What we love
- Beautiful, signature design
- Crisp audio
- Decent battery life
- Good value
What we don’t
- Poor noise cancellation
- Inconsistent mic quality when calling
- More expensive than predecessor
Despite being a relatively new player in the field, Nothing has generated quite a buzz, and we can see why.
Now the London-based consumer tech brand is back with its latest Ear (2), taking aim at heavy hitters like Apple and Samsung.
At £129, these truly wireless earbuds have replaced the Nothing Ear (1) read our full Ear (1) review, and we can see a significant improvement in both sound quality and battery life, albeit at a higher price.
The fledgling firm, created by OnePlus founder Carl Pei, has smashed it out of the park with the design, as the Nothing Ear (2)’s transparent build looks gorgeous and will stand out when you’re wearing them.
The earbuds are light and fit comfortably in the ear, although we found that they’re not the most stable if you take them for a run.
Without noise cancelling on, you can expect about 36 hours of battery life in total and the earbuds should last you four hours before you need to return them to the case for a boost.
Nothing boasts an impressive sound quality, with crisp audio and a deep and powerful bass, making it a great choice for everyday listening.
Compared to major players like the AirPods Pro 2 and the Samsung Galaxy buds2 Pro, the audio quality on the Ear (2) is not as rich. Although given that the earbuds are about £100 cheaper than its rivals, that’s a sacrifice many would be willing to pay.
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Nothing Ear (2): Full review
The Nothing Ear (2) is hands down one of the most stylish earbuds out there. The product consists of white silicone ear tips with a transparent stem dropping down from the main casing.
Even the charging case is transparent, establishing Nothing as the brand to look at if you want your phone or earphones to stand out when you’re wearing them.
The “press or hold” controls on the earbuds were tricky to use at first, as the earpieces would occasionally fall out while trying to pause the music. But after a while, we got used to it and it felt intuitive and easy to use.
But even if you don’t like those controls, the earbuds will also pause automatically as soon as it senses that it’s no longer inside an ear.
The earbuds link to your phone via Bluetooth really quickly, and are equipped with Dual Connection, meaning that you can connect your earbuds to both your laptop and your mobile phone, and automatically switch between devices.
This means that if you are enjoying music on your laptop and receive a call on your phone, Ear (2) will automatically alert you of the incoming call, and allow you to answer by directly pressing the controls on the earbud.
Once it’s finished and you hang up, the earbuds will automatically resume playing music from the laptop.
One of their flagship features is that through the new Nothing X app, users can also create their own Personal Sound Profile by completing a hearing test.
With this test, the Ear (2) will then adjust the equaliser settings accordingly in real-time for optimal sound quality. It’s a nice touch and not something you find on buds at this price.
Once the music starts you’ll hear deep, powerful bass and crystal-clear highs, thanks to an 11.6 mm custom driver, meanwhile they have added a new dual-chamber design that enhances the overall sound quality with smoother airflow.
That’s not to say that the audio quality is perfect, as there’s a noticeable difference compared to AirPods Pro 2 and the Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro. Although to be fair, they cost around £100 more.
So that’s all of the good stuff but are there any concerns?
The Active Noise Cancelling is perhaps one of the most disappointing features. Although the ANC works, we found it was only able to dull background noises slightly, and you could often hear the traffic when you are outside.
The call quality can also be poor in noisy environments, leaving the person you’re speaking to complaining about the level of interference.
Final Verdict
We definitely enjoyed our time with the Ear (2) from Nothing and there’s no doubt that these latest buds offer a significant improvement over the original Ear (2) which launched back in 2021.
These buds have a lot of fantastic features that you’d usually find in far more expensive flagships – including that clever custom sound setting – and a pretty solid audio quality for daily use.
The product does suffer a little when making calls via them and the ANC probably isn’t the best on the market.
But with a gorgeous design and impressive features like Dual Connection, it’s easy to make a case for avoiding the massively expensive AirPods and going for the Nothing Ear (2) instead.
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