Nothing Ear (2) - Wireless ANC (Active Noise Cancelling) Headphones, Hi-Res audio certified, Dual Connection, Powerful 11.6 mm custom driver - White

The media could not be loaded. These earbuds were massively, massively over-hyped before launch. So when they came out (and had a few bugs / didn't match that hype) the reviews were naturally disappointing. But months later (and some software updates later) I decided to test them fully and review them from a neutral perspective, to see how they 'really' compare to the competition and...I was pleasantly surprised. Are these on the level of the flagships from Sony/Bose etc? No. And the hype suggested they would be. But are they amazing value for money at £100? Absolutely.I reviewed these on YouTube as part of a 'best earbuds under $100' video, and they performed really well. Since I bought them on here I decided to share with you all the review and also the clip from that video featuring the ear(1)s. So that's what the video is and below is the written form of the review in case you'd rather read instead:[Review below]:What the tech world has reached a consensus on is the design, with many (including myself) calling these the best looking earbuds on the market. This transparent design looks awesome - the craftsmanship is second to none, and I personally love this minimal design that, as they say, highlights the beauty of tech.It’s not just for the earbuds, but the charging case too…and I think these look especially good in this new black colour. You’re not gonna be mistaking this unique design for any other earbuds.The touch controls here are great, they’re responsive and the contact area is surprisingly wide. They’re one of only a few earbuds to support a swipe gesture for volume - and this time…it actually works. I had close control over each volume increment, and the glossy outer surface meant I could swipe without knocking these from my ears (though this is still possible if you aren’t careful). These also have wearing detection and customisation in the app - so the controls are almost perfect. But customisation is limited and there’s sadly no single tap option.Comfort is another thing they’ve nailed, I’m talking…forget you’re wearing them, kind of comfortable. They’re lightweight and form a gentle seal in the ear, so I can easily wear these all day. I can just about run with them as well, and they have IPX4 protection, but I wouldn’t trust them to stay in place for most other workouts.The gentle seal means the passive noise isolation isn’t amazing, even with the larger eartips. However the active noise cancellation was surprisingly good. Obviously it’s not flagship level performance, but you can clearly hear the reduction in noise turning this on. The transparency mode though, is very good, clearly amplifying your surroundings. There’s still a bug here though where there’s a faint hiss that seems to fade in and out sometimes in transparency mode. Inaudible with music playing, but still a bug - so for all the firmware update improvements we’ve seen since their launch, that minor annoyance still exists.The main improvements have been to connectivity, these are now very reliable, offer single earbud use, fast pairing and show no noticeable latency with videos. There is a dedicated low-latency mode here as well, which gamers may be interested in, but otherwise it’s not really necessary. On one day I did have one earbud randomly disconnect - but a quick power off and on with the case seemed to fix it. So maybe not 100% of the issues are fixed, but on the whole…my experience has been pretty consistent.Battery life is a big weakness though, you only get 5 hours on a single charge with up to 34 in the case. They do support wireless charging though, which is nice, and actually these are the only earbuds in this video to offer ANC, transparency, wearing detection and wireless charging - so these actually have the most complete feature set.The mic quality was really decent as well. My voice sounded really clear and the earbuds isolate my voice well from the background noise - so phone call performance was very good.As for the audio quality…it’s good, better than I expected actually. These have good clarity, are well-detailed and are leaning slightly towards a bright sound signature. The bass is tight and punchy, but I’m sure some will find this lacking. EQ options unfortunately are very limited - you’ve only got these 4 options. There’s a distinct difference with each mode, but I’d love to be able to customise this myself.The overall sound quality should be good enough to please most - but some of our other entries like Lypertek and Sennheiser’s are a step up.Having tested these throughly myself, I can understand why the initial reviews were so underwhelming. As the flagship killing phenomenon these earbuds were touted to be, sure, they leave a lot to be desired. But as a $99 pair of earbuds, as they should be viewed, they’re actually exceptional value for money. I was left genuinely shocked by just how good these turned out to be for the price.

I've had these for a couple of months now as an upgrade from Galaxy Buds+ because I wanted Active Noise Cancelling (ANC), and just bought some Sony WF-1000XM4s to accompany the Nothings. I'll try to give my review in the context of how they're an improvement compared to last gen wireless earbuds and how they compare to the high end earbuds that the Nothings are supposed to be flagship killers for.I think most people will be purchasing these as an intro to ANC, and I think it does an ok job at that but you need to set your expectations correctly. The Nothings do a good job at knocking down the sounds around you by a few notches, which depending on the scenario could be plenty for what you want or disappointing. I find that car sounds in particular are not filtered well by the noise cancelling, although I wonder if this is a product of the relatively poor passive noise cancelling. The plus side of this is that the ambient sound passthrough is very good, I would say it's the best out of the 3 buds in terms of how natural conversations feel when you have the buds in.In particular regarding these being an intro to ANC, the pressure they exert with ANC on is quite strong compared to the XM4s and can take a little bit of getting used to so 1) take it easy on first try by not having ANC on for too long and switching to ambient or no noise cancelling before taking them out, and 2) if the pressure is still too much don't be too discouraged from buying other higher end or next gen ANC earbuds.Sound quality is better than the buds+, which were already fairly good, but it's clearly held back by the bluetooth codec used and it would be much better if they supported up to date aptx codecs or LDAC. It's not as good as the XM4s (as expected) but unless you're used to high quality headphones you probably won't notice much difference.In terms of comfort they're very comfortable in most circumstances. I wouldn't wear them to bed because the stalk gets in the way, but otherwise the fit and light weight compared to other earbuds means you barely notice the feeling of them being in your ear once you're used to them.The control scheme is very intuitive compared to other buds. Often you need to choose between being able to control volume on the buds and doing something else, but the swipe control along the stem means that isn't an issue on the Nothings. They don't have a voice assistance control so if that is something you want then you will need to choose another earbud.Battery life is alright for most purposes, you can't get away with falling asleep with them in like other buds but they should last you through a day of work if you use your lunch break to put them back in the case.Overall I think these are really good earbuds for the price point but you should be aware that you are making sacrifices somewhere. They're more akin to buying a mid range phone than a flagship killer.

I was not expecting much due to the price but I've been really impressed by these little ear buds. The sound quality is fantastic as well as the call quality. I was not expecting much in terms of the nose cancelling but it is honestly absolutely fantastic for the price. I have a pair of Sony wh-1000xm4 which is market leading for noise cancelling, and whilst not on par with them, it does not make me miss them when I use these when out and about. Only downside is the volume control can be a bit fiddly and hard to get used to, and would have preferred a swipe function for this but is a minor point.PROS- Great sound and call quality.- Really good noise cancelling.- Stylish (IMO)- Battery life is fine more me before I need to recharge back in the case.- Very easy to connect with modern Google/ Android devices.CONS- Volume control is a bit fiddly and you often over lower/ increase more than you want to.- Battery life is probably a bit low for some (power users who use constantly for many hours straight) before you need to recharge.