Just Shy of Greatness – Review Geek

The earbuds that made something out of Nothing are back in the Nothing Ear 2. The latest from the world’s most transparent audio brand adds a few new tricks, including sound personalization, new controls, and more polish. It’s a loaded package well worth considering, but one vexing issue remains.

The Nothing Ear 2’s battery life has technically increased over its predecessors, the Nothing Ear 1, offering a little over six hours without ANC (active noise canceling). However, these are noise-canceling buds by default, and whenever you’re using ANC or transparency mode, you’ll be getting more like four hours of playback per charge—less if you make a call or two.

That’s a tough sell in 2023, where virtually all major competitors offer at least 25% more per charge, while plenty of buds at both ends of the price scale do much better. It’s not a deal-breaker, and there’s plenty here to entice you, but it’s something to bear in mind before making the Nothing 2 your daily drivers.

The Same Cool and Comfy Design

• Earbuds dust/water resistance: IP54
• Earbuds dimensions (HxWxD): 1.16 x .846 x .925in (29.46 x 21.49 x 23.5mm)
• Earbuds weight: 0.1587oz (4.5g)
• Case dust/water resistance: IP55
• Case dimensions (HxWxD): 2.185 x 2.185 x .866in (55.5 x 55.5 x 22mm)
• Case weight: 1.83oz (51.9g)

My first experience with a pair of Nothing earbuds was actually the Nothing Ear Stick, which provide an astonishingly cool out-of-box experience for $100 earbuds. The Nothing Ear 2 offer similarly fantastic aesthetics.

Each pair in the Nothing lineup offers a similar earbud design: bulbous white housings atop transparent stems for a look that sets them apart from the pack of AirPods clones beating down your door.

The Nothing Ear 2 are nearly identical to the Ear 1 at a glance, but there are a few tweaks, including notched, push-button controls in place of the Ear 1’s touch controls. You’ll find three pairs of ear tips for each, a small charging cable and instructions, and a crystal-clear charging case with ergonomic dimples at the top.

The Nothing 2’s case is a little chunkier and awkward than the micro cases of some modern buds, but it’s also more distinctive and showy compared to those white and black pucks. It’s not nearly as fun to use as the Ear Stick’s tubular, roll-open case, but it also fits better in most pockets.

Unlike the Ear Stick buds, which were a tight and somewhat awkward fit for me, the Ear 2 are incredibly comfy (it’s amazing what a pair of ear tips can do). I was able to easily wear them through their 4-hour battery life with no complaints thanks to their ergonomic design and airy weight.

They feel a lot like AirPods Pro buds, and I mean that in the best way. If you’re going to “borrow,” you may as well borrow from the best, and the Ear Stick 2 fit as well or better than any stemmed buds I’ve tried.

Quick Setup

With both Google Fast Pair and Microsoft Swift Pair, the Nothing Ear 2 are brilliantly simple to get going for non-Apple users. If you are an Apple fan, pairing is still a relatively speedy affair, though you’ll want to download the Nothing X app (available for iPhone and Android) first to make sure everything connects properly.

Decent Noise Canceling

Having any noise canceling at all was a big get for the Ear 1 at its original $100 launch price. It’s a bit less impressive at the $149 price Nothing eventually settled on, but there are some advancements here to entice you into the new pair. You can now personalize the ANC to your ears’ idiosyncracies (though I didn’t hear much of a difference), choose between three different noise-canceling levels, or use the new Adaptive ANC.

Not to be confused with the AirPods Pro’s Adaptive Transparency mode, which limits the sound Apple’s buds let in from your environment, the Nothing Ear 2’s Adaptive ANC is designed to change the level of noise canceling depending on your environment, likely to save battery life.

I noticed that the change between modes could sometimes introduce unwanted ambient sounds, and given that this isn’t a particularly strong ANC, I ended up just going with the maximum setting in most cases.

At full blast, the Ear 2 offer effective relief from exterior drone noises, especially at lower frequencies. They faired well in the bass register when compared to rivals like the $100 Soundcore Space A40, and even Jabra’s older Elite 85t flagship buds.

They’re less effective up top in both simulated and real-world settings, especially for elements like voice chatter, where both of my comparison pairs outmatched them. Given that the Ear 2’s transparency mode is rather muted, you may actually find yourself wondering which mode you’re in when someone is talking close by, as voices tend to slip through similarly in either mode.

That said, it wasn’t long ago that you couldn’t find noise canceling worth its salt for under $200, and adding some music makes the Nothing system much more useful, letting you melt away sounds like fans, lawnmowers, and other environmental annoyances.

A Surprisingly Loaded Package

Both earbuds can be used independently, and unlike a lot of pairs hovering around this price point (including the Space A40), they’ve also got built-in sensors for auto-pause. The case supports wireless and reverse charging, letting you charge them from a Nothing Phone 1.

Within the Nothing X app are plenty of other options, like the ability to personalize sound performance and noise canceling via built-in audio tests, a low-lag mode for gaming, and even multi-point Bluetooth pairing to connect to two devices at once for easy swapping. There’s also a Find My Earbuds function, though you’ve got to be connected to the earbuds to use it.

Speaking of which, the app is sometimes delayed when connecting to the buds, and at one point simply couldn’t find them, requiring I put the buds away in the case and reconnect to my phone. Otherwise, though, I had very few other issues in over a week’s time with the Ear 2, which have seemingly ironed out many of the bugs that plagued their predecessors at launch.

Not only is performance stable overall, but there are also some cool extras that give the Nothing an especially polished, premium air. Like most earbuds, there’s an auditory chime when you kick the buds into noise canceling mode, but changing to transparency emits a voice breathing in as if coming up from a deep dive underwater. It was surprising at first but became one of my favorite stylistic touches.

The switch to pinch controls over touch controls on the stems equates to accurate responses with few misfires. The majority of controls can also be customized within the app, though there’s no way to use volume control without dropping another feature. That’s one of my pet peeves, and something Apple remedied on its latest AirPods, but it’s more forgivable at $100 less.

Apart from that, the Nothing Ear 2 fill in virtually every box you’d expect, and a fair few you wouldn’t.

Snappy But Balanced Performance

Once done, I enjoyed the sound for most applications, especially once my ears got accustomed. There’s solid definition across frequencies, and the extra snap at the attack can make electronic music and percussion particularly fun. If you’ve got a phone that supports the LHDC codec, you can likely pull some extra clarity and detail from hi-res tracks, and there’s also AAC support for optimal sound from Apple devices.

The Ear 2 also work great for calling. I never had issues hearing the caller from my side, and while I wasn’t able to test them in high winds, callers on the other end said my voice was easy to comprehend in multiple environments.

Microphone Audio Sample: Quiet Room

Microphone Audio Sample: Bathroom Fan

Battery Life That’s Stuck in the Past

• Earbuds: Up to four hours listening per charge with ANC (six+ without), up to three hours of talk time
• Charging case: Five charges in the case
• Total playback with case: Up to 24 hours with ANC, 36 hours without ANC
• Quick charge: 10 minutes for up to 1.8 hours of playback (without ANC)

The deeper you delve into modern electronics, the more you get a sneaking suspicion that companies have to leave something out or unfinished—otherwise, the tech would be too good and make us all inordinately happy. In the Nothing Ear 2’s case, it’s their battery life of around four hours (or less) with ANC.

That’s pre-2019 battery life (when Apple’s AirPods Pro debuted with just four and a half hours), and you’ll be hard-pressed to find a similar pair from a major or minor brand that offers less.

You can recharge the buds up to 5 times with the case, and a 10-minute charge will give you at least an hour of playtime. That said, five hours has long been my unofficial cutoff for usability and convenience. Dropping a full hour below that not only sends you to the charging well too often, but also makes an already ephemeral product all the more so as the battery drains over time.

I wouldn’t call the Nothing Ear 2’s battery an Achilles heel, but it’s cause for pause. They’ll get up to 6+ hours with ambient sound modes turned off, but the onboard controls swap between noise canceling or transparency mode by default, both of which will drain the battery faster. That means you’ll need to diligently choose the Off mode in the app any time you want to extend the battery.

Should You Buy the Nothing Ear 2 earbuds?

Nothing’s Ear 2 offer a ton of features, solid sound, and a slab of noise canceling to go along with a stylish design that stands out from the crowd. They’re also among the comfiest buds I’ve tried. Put that all together and you’ve got a very appealing package that could make these buds a great fit, especially if you’re looking for something outside the box.

The biggest question is their short playback time with ANC, which is among the worst you’ll find. Options like Soundcore’s Space A40 offer nearly double that much, and most other rivals get at least five hours or more with noise canceling.

That said, if you don’t mind short playback time, the Nothing Ear 2 are a very well-appointed pair of earbuds that set themselves apart with great style and loads of extras.