Nothing's got a cryptic new teaser, but we've already cracked it

Nothing is no stranger when it comes to cryptic product teasers, and like it always has, it’s turning to Pokémon to hint at what’s coming next. Nothing’s most recent Headphone 1 Pro marked the company’s entry into the premium headphone market, though it seems its “Pro” ambitions might not be stopping there.

In a new post on its official community forum, the UK-based company just shared a teaser featuring Kingdra, a water/dragon-type Pokémon. “It sleeps deep on the ocean floor to build its energy. It is said to cause tornadoes as it wakes,” wrote Nothing. That, by itself, doesn’t give us much to work with, but an apparent slip-up from last month might just solve the mystery.

For reference, no, there’s no direct pattern between Pokémon types and product categories. The original Ear 1 was codenamed Aipom, a normal-type, while the Ear 2 went by Azumarill, a water-type. The 2024 Nothing Ear was codenamed Entei, which is a fire-type. More recently, Nothing used Feraligatr, another water-type Pokémon, for the Ear 3, while the Headphone 1 was named Elekid, which is an electric-type.

It’s safe to say that Pokémon-types don’t translate directly to product categories, but there’s a different clue that points to what Kingdra might be.

Nothing has never released a Pro version in its Ear line, and that’s what Kingdra could change. There’s reason to believe that new cryptic teaser is for the Nothing Ear 3 Pro.

Back in September, a Reddit user spotted what appeared to be an official support page for the Nothing Ear 3 Pro on the company’s website. Although the page has since been taken offline, the Reddit user grabbed a screenshot, as shown above, and captured other relevant internal information. This includes an internal identifier, 25253, and more importantly, the codename Kingdra.

We ran a Wayback search for the now-offline support page, and sure enough, we found an archived version dated September 7. Not only does the page say “Nothing Ear 3 Pro,” but it also contains placeholders for guides, features, and troubleshooting. More importantly, digging into the page’s code gave us explicit references to Kingdra and the internal identifier.

Fast-forward to today, and the company is officially teasing a product with that same codename. This gives us concrete evidence linking Nothing’s latest teaser to the unannounced Ear 3 Pro.

Nothing earbuds could finally go Pro

Nothing has a lot of earbuds, though none of them have really gone Pro. We’re not counting CMF and the recently released Nothing Headphone 1 Pro.

If the leaked name is accurate, and Kingdra is actually the Ear 3 Pro, it could finally mark the company’s entry into the premium earbud market. This would put the product in direct competition with Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 4 Pro, Apple’s AirPods Pro 3, and Sony and Bose’s latest offerings.

Expect better noise cancellation, enhanced microphone performance, and longer battery life, alongside support for higher-fidelity audio and separate drivers for bass, mids/precision, and treble.

Note that this is all speculation. Educated speculation, but speculation nonetheless, so take it with a grain of salt. Nothing said Kingdra is coming soon, so we won’t have to keep guessing for much longer.