Review: The Nothing Headphone (a) are the best headphones from the brand yet

If you’re in line to get the Nothing Headphone (1), do not stay in line.

Why? The brand’s newer mid-tier option, the Nothing Headphone (a), is $100 cheaper and better than the flagship model.

Sure, there are some concessions made in the Headphone (a) in terms of design and sound quality. The differences, however, amount to a pair of headphones stripped down to the best parts of their more expensive counterparts, and with a much more attractive price point, which makes any flaws easier to overlook.

After spending about a month and a half with the headphones, I have some thoughts on what Nothing got so right this time around — let’s get into it.

Nothing Headphone (a): Price and specs

The Nothing Headphone (a) is $199, making it significantly more affordable than the $299 Nothing Headphone (1).

At that price point, here’s what the headphones come equipped with:

Drivers: 40 mm RF drivers

Equalizer: eight-band equalizer

Spatial audio: Yes, including concert and cinema mode

Noise cancellation: Adaptive and manually adjustable ANC

Battery life: 75 hours with ANC, 135 hours without ANC

Quick charge: eight hours of playback after five-minute charge

Microphones: four mics, with two hybrid ANC mics

IP rating: IP52 dust- and water-resistance

Bluetooth connection: Bluetooth 5.4

Codecs: AAC, SBC, LDAC

Colors: White, black, pink, and yellow

The Headphone (a) outperforms the Headphone (1)

I’ll get more in-depth with each aspect of the Headphone (a) below, but in the interest of good journalism, let’s not bury the lede: These headphones are much better than their predecessor.

Out of the gate, they look rather similar. Sure, anyone could probably guess that the Headphone (a) is the cheaper pair due to the presence of more plastic in the design. But if you want that quintessentially Nothing retro-look, you’ll get it with either pair. Plus, I found the (a) to be more comfortable due to their lighter weight (and they clamped my head less).

The design between the two headphones is exactly the same where it matters most: on-ear controls. The controls were by far my favorite part of the Headphone (1) — Nothing recognized that it struck gold, and copy/pasted the format to the Headphone (a).

Already, the (a) headphones seem the more attractive option. So the Headphone (1) must blow them away in terms of ANC and sound performance, right? Well, not exactly. According to Nothing, the Headphone (a) can block out up to 40 decibels of sound, while the Headphone (1) blocks up to 42 decibels. In practice, that meant a near-negligible difference. Both headphones also feature manually adjustable ANC — while I could tell the difference between the levels on both, neither blew me away. In a noisy cafe, I maybe got 75 percent of the blockage I’d get with headphones like the Bose QuietComforts.

There’s a slightly more obvious discrepancy in the sound, as the Headphone (1) was made in collaboration with the hi-fi audio brand KEF. While adjusting the EQ is necessary for getting the best sound on the Headphone (1), once you do, the sound on the more expensive headphones is less bass-heavy, overall giving a more balanced and robust profile. Plus, you get access to a personal sound profile test to find your best equalizer settings — it’s simple, genuinely works, and unavailable on the Headphone (a).

Besides the few features you’ll find on the more expensive headphones, the two do have the exact same app experience, which is a huge pro, considering its excellent, easy-to-navigate design.

The battery life made me do a double-take

Battery life on ANC has steadily been trending upwards over the years (exempting the measly 20 hours on the Apple AirPods Max 2). While it’s now standard practice to expect at least 30 hours from flagship models, other headphones like the Dyson OnTrac and Marshall Monitor III have reached highs of 55 hours of battery with ANC and 70 hours of battery with ANC, respectively.

Somehow, the Nothing Headphone (a) blows even those out of the water, offering 75 hours of battery life with ANC and 135 hours without. If you’re someone who constantly forgets to put your headphones on the charger, the battery life alone may be the reason to pick these headphones up.

A standout design with perfect on-ear controls

I already mentioned this above, but I am convinced that Nothing came up with the perfect on-ear controls. They consist of four buttons: a roller for volume and playback, a paddle for changing through tracks, an action button, and a dedicated Bluetooth button on the inside of the ear cup.

Maybe it’s odd to be passionate about on-ear controls, but personally, I’m a fan of anything that lets me enjoy the benefit of my devices (streaming music! listening to a good podcast!) without the major cons (going to switch a song and somehow finding myself on TikTok for 45 minutes of my one precious life).

All this to say, Nothing struck the balance between simplicity and specificity — each button has a clear, useful purpose, most have some customizability, and they all literally feel different, so it’s easy to learn the controls. Also, more brands need dedicated Bluetooth buttons. Enough of trying to connect a device and accidentally switching your headphones off a few times.

Just a word of warning on the comfort front

To me, the Platonic ideal of comfort in headphones is the Bose QuietComfort line. I’m talking lightweight headphones, plush ear padding, and a headband that never squeezes.

While I wouldn’t say Nothing’s headphones are uncomfortable, they do have more of a noticeable squeeze while wearing (and I wouldn’t consider my noggin particularly large). I imagine this tight fit is to help boost noise cancellation, but the return isn’t worth it. I notice these headphones more, even in the first few hours of wear, than comfier headphones, and by hour three, I may need a short break here or there. The padding feels less plush and more like firm memory foam.

That’s not to say it’s across the board bad — for some folks, this is their Platonic ideal! But if you fall into the softer is better camp, I would be honest with yourself on your wear preferences before adding these to the cart. At the very least, they are far more comfortable than the Headphone (1), which I can barely stand to wear for an hour.

The sound is on par with the price point

Out of the box, these headphones fall into the bass-heavy trap that many others do. What I mean is that if you actually prefer to hear some balance in your music — you know, like the real presence of vocals and guitars, where the bass serves as nice punctuation rather than one long line of !!!!!!!!!!!! the entire song, adjusting the equalizer is worth it. If you want even more bass, you can turn on bass enhancement in the app — though at that point, I recommend checking out the Sony ULT headphones instead.

Thankfully, these headphones come equipped with an eight-band equalizer. Prefer not to mess around with audio settings? You can check out the catalog of community-curated EQ profiles on the Nothing X companion app.

Once my settings were properly adjusted, these headphones sounded great. BTS’s “Hooligan” and “2.0” had me mentally attempting the choreo. “Run Your Mouth” by The Marías reached certified-slapper status with the guitar and bass riffs in balance. “A Day In the Life” by the Beatles sounded the tiniest bit flat and muddy at points, but the discordant strings sounded appropriately chaotic and overwhelming. Overall, the headphones didn’t make any songs shine extra bright, but they still left the music I listened to plenty enjoyable. Not an audiophile’s dream, but not a casual listener’s nightmare either.

There is also spatial audio, and though it isn’t split into “head-tracking ” and “fixed” modes like the Headphone (1) (and most other premium headphones, for that matter), the cinema and concert modes found on these headphones do offer some variation in the listening experience. I’m not the biggest fan of spatial audio, and I found that while these weren’t the worst I tried, I mostly found that the sound profile became more hollow-sounding, leading me to prefer the non-spatialized experience.

Besides that, the main con to be aware of is that these headphones do suffer from some mild sound leakage at louder volumes, especially for higher-pitched tones. If you’re sitting across from someone in a relatively quiet space, don’t be surprised if they tell you they know exactly what you’re listening to (don’t ask me how I found that out).

The ANC is less noteworthy

With so many budget headphones coming out with great active noise cancellation, middling ANC becomes ironically more of a sore thumb feature, and while I hesitate to say the ANC on these headphones detracts from the overall experience of using them, I certainly wouldn’t recommend them if you’re frequently in noisy environments and looking for some serious noise cancelling.

Let’s start with what I like about the Headphone (a) ANC: it’s adjustable, with noticeably different levels of blockage. There’s also no obvious hissing sound to assist in making your environment quieter.

These headphones could probably use that hiss boost, though. My local cafe during an early afternoon rush became the grounds on which this ANC’s flaws were clearly on display. Even with both the highest and adaptive ANC modes toggled on, a fair amount of chatter and music from the cafe’s speakers leaked through. Sure, I couldn’t really make out any words of conversations without straining to hear, and playing my own music helped some. But I never really had that moment of taking off my headphones and being surprised by how loud the room actually was, which has happened with every other pair of ANC headphones I’ve tested.

Is the Nothing Headphone (a) worth it?

They may not be by far the best or most well-rounded headphones for their price bracket, but they are the most unique option. Yes, it’s mostly due to their design, but let’s not pretend that aesthetics don’t factor into an over-ear headphone purchase decision (see: the top of the pro column for the AirPods Max).

Still, Nothing backs up the great look of these headphones with a solid performance, rounding out decent sound and ANC with plenty of ease built into the user experience, topped up with truly unbeatable battery life. At the very least, the Headphone (a) is the clear choice over the Headphone (1).

​Mashable