The Nothing Headphone (a) are cheaper than the Nothing Headphone 1 but pricier than the CMF Headphone Pro… and they’re also Nothing’s best set of over-ear ANC headphones to date.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Easy to use controls | Why does the camera control even exist? |
| Astonishingly good battery life | No folding down for easier transportation |
| Decent audio quality | No automatic pausing |
Score: 4.5/5
In this review
Nothing Headphone (a) Specifications
Nothing Headphone (a) Design
Nothing Headphone (a) Performance
Nothing Headphone (a) Battery
Nothing Headphone (a) Verdict
Ethical disclaimer:
The Nothing Headphone (a) set used in this review were sent to me by Nothing’s representatives, along with a big sack full of cash, random internet pornography and Bolivian marching powder… well, no, not that last part, but the sad reality of way too many online reviews is that they’re ethically compromised and will go out of their way to not disclose that fact.
I don’t work that way. Besides making the review possible, Nothing has had (drum roll…)
nothing to do with this review.
Everything contained within are my own observations about the Nothing Headphone (a)… end of story.
For more on ART’s Ethics position, see here.
Design
Nothing made its play for the premium over-ear headphone market last year with the Nothing Headphone 1, a set that I quite liked, though I did feel they were playing in a price space where you could get slightly better headphones, though not with their admittedly striking design.
Also read:
Nothing followed those up with the CMF Headphone Pro set, which were substantially cheaper, but nowhere near as nice to listen to.
Also read:
At $329 AUD, the Nothing Headphone (a) sits in the middle price-wise, but it’s very clear that they’re the slightly-downstyled version of the Nothing Headphone 1 rather than being a fancier set of CMF Headphone Pro cans.
A family gathering. One of them earns way more money than the other.
The model that Nothing sent my way was in the black finish, which doesn’t stand out anywhere near as much visualy as the pink, white or especially yellow variants. I haven’t had hands-on time with the yellow versions, but seriously, how can anyone look at them and not think “hey, I’m putting a set of fried eggs on my ears”?
Not that I’m fried-egg shaming, you understand. Taste (and kinks) are relative. Like what you like.
The further evidence that the Nothing Headphone (a) set has the same DNA as the pricier Nothing Headphone 1 comes from the essentially-identical controls that sit on the right hand ear cup.
This includes a clickable roller control for volume and play/pause functions above a rocker for track skipping that becomes second nature to use for quick adjustments on the go, while the power switch, USB-C input and 3.5mm headphone jack sit on the base.
There’s a raised button on the top “face” of the right hand side cup that works in a multi-function way (more on this below) and then the sole design change between the Nothing Headphone (a) and Nothing Headphone 1, which is the precise placement of the Bluetooth pairing button. On the Nothing Headphone 1 it’s located on the inside lower right side of the cup, while on the Nothing Headphone (a) it’s on the inside upper right side. Not the most profound of design changes, that one.
One interesting observation to make here is that while plenty of premium-grade (or mid-range) headphones allow for replacement soft ear cups for either durability or style reasons, that’s not a feature of the Nothing Headphone (a), or indeed the Nothing Headphone 1. If you want that kind of functionality it is on the CMF Headphone Pro. It’s kind of wild that the cheapest of Nothing’s headphone offerings is the one that’s the most flexible in this regard.
While the style is that of the Nothing Headphone 1, there are some compromises in terms of build quality, with a heavier use of plastic rather than metal in the frame and the loss of the “cassette tape” style earpieces; they’re just plain plastic in the colour of your choice on the Nothing Headphone (a).
The use of plastic might have some long-term consquences in terms of durability, but they do mean that they’re marginally lighter than the Nothing Headphone 1 set, though only by 10 grams. On your head you’re never going to notice that. The Nothing Headphone (a) set is rated as IP52 for water and dust resistance, which means they should be suitable for exercise and a little sweat and maybe light rain, but don’t drop them in the pool any time soon if you want them to survive.
This may be specific to the black pair, but, like so many devices that use glossy black plastic, they’re an absolute fingerprint and dust magnet; within seconds of me taking them out of the box they looked like a virtual crime scene. It’s possible the other colours may hide this a little better than the black pair does.
Like their pricier siblings, the Nothing Headphone (a) set does allow for very minimal flattening, in that the cups can be turned 90 degrees to make them more transportable, but that’s the extent of their portability.
Unlike the Nothing Headphone 1, you don’t get a flat case in the box to help you when you’re using them in transit, just a rather cheap feeling plastic baggie that can also carry around the included USB-C and 3.5mm headphone cables as well.
Performance
The Nothing Headphone (a) set connects via 3.5mm audio cable (requiring power to do so, they’ll do nothing when flat or switched off), USB-C or, as most people are likely to do, via Bluetooth. Bluetooth 5.4 to be precise, which is how I’ve managed the vast majority of my testing time with them.
You can just pair via Bluetooth like any other set, but in order to make the most of them, you’ll need the Nothing X app to manage audio profiles, firmware updates, dual connectivity and precisely how you want to configure the controls on the headphones. The Nothing X app is a free download for iOS or Android smartphones.
The Nothing Headphone (a) doesn’t get the fancy KEF audio balancing of the pricier Nothing Headphone 1 set, and this is apparent to a degree. I say to a degree, because I really did have to put them side by side and listen to the same tracks to get where they differed, and realistically most consumers aren’t going to be able to do that – or even want to in the first place.
What they’ll want to know is whether or not the Nothing Headphone (a) set delivers good quality audio, and there I really have few complaints.
Louis Armstrong’s vocals on “What A Wonderful World” came through with a decent level of growl against the softer instruments without sounding too distant, while the more breathy vocals of Suzanne Vega’s “Tom’s Diner” come through very nicely indeed. Switching to matters a little harder, the guitars represent well in Metallica’s “Enter Sandman”, while the slower groove of Ice Cube’s “It Was A Good Day” hit with a solid quantity of bass, and moreso with the Nothing Headphone (a)’s Bass Enhancement switched on.
My go-to track for testing a wide range of tones remains Prince’s “Purple Rain” (nobody who knows me is surprised) and this too presents quite well on the Nothing Headphone (a) given their asking price. Are you getting world-beating audio that’ll kill the premium market here? No, there’s still room for improvement, but at this price the Nothing Headphone (a) set is quite good for the most part.
One slight complaint here is that if you do dial up Bass Enhancement to its full level, tones can become a little more distorted than I’d like. The Nothing X app includes a full equaliser and even the ability to download curated equaliser profiles to suit your musical tastes, and I do appreciate having a little more control over how my music sounds, because tastes do vary.
The inbuilt ANC is likewise decent without being totally surprising; testing them on trains and around the Sydney CBD revealed a decent enough level of noise suppression for everyday usage, but not the higher levels of total isolation that I’ve heard (or, really, failed to hear to be pedantically correct) with more premium sets and some in-ear buds as well.
I even went running in them. I hate running with full over-ear headphones on, for the record.
I’m still not a fan of the noises that Nothing uses to indicate that you’ve switched between noise isolation and transparency modes, either. While the THWUMP of active ANC is easy enough to pick, the exasperated sigh that the headphones make when you put them into transparency mode always makes me think that they’re somehow annoyed with me for doing so. That can’t be just me… can it?
The control button on the side of the right ear cup of the Nothing Headphone (a) is configurable to switch ANC modes and change EQ presets or activate your phone’s virtual assistant of choice, all of which is quite standard as an approach.
New for the Nothing Headphone (a) – and only the Nothing Headphone (a), it’s not coming to the Nothing Headphone 1 for… reasons that Nothing won’t elaborate on – is the ability to use the button as a camera shutter for your phone. Your phone’s camera app has to be open for this to work at all, and I cannot for the life of me figure out the use case for this “feature”.
It won’t open your phone’s camera, so it’s not useful for those blink-and-you’ll-miss-it-snaps in any way. If you’re holding your phone and have opened the camera app, it’s not going to be faster or easier than using the phone’s own controls. Even if you’re not, it’s not as simple as using, say, a dedicated Bluetooth camera remote (they’re quite cheap, easily available) either, and those have the advantage of taking shots of you without needing the Nothing Headphone (a) set on your head at the time.
One feature that isn’t on the Nothing Headphone (a) set at all is any level of automatic pausing when you take the headphones off your head. That’s a surprising omission, because you can certainly get that with cheaper sets than this. Take the Nothing Headphone (a) set off your ears and your music will just keep on playing for as long as the battery lasts. Speaking of which…
Battery
Nothing’s claims around the battery endurance for the Nothing Headphone (a) are bold.
Really, truly bold.
One of the advantages of a larger over-ear set of headphones are that you can pack in more battery capacity, which is why so many of them advertise 24+ hour run times, though typically that’s with ANC disabled.
Nothing’s claim for the Nothing Headphone (a) is that it can run for up to 135 hours without requiring a charge. That is, predictably with ANC disabled, and I’ve never seen the point of that, but still, even with it on you’ll (so they claim) get up to 75 hours of AAC listening with ANC enabled, or up to 62 hours if you’re listening to audio in LDAC format.
Those are some impressive numbers, and while I can’t claim to have endured a 135-hour long listening session to totally drain them dry, because it turns out I need, y’know, sleep and stuff, they’ve certainly shown few signs of battery fatigue even after more than a day’s worth of combined listening, dropping to around 76%. Mathematically, that should track out to near Nothing’s claims for its AAC ANC performance, which is impressive.
Their exceptional battery life does make me a little sad that they’re not able to be folded up a little more, because they’d be an excellent set for Australian users travelling overseas, easily able to manage the world’s longest airline flights both there and back without breaking a sweat. When they finally do start to run out of power, recharging is via USB-C, but there’s no charger in the box with them.
Nothing Headphone (a): Alex’s Verdict
Nothing’s primary pitch is that it promotes an alternative style viewpoint in a more affordable way.
Its best products in my view have long been those more affordable ranges.
In price terms, the Nothing Headphone (a) sits between the more premium-priced Nothing Headphone 1 and the substantially cheaper CMF Headphone Pro… but that doesn’t, for once, make it the awkward middle child. Instead, it gets a nice discount from the premium pricing of the Headphone 1 while presenting a better feature set and nicer audio, along with superior battery life to the CMF model.
There are some quirks, like not being quite as travel-friendly as I’d like and the lack of head detection for automatic pausing. If you can work past those issues, they’re an excellent set and an easy set to recommend.
This is a Kookaburra. I did offer to let it test the Nothing Headphone (a), but it flew away instead.
About the Author
