Nothing Ear (1) were good, but Ear (2) are exceptional in the audio department.
Nothing might be a young company, but they have come a long way in a short period of time. More so because they are listening to what the customers are saying. They are regularly hearing the social media chants and otherwise banter, including ours, to make their devices better. After Nothing Ear (1), the company is out with Nothing Ear (2), which we got over for an assessment. We took them through our rigorous test bench and this is the Nothing Ear (2) review you need to read before purchasing.
Read Also: Nothing Ear 1 review: The first step in the right direction
Nothing Ear (2) review: Design
Let’s first address the elephant in the room. So, the second iteration of the Nothing Ear are very similar to the first one and consumers can easily mistake them for the previous edition. For a moment, even we did. But when you look closely, you will find subtle yet good differences. For starters, both the Nothing Ear (2) and its case have become smaller and lighter. But does that mean they also have a lesser battery? We shall find out in the next section, for now, let’s talk more about its form factor.
Packaged in an eco-friendly cardboard outer package, you get a transparent charging case in which the Nothing Ear (2) lie, magnetically cocooned in their respective hollows. The lid of the charging case also slams shuts into place using a magnet, which has a nice thud to it when shut. The façade is very similar to the previous edition, except the charging case’s battery now protrudes out from the bottom. Again, to keep its weight low and to sport a smaller design, this has been done. We thought the case might wobble on a flat surface due to this, but it does not.
Moving to the build of the Nothing Ear (2) audio ear plugs, you get a smaller transparent stem on each with white audio driver enclosures and white silicon tips. Users also get additional silicon tips in the box to fit into different ear cavities. For us, the default ones were just fine. We quite liked what we saw and these half-transparent earphones sure look yummy for the taking. Each earpiece has multiple microphones to keep the noise out up to 40-decibel levels. More on that a little later.
Consumers also get a strung USB Type-C charging cable in the box. To connect it to any charger, users can use the supplied USB Type-C charging port located on the charging case, which also has the BlueTooth pair button next to it. Also, on this case, there is a LED light indicator, which supports different functionalities, like when you are connected to a device or when it is in pairing mode etc.
Read Also: Nothing Ear 1 Black Edition is now available in India: Details
Nothing Ear (2) review: Performance
Let’s move to the fun part — its resonance. Each Nothing Ear (2) earphone hides an 11.6mm audio driver to provide exquisite sound. Download the Nothing X app from the Play Store, turn on the BlueTooth on the smartphone and head straight into the setup. It will take about 5-10 mins for the initial setup, but it is worth the wait. The app will take into consideration a few factors and accordingly set a sound that is best suited for you.
For us, we love a more bassy setup. If you do not like what the app has to provide (which we doubt) you can also head into the equaliser part of the app and play around with different modes. And there are 4-5 of them. We loved every beat the Nothing Ear (2) provided us with. These are spectacular in the resonance department and we were not expecting the brilliant thump they provide. The bass can put some of the over-the-ear headphones to shame.
We listened to quite a few tracks we are drooling over these days and when we tuned into them with the Nothing Ear (2), we heard newer never heard before beats in the same songs. Jaws Dropped!
After we collected ourselves back up by just getting a great music beat down, or up, whatever you want to call it, we charged towards the gaming section of our smartphone. We turned on the low lag mode in the Nothing X app and it did manage to reduce the sound lag by quite a few milliseconds. Overall, the gaming experience was not bad either with the Nothing Ear (2).
The Nothing Ear (2) come with Active Noise Cancelation (ANC), too. You get three modes (off, transparency and noise cancellation) which can be accessed using the app. The ANC can also be controlled by pinching and holding the stem of the earphones. Talking about which, there are pinch controls on the Nothing Ear (2) as well.
You can triple or double pinch to skip back or forward a track, single pinch to play/pause a track or answer or cut a call. 9 out of 10 times these worked as marketed. However, you cannot control the volume with them. For that, you would need to bring out the smartphone.
Moving to the battery life of the Nothing Ear (2), these sport a 33mAh battery in the earphones and an additional 485mAh battery in the case. The company says you can get 6.3 hours of battery from the earbuds and 36 hours of additional playback with the charging case (ANC off).
This is more or less right. We were able to squeeze in 5.75 hours of playback and got another 33 hours using the charging case. With the ANC turned on we got 3.5 hours of music playback from the earpieces and additional 20 hours from the charging case. This, overall, is not bad coming from such a small contraption.
Talking a little bit more about the Nothing Ear (2), the earphones have an IP54 rating for water and dust resistance and the case has an IP55 rating. The case also supports wireless Qi charging of up to 2.5w. Over that, these also support multi-device connectivity. You can pair them with your mobile phone as well as the laptop at the same time enabling you to take calls and listen to music from the laptop without switching Bluetooth. Lastly, Bluetooth version 5.2 is what these earbuds use.
Verdict
So, it all bubbles down to if at Rs 9,999 are the Nothing Ear (2) worth buying? That is an astounding yes. You get exquisite sound, good ANC, lightweight, good looks, IP rating and also wireless charging. These are a well-packaged set of earphones. If you have a budget of Rs 5-7 thousand for new wireless earphones, we suggest extending it by a few thousand and buy these.
Nothing Ear (2) Pros
Super audio
IP rating
Wireless charging
Nothing Ear (2) Cons
Volume controls are missing
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