The Nothing Headphone (1) has eye-catching retro style, but it does require EQ tweaking to bring it up to par with its premium-priced competition.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Design does draw attention | Controls take a lot of getting used to |
| Comfortable for lengthy listening | Audio is good, but at this price it ought to be getting towards great |
| Battery life is good | ANC alerts are just plain weird |
Score: 3/5
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In this review
Nothing Headphone (1) Specifications
Nothing Headphone (1) Design
Nothing Headphone (1) Performance
Nothing Headphone (1) Battery
Nothing Headphone (1) Conclusion
Ethical disclaimer: The Nothing Headphone (1) used in this review was sent to me by Nothing for the purposes of review, and my understanding is that they’re not asking for it back. Why am I telling you this? While that’s quite standard for headphones for hygiene reasons, it does raise the spectre of undue influence on editorial decisions.
Nothing’s input into this review has been to provide the headphones… and that’s all. I strongly believe that ethical disclosure is an important and overlooked part of the review process these days, and that’s why I’m being upfront about this detail.
My reviews are proudly independent, ethically produced and represent the results of my own testing and observations. As it should be… but sadly for too many “content producers” that’s not the case. For more on ART’s ethical position, see here.
Nothing Headphone (1): Design
From the moment I unboxed them – not that I was unaware of what lay within – it was clear to me that the most divisive part of Nothing’s first foray into the more premium headphone space wasn’t likely to be its sound profile. Instead, it’s the design.
Nothing has long differentiated itself with a design ethos that’s long been one part retro tech, one part different-for-the-hell-of-it, or at least that’s the way it’s appeared to me.
While the basics of an over-ear headset haven’t changed here and won’t until human heads evolve and radically change their shape, with a soft headband leading down to two ear cups, the Nothing Headphone (1) design certainly stands out.
Whether you opt for the black or white pair – Nothing sent me a white model to test, though they’re as much silver as they are white – the use of a cassette tape style driver body on the side of the cups is quite eye catching.
I’m glad Nothing didn’t go the whole hog here and build in its “glyph” interface found on phones such as the Nothing Phone 3a because that would have been a bit much. Still, for some people, even this kind of openly ostentatious display might not appeal.
Looks aside, this is a comfortable set to wear for longer term periods if you were after a set to wear in the office or while studying; I’ve worn them on my head for lengthy periods without noticeable discomfort beyond them being maybe a little tight, but then I do have a particularly large skull and no hair, a combination that often makes this style of headphone tricky to don in many cases.
Weird shape — but they are comfortable to wear for longer periods of time.
It’s not just in the wired-for-sound aesthetic where Nothing has thought a little differently in design terms. The controls also have a learning curve too. You’re not likely to get the power switch on the bottom of the left cup too wrong, and the inclusion of a proper 3.5mm headphone socket is quite welcome here too.
However, that’s where Nothing takes a sharp veer into the unusual, because the left cup also features both a rocking switch and rolling control button on the side of the cup.
Both rocking and rolling, as Bill Haley taught us so very many years ago.
You might think that the rocker control would handle sound… and you’d be dead wrong, because it’s instead used to skip tracks or scrub through them in short increments.
The roller control is the one that handles volume control with a left-to-right motion, while clicking it down acts as a play/pause control. There’s a learning curve here, but it’s one I hugely prefer to any kind of touch panel control, because without fail, I always end up fighting with those when I’ve got headphones on.
There’s one further button on the left cup at the outside, which can be configured in the Nothing X audio app to either invoke your audio assistant, switch between ANC modes, enable Spatial Audio, mute the microphone or enable an EQ preset, though you can only pick one of those functions. Or you can disable it entirely, the choice is yours.
Finally, inside the left cup sits the Bluetooth pairing button, very lightly recessed to avoid accidental presses. You could easily miss that it exists at all, frankly.
While the Nothing Headphone (1) does undercut the premium pricing of similar sets from the likes of Sony or Apple by a margin, it’s still in the price space where you should expect a carrying case in the box.
Here I was left a little disappointed; while it’s an entirely functional case it does feel a little cheap in the hand, and the nature of the design means that the Nothing Headphone (1) can’t fold up, making it a bulky thing to pack for any kind of trip.
I took the Nothing Headphone (1) set around a recent sojourn to Tasmania, and the quantity of space that it took up was noticeably more than I’d like, though the only solve for that would have been to make the headband foldable in the first place.
At an IP Rating of IP52, the Nothing Headphone (1) is only rated for very light water splashes, so it wouldn’t be a good idea to go running in heavy rain with them on. The flip side here is that competing premium headsets often omit any kind of IP testing, so plaudits for Nothing here for at least being transparent about this detail.
Nothing Headphone (1): Performance
Connecting up the Nothing Headphone (1) is via either Bluetooth 5.3, via 3.5mm audio cable or via USB-C. While I appreciate the match of old-school 3.5mm style to the design, it’s worth noting that the headphones don’t work passively at all; if the battery is flat, 3.5mm connections won’t give you any sound at all. The vast majority of my testing has been via Bluetooth, because let’s face it, that’s the way most users are likely to operate these particular headphones.
Nothing provides a lot of audio customisation options via its Nothing X apps, and I strongly suspect audiophiles are going to want to dig deep in here to try to get the sound they want. Everyone’s audio preferences do vary, but I found that much of what Nothing offers in terms of simple audio fixes wasn’t entirely worth bothering with.
The Bass Enhancement feature, while customisable for different bass levels tended to lead to a muddy sound that lost a lot of impact, and the same was broadly true of Nothing’s own take on Spatial Audio. It functions if you really must have that “audio all around you” kind of take on sound, but the impact on the way that the music I was listening to wasn’t one I personally favoured.
If you do enable Spatial Audio, you’re also stuck without personal equalisation or bass enhancement features – it’s an either/or situation for your ears.
While the $549 price point for the Nothing Headphone (1) does play into Nothing’s typical price-cutting against its competitors, it’s also a big jump in price from previous sets of Nothing Buds, which have played much more significantly in the true budget space.
Pitting the Nothing Headphone (1) against sets such as the Sonos Ace or Apple AirPods Max, once I’d tweaked the equalisation a little they delivered similar sound, though there’s still arguably a gap here between Nothing and its pricier rivals.
The Nothing Headphone (1) also offers ANC, which you’d totally expect at this price point, and it works quite well.
On my Tasmania trip I tested them both in-car and on the Spirit of Tasmania ferry – the closest analogue to an in-flight test I could manage in my review timeframe – and they did a solid job of blocking out sound. Switching the external button to switch between modes made it easy enough to test the difference between noise cancellation and transparency modes, with one slight catch.
Lots of headphones have either tones or spoken alerts to make it clear to you what mode they’re in. Nothing’s choice here is for a solid ‘thump’ sound when you enable ANC, or what I can only describe as an exasperated sigh when you opt for transparency mode.
It’s supremely distracting to have headphones announce that they’re disappointed in you when you’re switching to hear the world around you, but there’s no way to disable this particular sound cue.
Is that a killer problem? No, far from it, but it’s truly distracting and annoys me every single time I change ANC modes. Nothing made some choices here, and I don’t agree with them at all.
Nothing Headphone (1): Battery
Nothing packs in a 1040mAh battery into the Nothing Headphone (1), with the claim of “up to” 80 hours of audio playback.
Like every other headphone manufacturer, that’s a claim that only applies to using them with ANC disabled; if you do want ANC – and once again, I can’t see the point of buying ANC-enabled headphones only to skip using that feature – it drops to a claimed 35 hours of battery life.
That’s a big drop in overall battery life claims, though Nothing’s battery life claim for ANC usage is a little higher than that of its competitors in this price bracket.
Battery life is always variable depending on usage and volume, but I had no problems hitting that 35 hour mark, sometimes even more during my testing, which was a very pleasing result indeed. Battery life is a big plus for the Nothing Headphone (1).
Nothing Headphone (1): Alex’s Verdict
The Nothing Headphone (1) are the (1) version because they’re Nothing’s first crack at a more premium audio solution, and it does somewhat show.
You’ve absolutely got to like the different design, but even once you’re past that – and maybe you love it, that’s’ totally subjective and entirely fine too – there are some points that feel like they’re just different for the sake of it, like the odd audio cues, or the slightly unusual physical controls.
Audio presentation is generally very good, but not quite on a par with that of competitors in this price space, and that’s probably the key takeaway here, even if the most eye-catching aspect is the clear focus point for this particular set.
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Nothing Headphone (1): Pricing and availability
The Nothing Headphone (1) retails in Australia for $549 in black or white finishes
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