There is always room for improvement… even if it is nothing. That is exactly what Nothing is doing with its Ear (2) flagship wireless earphones. Being the first device from Carl Pei’s startup to get a second generation, the Nothing Ear(2) comes with a significant weight of expectation.
The Nothing Ear (2) looks exactly like the older version except for the charging case, which is a bit smaller, and the earphones which are a bit larger to accommodate the bigger drivers inside. The sleek charging case literally has nothing to hide and shows you the earbuds inside very clearly.
Again where Nothing Ear(2) stands out is by offering features not so easy to find at this price range. The case comes with wireless charging, for instance. Then the Nothing X app is perhaps the most practical and, of course, the most stylish app for any audio accessory. It gives you a very easy-to-use equaliser with presets and custom options. Then you can control the Active Noise Cancellation with a higher degree of customisation than you find in most earphones these days — this includes a personalised ANC which is tuned as per your hearing. You can also use the app to find your earphones by making them buzz wherever they are.
Like with the earlier version, you use pinch and hold to control the playlist and take or cut calls. But you can’t control the volume on the earbuds, nor is there access to a smart assistant like Siri or Alexa.
Since the Ear (2) is not much different physically from its predecessor, the maximum work seems to have gone into ensuring there is a significant improvement in the audio quality. Having used the first version quite a bit, the first improvement I saw was in the noise cancelling. On a flight to Bangalore this week, I could catch up on my sleep on the noisy late Sunday morning flight thanks to the Ear (2)’s ability to almost completely cut off ambient noise. And it does this without creating a vacuum in the ears. I prefer earphones that do this as this lets me wear them even without music as I’m used to with the AirPods Pro.
Kahani Suno, the haunting new number by Kaifi Khalil, was a good song to figure out the range of the Ear(2). The song felt soothing in the balanced mode, but when I switched to the voice preset the mood changed. The More Bass option clearly did not work for this kind of song and I found the sweet spot in the More Treble preset where the song sort of shone through.
The audio profile feels a bit boomy when using the More Bass preset. Can’t say I have heard this before. But when you are in Balanced or More Treble Mode this is one of the best-sounding earphones I have used recently. However, I would have liked a bit more flexibility in the custom equaliser to get the bass where I like it.
Listening to the 2013 remastered version of Hotel California as some black-eyed peas whistled away to glory in my open kitchen, I was convinced the Ear (2) can really cover most bases for regular users. The noise cancellation works pretty well at keeping irritating sounds in the home and office down, while the audio playback ushers you to a personal space where it is just you and your music.
That said, this is no Sennheiser or Sony. Both the noise cancellation and audio quality are good, when you look at it from the price perspective, maybe even the best in class, but not the best out there. Audio perfection is still something you have to pay for.
One area where Nothing has been put in code table work is with the clear voice technology for calls. Ear (2) offers a crystal clear conversation on calls with some AI working in the background to remove ambient noise like wind or the whirring of the fan.
The battery life is good enough for the earbuds to last a full day on a single charge. With the case, you can use this maybe for three days on the trot.
The Nothing Ear (2) is an incremental update on what is still perhaps the most stylish truly wireless earphones in the market. Now, both audio quality and noise cancellation get better. However, I would have loved to see something more to justify the Ear (2) name. Still, at Rs 9,999, this pair gives you more than most of the competition and with an extra dose of style.
