What a change in two years.
In 2021, Nothing, a consumer tech startup led by OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei, had a public existence for just a few months before launching the Ear 1 true wireless earbuds. They were feature-rich in the $99 price range, but were plagued with numerous bugs and so-so noise-cancelling performance at launch.
After two years, it’s time to refresh with the imaginatively named Ear 2 earbuds. It adds some nice quality-of-life features, like support for multi-point connections, but it’s basically very similar to its predecessor. I have.
In use, however, Nothing Ear 2 feels like a much more sophisticated product. Fewer bugs, better active noise cancellation, better and cleaner sound. It’s enough to turn the Ear 2s from a good-looking pair of earbuds with so-so performance into an accessory that sounds as good as it looks. Unfortunately, at $149, it’s not a beginner’s bargain this time around.
Pricing for the Nothing Ear 2 earbuds now starts at $149, a 50% increase from the Nothing Ear 1’s original price of $99. This isn’t entirely unexpected, since they raised the price of the Ear 1 earbuds by the same amount last October, but it does have an impact on who the Ear 2’s competitors are. ) and is the same price as Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 2, for example. That said, Nothing’s Sprout has to reach a much higher standard than its predecessor.
However, when placed side by side with the Nothing Ear 1, the physical differences seem small. The Ear 2 case is slightly slimmer and lighter, and the earbuds themselves are also slightly taller and slightly lighter. But look, the dimensions are close enough that the earbuds can physically fit in either charging case (although they’re not functionally cross-compatible across generations). One feature change, however, is that nothing is said to be using a more durable plastic this time around. Scratches compared to those found on the Ear 1 case.
Battery life is no better or worse than the Ear 1 earbuds. With Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) on, the Ear 2 offers 4 hours of playback from the earbuds themselves (the same as the Ear 1), and 22.5 hours with the case (slightly worse than the 24 hours previously claimed). Nothing claims to be. But with ANC off, those numbers climb to 6.3 and 36 hours (slightly better than the Ear 1’s ratings of 5.7 and 34 hours).
Its battery life isn’t great when compared to many of Ear 2’s noise-cancelling competitors. Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 2 offer 5 hours of ANC playback from the earbuds themselves (but only 20 hours with the case). Meanwhile, Apple’s pricier AirPods Pro 2 offer his six hours of ANC listening right out of the earbuds. Case. Check out our buying guide to find the best wireless earbuds. Many of our recommendations are offered for 6 hours or more.
Like the Ear 1s, wireless charging is available here as well. This is especially useful if you have a phone that allows reverse wireless charging like the Phone 1. Otherwise, there is a USB-C to USB-C cable for wired charging in the box. No charging brick is included, as is the case with more and more consumer tech.
Gets IP54 rating instead of IPX4 this time
Another note on build quality is the IP rating for dust and water resistance. I wouldn’t say the Ear 2 earbuds are IP54 rated for him. That’s a lot more impressive than his IPX4 rating on the first generation earbuds, but really, the only difference here is the added 5-level protection from a limited amount of dust. That’s it. Water resistance is still “4”. This means you get splash protection, but not submersion protection. In other words, good news if you plan on wearing the Nothing earbuds and sweating, but not if you want to soak in water.
Rather than the tap controls used on other earbuds such as the Ear 1s and Samsung, the Ear 2 headphones are controlled by squeezing the stem of each earbud, similar to how Apple’s AirPods are controlled. In my testing, the controls worked fine. They are not prone to accidental activation and most can be customized with the Nothing X app.
New to these earbuds are a host of personalization features designed to tailor them to your ears and listening preferences. All of them are accessible through the Nothing X app for iOS and Android. There’s a sound personalization feature that attempts to test your hearing by listening to a series of beeps at different pitches, an ANC personalization feature that attempts to automatically adjust the earbuds’ noise cancellation to your hearing, and an equalizer that you can manually control. . over your audio. Another feature can tell you if you’re using the right size eartips. There’s also an ‘adaptive’ noise-cancelling mode this time around, which adjusts its intensity according to the volume of the environment to keep the battery from draining quietly. environment.
While it’s nice to have this level of control, the actual usefulness of the personalization options can be a little off the mark. However, creating a personal sound profile was a cumbersome manual process and ended up with settings that seemed worse than the default.
Thankfully, all of these options are optional. I encourage you to experiment and find the combination that works for you, and in the past he’s found that if sound personalization were more automated, as we’ve seen with companies like Nura, users can avoid his errors. are less likely to cause discrepancies.
Also new to these earbuds is multipoint connectivity (nothing calls this “dual connectivity”), which allows you to connect the earbuds to two devices at once. The earbuds happily stayed connected to both my laptop and phone while I worked at my desk. For example, I could quickly take a break while listening to music on my laptop and watch a video clip on my phone. Switching from device to device is not immediate (he may take 5 seconds or so before the connection is transferred), but it’s not uncommon in multipoint. It’s nice to see it included, especially since even Samsung’s pricier Galaxy Buds 2 Pro are still missing.
These are all great quality-of-life features, but on paper, the Nothing Ear 2 earbuds aren’t a huge upgrade over the Ear 1s. Yes, LHDC 5.0 codec is now supported along with SBC and AAC if your phone supports it (LDAC and aptX are not present). However, the driver size is the same at 11.6 mm.
But when it comes to sound quality, these specs alone don’t tell the whole story. The Nothing Ear 2 earbuds sound much more balanced and refined than their predecessors, and as a result are much more enjoyable to listen to. When I listen to busy tracks like Paranoid Void’s “Masayume,” the Ear 2 earbuds do a much better job of making every instrument in the song audible. It was full and the bass was too strong. It was a similar story when I listened to Mouse on the Keys’ “Saigo no Yosan” and Fox Capture Plan’s “Butterfly Effect”. The Ear 2 earbuds felt lively and energetic, but the Ear 1’s bass was too loud and the highs sounded hollow.
Paper specs alone do not tell all about sound quality
There is no difference between day and night across the board. For example, less complex tracks like Max Richter’s “On the Nature of Daylight” sounded very similar between Nothing’s earphones. I was still going to pick Ear 2s over Ear 1s, but it was more of a toss up.
The Nothing Ear 2’s noise canceling performance shows similar improvements to the Ear 1. The London Underground was screeching around me, so I had no trouble listening to podcasts. However, I encountered a strange bug in adaptive noise canceling mode. In this mode, there was an intermittent hissing sound, like an imaginary train passing in front of me at a station. Setting the ANC mode to “high” instead of adaptive eliminates the problem entirely, but in theory you miss out on the battery saving benefits of adaptive mode. I was told that they were not aware of the bug.
In my testing, Nothing Ear 2’s mic quality was about the same as Ear 1’s. The three-mic array picked up my voice with marginal clarity in a quiet room, but when I introduced background noise to the second, my voice started to sound similarly muffled and muddy. I was. Side by side with Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Live, the Samsung earbuds heard me better.
Nothing Ear 2 earphones are a reminder that specs aren’t everything. On paper, this is an incremental update to the Ear 1 earbuds, with a very similar design and battery life, some improved durability, and some additional software features.
But in reality, the overall package feels much higher quality. apart from). Feels like a second generation product.
The $149 Ear 2 earbuds are a well-balanced pair of mid-range earbuds. It has all the style of the Ear 1, but without the rough edges. Sony, Apple, Samsung, and others may still rule the roost when it comes to more premium earbuds, but if you’re on a (slightly) budget, the Nothing Ear 2 is the way to go, if not enough. It will be a viable alternative. A steal they would have been under $100.
Photo by John Porter/The Verge
