The Nothing Ear (3)’s style stands out, and while its new Super Mic feature does go some way to improving audio pickup, these are otherwise slightly ordinary bud headphones given their asking price.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Interesting design is eye catching | Design is also (predictably) slightly weird |
| Comfortable for longer-term wearing | ANC could be stronger |
| Bright audio presentation | Super Mic works, but it’s awkward to use |
Score: 3/5
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In this review
Nothing Ear (3) Specifications
Nothing Ear (3) Design
Nothing Ear (3) Performance
Nothing Ear (3) Battery
Nothing Ear (3) Verdict
Ethical disclaimer: The set of Nothing Ear (3) headphones used in this review were sent to me by Nothing’s representatives, and I’m not expecting to send them back, if for hygiene reasons only. The prospect of reviewing second-hand earbuds is just… eww. Don’t go there.
This does raise the prospect of a conflict of interest or undue influence, because freebies, right? I’ve got a link below that goes into more detail on this, but the short form is: Nope. I call them like I see them, irrespective of whether a product is going to be returned in every single case, and I know for a fact that this annoys more than a few firms that would love a soft and pliable reviewer. You can find those on the Internet, but I wouldn’t trust their reviews – would you?
For more on ART’s Ethics position, see here.
Design
Nothing – the company, not the concept of the actual absence of matter – loves a slightly quirky design, and that’s certainly true of the Nothing Ear (3) headphones.
The style here is on par with previous efforts like the Nothing Headphone 1 with a mix of softer plastic and aluminium notes for each headphone bud, along with standout colour dots that let you know which bud is the left or right set.
Also read:
Nothing Headphone 1 Review
It’s an eye catching look, and one that does feel like a scaled down set of the Nothing Headphone 1. I rather like it that way, because while the bigger headphones do make me feel a little self conscious in public because they’re so very out there, the Nothing Ear (3) headphones are slightly more subtle while still being different from the millions and millions of cheap AirPod clones you can buy.
Like the headphones themselves, the case for the Nothing Ear (3) headphones is also designed to catch your attention, with a clear top that shows off each bud as it sits there charging and a small indent at the top for… reasons?
I have found myself resting my thumb in there from time to time when I’m pulling them out of my pocket, but it’s not like this is some hefty charging case that’s hard to keep a grip on.
There’s a USB-C charging socket at the top side – no charger is included in the box, bring your own – while the right hand side houses a “Talk” button. More on that later.
While the visual design is quite striking, actually wearing the Nothing Ear (3) headphones for any length of time is broadly similar to most stalk-style headphones in terms of overall comfort. I’ve tested the Nothing Ear (3) headphones while running extensively over the past couple of weeks, and they’ve done a fine job of staying in my ears without becoming uncomfortable.
Performance
The Nothing Ear (3) headphones pair up via Bluetooth pretty much exactly as you’d think, and it’s pleasing to note that Nothing does include an actual physical button for pairing in the charging case; that’s always a better and easier solution than relying on pressing on capacitive surfaces on cases or buds, I find.
Just pairing them won’t give you full access to the full feature set of the Nothing Ear (3) headphones; for that you’ll need the free Nothing X app for Android or iOS which covers off the usual suite of ANC mode selection, firmware updates, enabling dual-connection pairing, spatial audio and equalisation.
Audio presentation through the Nothing Ear (3) headphones is decent, with a slight bias towards bass-heavy presentation, though this is quite tweakable through the Nothing X app, with presets to punch up the bass, treble or voice presentation, as well as customisation if you’re more of an audio tweaking type.
Testing with a grab bag of tracks, the mix between instrumentation and vocal tracks on The Muppets “Life’s A Happy Song” worked well on the Balanced and More Treble settings, though the More Bass presentation tended towards a more muffled presentation.
That was true too for Louis Armstrong’s “What A Wonderful World” and Prince’s “Purple Rain”, while more low-level centric tracks like Ice Cube’s “You Can Do It” worked better with the bass pumped up. There’s a lot of customisation in play here to suit most music styles and for that matter audio preferences.
At their $299 price point – though I’m currently seeing them at the time of writing for around $249, for what that’s worth – the Nothing Ear (3) headphones need to bring a serious ANC game to the party.
The Nothing X app does allow for three direct levels of ANC (Low/Mid/High) as well as an adaptive setting, and while it’s always evident that ANC is enabled, it’s not quite as strong or effective as I would have liked at this price point. For that basic level of taking the lower level hum of everyday life out of the equation it’s fine, but you can do better at this kind of price or similar.
Like the Nothing Headphones 1, the Nothing Ear (3) headphones ANC activation and deactivation noises are just a little bit disturbing. Putting them into ANC mode is signified with a soft thump noise that sounds like a thickshake going up a straw, while shifting to transparency mode is made apparent with an exasperated sigh. I’m never in doubt as to which mode I’m in, but it’s… a choice, and one that I’m still not a big fan of.
One of the bigger hooks for the Nothing Ear (3) headphones is what Nothing calls the “Super Mic”, a set of MEMS microphones built into the phone case itself. Paired up to a Nothing phone like the Nothing Phone (3) or Nothing Phone 3 they’ll activate those phone’s “Essential Space” feature for audio note taking, while if you’re on a non-Nothing phone, holding down the Talk key simply activates those microphones for what’s promised to be clearer audio quality.
Also read:
Nothing Phone 3 review
Nothing Phone 3a/3a Pro review
The Super Mic feature does work to an extent; testing with phone calls and with direct audio recording, holding down the Talk button on the case did lead to audio that was appreciably cleaner in both cases, though as always phone call reception quality is quite a complex and variable matter.
The challenge here really is that it’s quite odd to be using a case in this way, and I’d often forget to do so when taking calls.
Audio Mic quality through just the Nothing Ear (3)’s inbuilt microphones has that typical digitally distant feel to it that you probably associate with Bluetooth calling, but it’s entirely legible and this does leave the Super Mic feature almost as a feature without too much of a purpose.
Battery
Nothing’s official ratings for the Nothing Ear (3) headphones pitch them as capable of up to 10 hours of playback with ANC disabled and up to 5.5 hours of playback with ANC enabled.
Once again I’ll make the point that there’s no real reason to buy ANC-enabled headphones if you don’t want to use ANC most of the time, so most of my battery life observations have been made with it up and running.
In terms of the recharging case, the claim there is for up to 22 hours of total playback time from the charging case’s 500mAh battery, or up to 38 hours if you really needed to eke it out with ANC disabled.
Based on my own testing, Nothing’s figures might not be too far off the mark… some of the time. I’ve typically hit between four and a half and five hours of ANC testing with the Nothing Ear (3) headphones, but I did notice that it had a tendency to run down the left hand earbud just a touch quicker than the right earbud as per the Nothing X app.
Does my left ear have to listen harder? Is the battery worse just in the model sent to me on the left ear? It’s hard to say, but the practical side of this is that while the Nothing Ear (3) headphones do mostly live up to their claims, they’re not amongst the very best performers in terms of battery life. Not bad, but again these are more premium priced earbuds, and I would have liked to see just a little more.
Nothing Ear (3): Alex’s Verdict
The Nothing Ear (3) headphones do a decent job of audio presentation, and if you’re deep in the Nothing ecosystem, I can see the appeal of incorporating the Super Mic function into the Essential Space app for clearer audio notes.
However, at their approaching-premium price, the Super Mic’s appeal is lessened because it’s just plain odd to hold up a charging case to your face to improve audio; at that point you may well do better to just take the call through your phone’s existing microphones. The Nothing Ear (3)’s ANC is fair but not exceptional, and at this price I really wanted just a little more.
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Nothing Ear (3): Pricing and availability
The Nothing Ear (3) headphones retail in Australia for $299.
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