Nothing Ear and Nothing Ear A launch: Better battery life and LDAC support

Nothing is all-in on smartphones now, with the recent Nothing Phone 2a earning strong marks from reviewers. However, the company started just a few years ago as an audio brand with the well-received Nothing Ear 1 earbuds. Since then, it’s launched a few other sets of earbuds, but today it’s revamping its naming system while simultaneously launching two new audio products: Nothing Ear and Nothing Ear A.

As you can see, the revamped earbud naming system includes removing numbers from the names. Nothing told us it is doing this to make customers feel less pressured to upgrade every time there’s a new release. Instead, you’d buy a set of Nothing earbuds now and then buy a new set in the same line sometime later when you feel an upgrade might be necessary (or, of course, opt for a more/less expensive model).

Nothing didn’t say anything about this new naming scheme also applying to its other products, including smartphones. Considering the Nothing Phone 2a dropped just a few months ago, we will assume that numbers will continue to be a part of its smartphone portfolio.

In addition to the new hardware, Nothing also announced deeper ChatGPT integration within these earbuds. On Nothing OS 2.5.5, with the ChatGPT app installed, you can set a pinch shortcut to start a conversation with ChatGPT.

Now, let’s break down what you get with the Nothing Ear and the Nothing Ear A.

Nothing Ear

First up, we have the premium model: Nothing Ear. While one might think these would be the Nothing Ear 3, the company isn’t going to call them that due to the previously mentioned abandonment of numbers.

Besides, these are more like Nothing 2.5 rather than a full numerical upgrade. They look incredibly similar to Nothing Ear 2, right down to the case design and available colorways (transparent black or white).

There are some differences, though, which I’ll list out for you here:

• Active Noise Cancelation (ANC) is now up to 45dB, a good bump over the 40dB limit of Ear 2.
• Battery life is allegedly better, with Nothing claiming 5.2 hours of power for Ear with ANC active, compared to four hours of juice under the same conditions for Ear 2.
• The earbuds now support LDAC as well as LHDC, which means they’re compatible with high-quality audio on more phones.
• Unfortunately, the driver shrunk a bit. Nothing Ear have 11mm custom drivers, while Ear 2 had 11.6mm custom drivers. This is probably not a big enough difference for people to notice, though.

Other than these three points, Nothing Ear are basically the same as Nothing Ear 2. Therefore, if you already own Nothing Ear 2, there’s not much reason to upgrade.

If you don’t already own Nothing Ear 2 (or don’t care about Nothing’s ambitions to stop you from upgrading yearly), these will set you back $149 / €149 / £129 — the same pricing as Ear 2. Pre-orders are open now at Nothing.tech and general sales begin on April 22, 2024.

Do note that Nothing confirmed Ear will replace Ear 2. When the company sells through its stock of Ear 2, it will not make more. If, for some reason, you’d rather have Ear 2 over these new models, you’d better grab them quickly.

Nothing Ear A

While Nothing Ear are an obvious iterative upgrade to Nothing Ear 2, Nothing Ear A are a bit trickier to peg. One would assume these would be the spiritual successors to Nothing’s previous budget-minded earbuds (Nothing Ear Stick), but these feel more like a slightly upgraded version of the original Nothing Ear 1.

Right off the bat, Nothing Ear A are in-ear earbuds, as opposed to Nothing Ear Stick, which simply rested in your ear canal, like Apple’s entry-tier AirPods. This allows them to support ANC, something that wasn’t possible with Ear Stick.

Nothing Ear A also have a brand new case design that’s unlike anything the company has done before. It’s smaller and curvier than the Ear/Ear 1/Ear 2 cases and nothing like the tube case for Ear Stick. There’s also a new colorway on offer: yellow. This is a fun choice for folks bored of the usual black/white colors Nothing offers.

As for specs, you’ll find a lot of crossovers here from Nothing Ear, including 11mm drivers, 45dB ANC, a triple-mic setup, LDAC support (but no LHDC), etc. There are a few significant differences, though:

• Unlike Nothing Ear, the Nothing Ear A case does not support wireless charging.
• Battery life is nominally better with Nothing Ear A. According to Nothing, Ear A get 5.5 hours of use with ANC on, about 0.3 hours better than Nothing Ear.
• The diaphragms of Nothing Ear are made of a premium ceramic material, while Nothing Ear A get PMI + TPU diaphragms, which is not as premium.

In other words, it’s easiest to think of Nothing Ear A as a cheaper version of Nothing Ear rather than a sequel to any other Nothing earbuds.

Speaking of being cheaper, Nothing Ear A will set you back $99 / €99 / £99. Like the Nothing Ear, you can pre-order them today from Nothing.tech and general sales begin on April 22, 2024. Also, these will become the only other earbuds Nothing offers outside of Nothing Ear. In other words, if you want Nothing Ear Stick or Nothing Ear 1, you should buy them soon, as they will no longer be in production.