The Nothing devices certainly stand out. The transparent case means you can see the innards of the devices, making them distinctive in a sea of shiny, polished devices that largely look the same.
The company has extended that design philosophy to its ear buds. The Nothing Ear (Stick) are open-fit ear buds, similar to the original AirPods or Huawei’s Freebuds, with the now familiar sticks hanging down on the outside of your ear. The part that sits in your ear is white, with a speaker that blasts audio down your ear canal, while the sticks are transparent, allowing you to see the components inside.
That open fit means there is no way to customise the fit. With Nothing’s other ear buds, the Nothing Ear (1), you can swap out the silicon tips to get a better fit; with the Ear (stick) either it fits or it doesn’t.
For most people, this won’t be an issue. And there are good reasons to go for the open fit over noise isolating and cancelling ear buds. Noise-cancelling ear buds aren’t a great idea if you need to pay attention to what is going on around you. Open fit, on the other hand, will allow you to hear a bit of what is going on around you while listening to your music or podcasts.
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I have a bit of a complicated relationship with open-fit ear buds; they don’t always fit, or if they do, I can’t tolerate them for longer periods of listening because they press on the wrong part of my ear. After a few false starts – it turns out I was putting them in wrong – the Nothing ear buds not only stayed put, but they were comfortable enough to forget they were there for a few hours. Having said that, if open-fit ear buds usually cause you problems, the Nothing Ear (1) might be the better option for you.
Charging case
They are packaged in a cylinder that twists open, acting as the recharging case to keep your buds safe and powered-up. It’s an unusual take compared to the standard pill-shaped charging cases you usually get with ear buds, but it’s also less convenient. The design makes it more obvious in your pocket, and it’s just not as compact. There is a reason why some designs have become popular.
The buds, as you would expect, have touch-sensitive controls too. A single pinch on the stick will play or pause your music, or answer and end calls. A double pinch, meanwhile, will skip your tracks forward, or reject a call; to skip back, it’s a triple pinch. Pinch and hold will decrease volume, controlled by how long you hold.
Some of those gesture controls are customisable; the only ones that aren’t are the single pinch ones. You can also add a gesture to activate whatever digital assistant your device uses. To do that, you’ll need to download the Nothing X app, which is available for both iOS and Android.
The app also gives you access to the equaliser, which will allow you to boost the bass for some tracks or opt for more treble, depending on your personal preferences. While the Nothing ear buds sounded decent out of the box, a bit of tweaking to my own personal preferences made a world of difference to the sound. You can choose from a few preset equalisers or put together your own.
Nothing also does well on battery life. You get up to seven hours out of the buds from a full charge, taking into account that there is no active noise cancelling, and the battery case will extend that to 29 hours. That stands up well against the competition. I was reliably getting more than six, with a mix of uses.
Voice calls were also clear at both ends, with no muffling or distorting of sound even when there was siginificant background noise.
Good
Sound is good out of the box; better when you tweak the equaliser settings to get your preferred mix. The buds are lightweight enough so that you almost forget you are wearing them, although it does take a couple of tries to get the proper fit. Battery life is good too, with up to 29 hours and fast charging from the case.
Bad
The case design, while novel and visually appealing, is less convenient in terms of tucking it into a pocket.
Everything else
The ear buds have an IP54 rating, so feel free to take them out in less than perfect conditions. The buds also have in-ear detection, so your audio will pause if you have to remove them. If you are an Android or Microsoft user, the buds support the fast pair protocols on both systems.
Verdict
With an unusual design, comfortable ear buds and decent sound, the Nothing Ear (stick) is a decent contender in the ear bud market – as long as the fit is right.
