I’m here to tell you that they’re pretty damn good.
This review is a summation of my time with both models as functionality and features are identical.
Additionally, we’ve tested a total of four different pairs of the Nothing Ear 1s.
The two units that I’ve tried, running the latest firmware, have been working nearly flawlessly.
UPDATE: 12/13/21
The Nothing Ear 1 earbuds (in black) are now available to purchase.
Coming in at just 4.7g, they are .7g lighter than the AirPods Pro (5.4g each).
From my testing, this is pretty spot on.
They aren’t going to beat $200-$300 earbuds, but the Ear 1s hold their own.
Unfortunately, there is no way to fine-tune the EQ on the Nothing Ear 1.
They include Balanced, More Treble, More Bass, and Voice.
I kept my units in the Balanced mode for most of my testing.
As for touch controls, you don’t find any physical buttons on the earbuds.
Instead, there are three different tap functionalities that you’ll have to remember.
You’ll hear a ding every time you put in the earbuds if you leave the feature enabled.
There are some niceties that are missing from the Nothing Ear 1, though.
The first is that there is no virtual assistant support on Android or iPhone.
The second is that there isn’t support forBluetooth Multipoint, despite featuringBluetooth 5.2.
The process only takes a couple of seconds, but there is no instant switching.
And lastly, the Nothing Ear 1 only support AAC and SBC audio codecs.
There’s nothing necessarily wrong with it, but it’s annoyingly large.
It’s thicker, wider, and taller than almost every TWE charging case I own.
If Nothing ships a second-generation pair of earbuds, I’d hope for a physically smaller case.
Should You Buy the Nothing Ear 1?
The Ear 1 black edition is now on sale directly fromNothing’s websitefor $99.
