This is not a full review of the new Nothing Ear Open: the product just launched today (Tuesday, September 24) and, while I've had my unit for a few days, TechRadar's earbuds review process is both in-depth and reassuringly time consuming.
That said, I cannot help but share my initial verdict about Ear Open now, on the day of their big reveal. I've mentioned before that I think this is the best idea Nothing's had in some time (questionable moniker aside), and having tried them, I stand by that statement. They're so very Nothing, and so very likeable. Also, the design has been really well done – they're more malleable and comfortable that any 'ear-hook' design I've tried.
Just as the company's Nothing Ear (a) impressed for a lowly fee, I predict a huge hit here in the open-ear space. Why? Firstly, the Nothing Ear Open cost just £129, which is the same price as the flagship Nothing Ear and means your US and Australian prices are almost certainly $149 / AU$249. Compare that to the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds at $299 / £299 / AU$449.95 and you'll see it's a much more palatable fee.
Secondly, they fit the bill for the safety-conscious music lover. To explain: 'open-ear' as a category is becoming something of a gray area – Apple's been calling its new AirPods 4 duo open-ear, because the driver housing does not go all the way into your ear canal or require tips to create a full seal there. But I prefer to think of an open-ear design as a set of earbuds that don't enter the ear proper at all, so one can hear their immediate surroundings without mic processing to get to it, and with an arm that slinks around the back of your ear to keep the driver close to your concha – see the Shokz OpenFit Air, Oladance OWS or the Bose option above for reference.
Slip 'em on – they feel like Nothing
And that is what we have here. First, the fit: it's excellent. They're the easiest open-ear design I've ever tried on. In fact, even putting both on at the same time is a doddle. The trademark transparent-meets-white-meets-black-meets-titanium Nothing design language is here, but I feel a little more like an extra in Björk's All is Full of Love video with every Nothing earbuds iteration, and I do of course mean that as high praise.
Nothing tells me that the driver is tilted at 50 degrees to position the speaker both directly over the ear and at the point of most comfort. If you want to get granular, the company says "sits right between the helix root and the tragus of the ear. The result is a feeling of wearing nothing at all."
Having worn them for several hours now I can tell you that yes, they feel like that. They feel like Nothing. There's nothing to extend, nothing to 'snap' into place, just the brushed plastic bodywork that bends happily and momentarily, to accommodate the curve of my ear.
Nothing has also taken the more difficult route here and created a "stepped driver" from scratch, to move the sound physically closer to the ear, plus a custom diaphragm that apparently "cinches and flattens in the middle rather than at the ends". It's a patent-pending design exclusive to Nothing. That diaphragm also has a titanium coating which means it's not only robust yet snappy, it boasts "an increase of 3dB (above 12kHz) compared to traditional paper diaphragms" according to Nothing. Impressive.
On a more superficial level, you get Nothing's digital typeface on the transparent lid of the pill-shaped case and I love this particular aesthetic – there's something vaguely praying mantis-like about the red or white dot on the earbuds' respective driver housings. Each earpiece is also far easier to line up and slip back into its case because of these useful dots – and of course, you can easily see if they're in there.
Nothing left off the spec-sheet except ANC (and that's a very good thing)
Some more specs: eight hours of playtime from the buds is a very respectable figure, as is the 30-hour total using the case, but remember there's no active noise cancellation (that would defeat the point of an open-ear design, where the chief benefit is one of simultaneous attention to music and the world around you). Each earpiece weighs 8.1g and feels supremely light to me – especially when you consider there's a 14.2mm driver in each earpiece plus two mics per bud with Nothing's Clear Voice Technology 3.0. This is heavier per bud than the best true wireless earbuds that sit inside your ear, but because that weight isn't pressing inside your ear canal, you feel it much less.
You still get on-ear pinch control, although it's a little harder to get the knack of it here than in the Nothing Ear (a), purely because you need to locate where the old 'stem' idea is, to pinch. I tried to capture this in a photo – again, tough one to illustrate but I hope you get the gist.
There's an IP54 water- and dust-resistant rating for both the buds and their case, and although said case won't charge wirelessly (you'll need to use its USB-C port), you do get Nothing X app support to access Advanced EQ with profile sharing, customizable controls, Find My Earbuds, Low Lag Mode and multipoint dual connectivity.
On that Adavanced EQ setting – it's another level. You still get the 'Simple' splodge graph if you simply want to accentuate the bass, but click through to 'Advanced' and you're met with an 8-band EQ tab. As if that wasn't enough, you can see the frequency you've chosen within those eight sliders and even select a gain level (or Q Factor) between 0.1 and 10. What this means is that you can select not just the actual frequency you want boosted, but you can tell the Ear Open how much you want it amplified.
A spacious and impactful mix – yes, in open-ear buds
I had to hide the Ear Open under a low-brimmed hat while wearing them in the wild so as not to reveal them before their official launch, but this morning they were a joy to use on the daily commute. I heard train announcements and felt a noticeable difference when boosting the low end – an area where this kind of design can often come up short. Again, it's not a full review, but when you add it to the great fit, I have to say it's a very, very good start from Nothing.
When listening to Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Song of the Lake chimes and soothing backing vocals toy with my left ear in a cohesive, expansive mix, while Nick Cave's textured, detailed vocal seems to be coming from right between my frontal and parietal lobes. Again, this isn't a full review (check back for that soon), but initially, I'm a big fan of these…
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- See our roundup of the best open ear headphones you can buy
- Here's our pick of the best noise-cancelling headphones
- And here's our guide to the best earbuds on the market
