X app is probably one of my favourite earphone apps. The clean UI and easy setup is really amazing, and it provides a great level of control over the earbuds, including both simple and advanced equalisers.
Personally, I found the preset EQs sufficient for the Nothing Ear (open), mostly because no amount of EQ tweaking will be able to fix the bass, which is more of a design issue than an audio performance thing. However, if you’re an audiophile, it’s entirely possible to make whatever adjustments you need via the Nothing X app.
The controls on the Nothing Ear (open) are pretty much the same for all Nothing earbuds: pinch once to play/pause, twice for the next track, thrice for the previous track, pinch and hold to control the volume. All these are customisable, also via the Nothing X app.
The Nothing Ear (open) also supports dual connection, so you can pair them with two devices simultaneously, making it easy to switch between your phone and laptop. Besides that, the Nothing X app is also integrated with ChatGPT, so you can perform voice-controlled interactions with the AI chatbot. It’s a niche feature, and I personally don’t see a practical use for it, but I guess it’s there for a reason.
Battery
Nothing’s track record with battery life has been pretty stellar, and the Nothing Ear (open) is no exception. They can run for almost 8 hours per full charge, which is more than enough for a full workday minus a lunch break. The case adds another good 20 hours or so for power.
As for charging, the case charges via a USB-C port located beside the hinge. It does not have wireless charging, which is a bit of a disappointment. It takes the earbuds about 30 minutes to get to full charge from empty, and the case about an hour.
Verdict
Nothing has certainly carved out their own space in the market with their unique design. Nothing Ear (open) has good sound quality and advanced app features, but apart from that, they’re pretty similar to every other open-ear earbud on the market. If you’re looking for a pair of sports earbuds that allows you to stay aware of your surroundings while still enjoying music on the go, the Nothing Ear (open) is great.
However, due to the design, there is no ANC on the Nothing Ear (open) — in fact, don’t expect any sort of noise cancellation at all, passive or active. If you need something with noise isolation, you might want to look elsewhere.