Carl Pei’s start-up Nothing announced itself with its Ear headphones (1). It’s since been followed by a phone and a second pair of headphones, but rumors are already coming in about the second generation of the company’s main audio version: the Ear (2).
Here’s all the news and rumors we have so far on the Nothing Ear (2).
When will Nothing Ear (2) be released?
Nothing has confirmed that the ear (2) will be unveiled at 3 p.m. GMT on March 22, 2023. The promotional material shows a beetle prominently while the marketing for the ear (1) included ladybugs (the phone (1 ) used colored birds).
True to its recent form, Nothing is flooding us with information, so there’s no confirmed release date for Nothing Ear (2) yet, but it shouldn’t take long after the official announcement in March.
The original Nothing Ear (1) was released in July 2021 and the Nothing Ear (Stick) debuted in October 2022, so there is no established model and the company is still very young. So it’s unclear when the Nothing Ear (2) will actually go on sale, but April or May 2023 is likely.
How much will the Nothing Ear (2) cost?
Again, there’s no word from Nothing on this, as the company hasn’t even confirmed the Nothing Ear(2) is a reality, and our usual method of reviewing past pricing from previous generations was strewn with pitfalls by a recent surge in prices on the Nothing Ear (1). Here are all the prices we’ve seen so far:
- Nothing Ear launch price (1): $99 / £99
- Ear Nothing (1) current price: $149/£149
- Nothing ear (stick): $99 / £99
Nothing tweeted CEO Carl Pei that the price hike was due to “increasing costs”, and with the current currency fluctuations, rising inflation, not to mention soaring energy costs due to the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, it might be a while before we see a reduction once again. With that in mind, we think it’s likely that if the Nothing Ear (2) arrives soon, they could be priced similar to the $149 / £149 we’re seeing on the Nothing Ear (1) at the moment.
What features will we see in the Nothing Ear (2)?
As you can imagine, the specifications of the Nothing Ear (2) remain mostly a mystery at this point. But we’ve started to see a few leaks that give an indication of what might be in store.
First, we take a close look at the headphones’ design thanks to renders leaker OnLeaks shared with tech site SmartPrix.
As you can see, they are virtually identical to the Nothing Ear (1), just with the name changed to Ear (2).
Yet there is some subtle adjustments if you know where to look. SmartPrix has highlighted some of these changes in the graphic below – the noise canceling microphone has moved away from the top of the bud (the red box) and is now on the side. Slight changes have also been made to some of the visible components (the orange and yellow boxes), as well as a few design elements, including the name, have been lightened up slightly.
We assume that some of the internals will have been upgraded as well, but no solid details are available so far. The first generation featured 11.6mm speakers, active noise cancellation and wireless charging, which we expected to see on their successor.
The SmartPrix report also predicts that the next-gen will include custom ANC settings, an advanced customizable EQ option, and a dual connectivity option to pair two devices simultaneously.
The cheaper ear (stick) has some improvements that we expect to match the ear (2). Most important is a jump to larger 12.6mm speakers for more powerful sound, as well as a feature called “Bass Lock” which automatically adjusts the headphone EQ to combat lost bass due to of a noise leak.
The (Stick) also uses “pinch” controls rather than the delicate touch controls of the ear (1), so we wouldn’t be surprised to see the ear (2) switch to a similar design – as hinted which looks like a very slight indent on the headphone stem on the renders above.
These changes would help fix some of the few flaws we found in our ear review (1). Audio quality was good for the price, but as that price has since risen by 50 per cent, we’d expect better audio performance if Nothing is to stay competitive. There were also some issues with the touch controls which will hopefully be fixed in the new model.
While the ANC was impressive (again at the launch price), it couldn’t filter out all of the surrounding environment, so a more powerful version of ANC in the Nothing Ear (2) might also see it being a real winner, even though it costs $149 / £149 when it arrives.
We’ll continue to update this article as more details become available, so be sure to check back regularly. In the meantime, check out our roundup of the best wireless headphones and the best budget wireless headphones to see the best alternatives currently on the market.
