Nobody launches earphones like Nothing, not even Apple. Nothing has been releasing teasers featuring cockroaches and frogs over the past few weeks, leading up to the announcement of Nothing Ear and Nothing Ear (a) today.
It’s a significant release for a couple of reasons: First, the nomenclature has changed: there is no longer Ear (1), (2), instead of a model (3) we only have Ear. And secondly, this is the first time Nothing has launched a more affordable model in model (a). But while the Ear costs €149/$149/£129 and the Ear (a) costs €99/$99/£99, don’t think you’re getting an inferior product: they share the same 11mm drivers, the same 45dB noise canceling , and the cheaper model can last even longer.
Both sets of earphones support Hi-Res Audio, AAC/SBC and LDAC. They also share Bluetooth 5.3, dual connection, 45dB ANC, IP54 rating and, to a large extent, design.
The Ears have ceramic drivers, while the Ear(a)s use a combination of PMI and TPU. The Ear has a per-ear playback capacity of 8.5 hours without ANC, while the Ear(a) gets up to 9.5 hours.
The Ear(a) case also has a slightly larger battery, providing a total of 42.5 hours with the earbuds, while the Ear case only holds 40.5 hours. However, the case of the more expensive earbuds features wireless charging.
Unboxing of Nothing Ear and Ear (a)
It’s a good thing we have the Ear in black, otherwise we could have easily confused last year’s Ear (2) with this year’s model. They look the same, right down to the case — and yes, you can pop each earbud into the other model’s respective case and it charges, too.
The older model has 40dB lower noise cancellation and only 6 hours of battery life through the earbuds themselves.
Sooner or later we will review the Ear and the Ear (a), but the queue at the office is long, so be patient!
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