Nothing Ear (open) review – GSMArena.com news | Infinium-tech

Most wireless earbuds have one significant drawback – they have difficulty staying in your ears. This is especially annoying if you’re exercising, running, or just walking around. Enter Nothing Ear (open), which adds clever hooks that go around your ears to secure the buds.

As their name suggests, these are Nothing’s first open-fit earbuds. They remove the in-ear silicone tips and instead place their 14.2mm drivers next to your ear canal. No new sound seal systems were developed with directional speakers to keep sound leakage away.

You now get the signature Nothing look with transparent design elements, IP54 dust and water protection for both the buds and their charging case, and a claimed 30 hours of playback.

So, was Nothing successful with its first open wearable stereo (OWS) buds? Yes, but they come with several caveats.

design

No one has excelled at creating a recognizable brand design, and Kan (Open) is no exception. The main compartment housing the drivers has the signature transparent look and exposes the stacked PCB and pinched control sensors.

The main compartment is attached to the ear hooks, inside which is a nickel-titanium wire coated in soft-touch plastic. At the end of each earbud is an aluminum bulb—an integral part of Nothing’s “three-point balancing system.”

While each earbud weighs 8.1 grams – close to double your average TWS earbud, you don’t feel the bulk thanks to the ergonomic swapping ear hook design and great weight distribution.

We found the Nothing Ears (open) to be comfortable for all-day use due to their ergonomic design and soft-touch material on the ear hooks. Sometimes, you literally forget you’re wearing them. For those of you who wear glasses, we’re happy to report that the earhooks didn’t interfere at all, which isn’t always a given when dealing with earhooks.

But despite their comfortable fit, the ear (open) couldn’t stay in place in one key area – the tip of the ear canal. The main compartment that houses the drivers rotates constantly, resulting in notable separation between the earbuds and your ears, which lets in even more external noise. This resulted in a constant habit of readjusting the buds during our review process and meant we had to turn up the volume most of the time.

This problem is evident not only during fast-paced activities like running, hiking and gym sessions but also during normal desk work without much movement. No matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t find a comfortable fit.

A few words on the charging case – it’s quite wide at 125.9mm (Ugreen dongle for scale), although it’s only 19mm thick so it’s easy to slip into a pocket or bag. It charges via a USB-C port and skips wireless charging.

Features and companion apps

There’s nothing packed inside the ears other than the (open) 14.2mm dynamic drivers. Neither opted for the phased driver approach, which places the drivers as close to your ears as possible. It is also paired with the Sound Seal System, which claims to reduce sound leakage through reverse sound waves captured by the microphone.

We’ve already discussed the loose fit in the design section, and we’ll have to repeat it here, as there’s a lot of sound leakage. You should be careful that people are listening to what you are playing, even at low sound levels.

Ear is paired over Bluetooth 5.3 (open) and supports generic AAC and SBC codecs. There is no higher bitrate option here. You also get Google Fast Pair and Microsoft Swift Pair for phones and PCs, along with dual device pairing, which worked flawlessly in our tests. We would have liked to see wear-detection sensors, which are present on most competitors’ TWS buds.

The NothingX app is one of the best-looking companion apps on the market, and has a neat range of features and control options.

nothingx app features

There’s nothing opting for pinch controls that you operate via dedicated pressure sensors on the sides of each earbud. Although not the most intuitive implementation, it worked flawlessly over our testing period. You can remap either side of the buds with Double, Triple, Pinch & Hold and Double Pinch & Hold. We’re happy to report that there’s an option to control volume from the buds via pinch and hold.

The app has four pre-installed equalizer options and a custom parametric option that allows detailed frequency response tweaking. Nothing has been more pioneering in the field of sound customization, and we’re glad the Ear (Open) got the same amount of attention as the brand’s flagship earbuds. The other cool thing is that users can export their custom sound signatures and also import options from community members.

Ear (Open) supports Find My network and offers a low-latency mode for gaming. If you have a Nothing phone, you can also summon and use ChatGPT directly from the buds. Rounding out the specs is IP54 water and dust resistance for both the buds and their case. The IP54 rating for the case is rarely seen from competitors.

Performance and sound quality

Open-ear TWS buds aren’t known for a particularly detailed sound signature, but the in-ear (open) ones provide a pleasant listening experience if you don’t mind the bass. The first thing you notice is the lack of bass, which isn’t surprising given the loose fit. The Xiaomi Buds 5 that we recently reviewed are in a different league in terms of bass reproduction, while still being in the OWS buds category.

Weak bass aside, the ear (open) brings out the sharp treble and mids. Vocals and instruments sound rich and vibrant with a surprising level of detail for buds of this form factor. This is paired with a great set of EQ customization that can help you get more out of the ears (open) than the default presets offer.

You may have to turn up the volume when listening in a noisier environment than with in-ear buds. My first experience at the gym with ears (open) ended due to the loud music playing from the speakers in the facility. I was using the buds at 90% volume, which I don’t do with regular earbuds.

Call quality is about average, with the buds having difficulty distinguishing my voice in busy environments. Bluetooth connectivity remained top notch in our testing, with no degradation even when leaving the room. Dual device pairing worked without any errors when switching between the MacBook Pro 14 and iPhone 15 Pro, as did the pinch gesture controls.

battery life

Nothing claims that the ears (open) will deliver up to 8 hours of listening time, with the case providing an additional 22 hours for a total playback time of 30 hours.

In our tests, the buds lasted two weeks of daily use in the office and the gym before the red LED indicator on the case stopped flashing. Keep in mind that talk time endurance is lower as calls will run out in about 6 hours compared to 8 hours of media playtime.

When you finally need to charge (unplug) the ears, a quick 10-minute top-up will give you 2 hours of use.

decision

The Nothing Ear (Open) are one of the most comfortable pair of earbuds we’ve tested so far. Their soft hooks allow them to stay attached to your ears at all times and you don’t feel any ear fatigue even after wearing them the whole day. Combined with their signature nothing design and a great set of features like dual device pairing, panoramic EQ customization and reliable pinch gesture controls.

The in-ear (open) aren’t flagship-grade buds in terms of sound reproduction, but they were never designed to compete with the AirPods Pro or the Sony WF-1000XM5s. For those who want to remain aware of their surroundings while traveling or jogging in busy cities, there is no substitute for these buds, and we can definitely see them appealing to that category of users.

With an attractive design, solid battery endurance, and a great companion app, the Ears (Open) are a worthy consideration if you’re interested in picking up a pair of open ear buds.

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