Nothing Ear (open) in the test: New open-ear headphones for sports, office and leisure

NOTHING EAR (OPEN)

September 28, 2024 at 1:00 p.m

Now also Nothing – the manufacturer is launching the first open-ear headphones, the Ear (open). In the test they impressed with a good sound, but there were also small weaknesses.

Anyone who is interested in Bluetooth headphones will inevitably stumble across so-called open-ear headphones. These are headphones that sit over the ear canal and do not close it.

This has the advantage that ambient noise continues to penetrate the eardrum and the outside world can be perceived while music is playing – practical in traffic, during sports or in the office. In recent years, more and more manufacturers have brought corresponding models onto the market, and now Nothing is also venturing into the open-ear sector.

We recently tested the manufacturer’s Nothing Ear (3). The in-ear headphones completely convinced us. Does this also work with the Nothing Ear (open)? The data sheet at least reads quite interestingly. We were able to test the open-ears for some time and will tell you our impressions below.

1. Design and workmanship

2. Comfort

3. Battery life

4. equipment

5. Sound quality

6. Alternatives

7. Conclusion & alternatives

Design and workmanship

When it comes to the design of the open ears, Nothing relies on the tried and tested – namely the transparent design with colorful accents. The Ear (open) come in a bracket design, so the speaker driver and battery unit are connected by a thin bridge. Overall, the earphones look like a classic earbud with a bracket glued to it. Visually we think the headphones and case are good.

At 8.1 grams, the earphones are quite light, and the weight distribution between the driver unit at the front and the battery at the back is balanced. The bracket in between is thinner than many other models. Overall, the earphones appear quite slim, but due to their design they are significantly larger than, for example, the Huawei FreeClip.

As with the Xiaomi Open Wear Stereo, the Ear (open) charging case reminds us of a miniature glasses case. It measures 12.6 x 4.4 x 1.9 centimeters. This makes it quite flat and narrow, but quite long. Although it fits in your pocket, we find it to be a bit too big.

There is no wireless charging on this model; the charging station is charged via USB-C. This is not unusual for open-ear headphones, at least at the moment. In terms of workmanship, there is nothing to criticize about the Ear (open). Both the earphones and the case make a high-quality impression.

Comfort

At Nothing, the right and left earphones are not marked with an “R” or “L”, but with colored dots. The one marked in red goes into the right ear, the one marked in white goes into the left.

Comfort is a very subjective thing. As a glasses wearer, we don’t find the Nothing Ear (open) to be that comfortable. During the test, there was quickly an unpleasant feeling of pressure on the left side due to the temple of the glasses next to it.

It may depend on the temple width, but we may just be unlucky. However, if you wear glasses, you should ideally try out the earphones before buying them.

Apart from that, the Ear (open) are hardly noticeable when worn. This is due to the low weight and good weight distribution. They also sit securely on the ear and do not fall off even when the head moves violently.

This and thanks to water and dust protection (IP54 certification), they can also be used for sports without any problems.

Battery life

Nothing specifies the battery life as up to eight hours, with the case providing up to another 30 hours. The Ear (open) do not come close to the Soundcore AeroFit Pro, but they still offer sufficient runtime for everyday use. There is also a quick charging function if the earbuds’ battery runs out too early. 10 minutes of charging time is enough for a playback time of up to 2 hours.

equipment

The Ear (open) are connected via Bluetooth 5.3, and Bluetooth LE is also on board. This also includes support for hearing aids and Auracast, although the technology is not yet widespread. There is also multipoint support, so you can connect the open ears to two devices at the same time.

When it comes to Bluetooth codecs, Nothing only integrates SBC and AAC. The former is the standard Bluetooth codec supported by all devices. AAC, on the other hand, provides better audio quality. There is no support for Hi-Res audio via codecs like LDAC and Co. From our point of view, this is not a flaw, as you probably wouldn’t hear any difference with open-ear headphones due to their design.

The built-in speaker driver is more important. Nothing uses a step-shaped driver here, which, according to the manufacturer, is intended to bring the sound physically closer to the ear. There is also a special driver form that is intended to reduce distortion and amplify the low frequencies. The dynamic driver has a fairly large diameter of 14.2 millimeters and the membrane is made of titanium-coated polyethylene terephthalate.

The Nothing Ear (open) has a small touch surface on both earphones that can be used to control music and calls or to call up the voice assistant. This is done using the “pinch” gesture. There are five different gestures per page, most of which can be freely assigned within the Nothing app. The control works reliably in everyday life.

The Nothing app itself has additional functions. You need it if you want to install firmware updates. In addition, the “low lag mode” can be activated in the settings. This ensures that the latency is below 120 milliseconds – particularly interesting when gaming.

The heart of the Nothing app is the equalizer, because you can use it to adjust the sound of the headphones. We find this area to be solved in an exemplary manner: On the one hand, Nothing offers various presets such as “More treble” or “More bass”, and on the other hand you can reduce or strengthen individual areas using three controls “Bass”, “Mid”, “Treble”.

There is also a fully-fledged eight-band equalizer including frequency and Q-factor settings (bandwidth of the processed frequencies), which advanced users can use to adjust the sound even more finely. A cool thing that is far from self-evident.

Apart from that, the range of functions of the software is clear. There is also a “Find Earphones” function that plays a sound so that you can find the Ear (open) again. In addition, the multipoint option can be switched on or off if necessary – but that’s about it. Other manufacturers offer significantly more features, but in our opinion the range of functions is sufficient.

If you have a Nothing smartphone, you have access to ChatGPT with the Ear (open). However, artificial intelligence is not supported on other smartphones. What unfortunately does not generally exist is carrier identification. This means there is no automatic play/pause when the ear (open) is removed from the ears or reinserted.

Sound quality

Before we get to the sound, a word about volume: The maximum volume is sufficient in most cases. However, it could be too low in very noisy environments. The Xiaomi Open Wear Stereo offers larger reserves here. What is noticeable in the office: Sometimes the minimum volume is a bit too high when it is quiet. Here we would like to have another level at the lower end – but it depends very much on the mastering of the respective song.

In terms of sound, the Nothing Ear (open) is definitely worth listening to. However, like many other manufacturers, we don’t notice any of the advertised bass amplification.

The bass is there, but quite weak. Because of their design, bass-heavy music simply sounds much thinner on headphones than on in-ear or over-ear headphones.

Nevertheless, the Nothing Ear (open) offer a good sound overall, which is completely sufficient for sports, in the office or when going for a walk. The mids and highs are nice and clear and vocal-heavy songs or classical music in particular sound really good. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with training with rap, pop or rock.

Alternatives

In our opinion, the best-sounding open-ear headphones at the moment are the Anker Soundcore Aero Fit Pro. They have now fallen in price and only cost around 120 dollars. They also support spatial audio including head tracking and the LDAC codec.

If comfort is your top priority, then you should take a look at the Huawei FreeClip. In our opinion, these are currently the most comfortable open ears.