Most wireless earbuds have one crucial drawback: they are difficult to stay in your ears. This is especially annoying when you are exercising, running or just walking around. Meet the Nothing Ear (open), which adds clever hooks that go around your ear to keep the earbuds in place.
As their name suggests, these are Nothing’s first open earbuds. They ditch the in-ear silicone eartips and instead place their 14.2mm drivers next to your ear canal. Nothing has developed a new Sound Seal system with directional speakers to keep sound leakage at bay.
You get the now signature Nothing look with transparent design elements, IP54 dust and water protection for both the earbuds and their charging case, and a claimed 30-hour playback time.
Has Nothing succeeded with its first open, portable stereo buttons (OWS)? Yes, but they come with some caveats.
Design
Nothing excels at creating a recognizable brand design, and the ear (open) is no exception. The main compartment housing the drivers has the signature transparent appearance and reveals the stacked PCB and squeeze control sensors.
The main compartment is linked to the ear hooks, which have a nickel-titanium wire on the inside, coated with soft-touch plastic. The end of each earbud has an aluminum light – an integral part of Nothing’s “three-point balance system”.
Although each earbud weighs 8.1 grams (almost double the average TWS earbud), you won’t feel the bulk thanks to the ergonomic, interchangeable earhook design and great weight distribution.
We found the Nothing Ear (open) to be comfortable for all-day use thanks to the ergonomic design and soft-touch materials on the ear hooks. Sometimes you really forget you’re wearing them. For those of you who wear glasses, we’re happy to report that the ear hooks weren’t bothersome at all, which isn’t always a given when it comes to ear hooks.
But despite their comfortable fit, the ear (open) couldn’t stay in place in one key area: at the tip of the ear canal. That main compartment that housed the drivers would be constantly moving, resulting in a remarkable separation between the earbuds and your ears, allowing in even more outside sound. This resulted in a constant habit of re-adjusting the knobs during our review process and meant we had to turn up the volume most of the time.
The problem is evident not only during fast-paced activities such as running, walking and gym sessions, but also during normal desk work without much exercise. No matter what we tried, we couldn’t get a good fit.
A few words about the charging case: it’s quite wide at 125.9mm (Ugreen dongle for scale), but it’s only 19mm thick, so it fits easily in a pocket or bag. It charges via the USB-C port and omits wireless charging.
Features and associated app
Nothing packed 14.2mm dynamic drivers in the ear (open). None opted for a stepped driver approach, where the drivers are as close to your ears as possible. It is also paired with a Sound Seal system, which claims to minimize sound leakage via reverse sound waves captured by the microphones.
We already discussed the mediocre fit in the design section, and we have to repeat that here, because there is a lot of sound leakage. You should be wary of people hearing what you are playing, even at lower volume levels.
Ear (open) pairing via Bluetooth 5.3 and support of the generic AAC and SBC codecs. There is no option for a higher bitrate here. You also get Google Fast Pair and Microsoft Swift Pair for phones and PCs in addition to pairing two devices, which worked perfectly in our tests. We would have liked to see wear detection sensors, which are present on most competitors’ TWS earbuds.
The Nothing
Nothing X app features
None has opted for squeeze control that you operate via special pressure sensors on the sides of each earbud. While it wasn’t the most intuitive implementation, it worked flawlessly during our testing period. You can remap both sides of the tops with double, triple, pinch and hold, and double pinch and hold. We’re happy to report that there’s an option to control the volume via the buttons via pinch and hold.
The app has four pre-installed equalizer options and a custom parametric option that allows detailed adjustment of the frequency response. Nothing has led the way in sound customization, and we’re happy that the Ear (open) received the same attention as the brand’s flagship earbuds. The other cool thing is that users can export their custom sound signatures and also import options from community members.
Ear (open) supports the Find My network and offers a low-latency mode for gaming. If you own a Nothing phone, you can also summon and use ChatGPT directly from the earbuds. Rounding out the specs is an IP54 water and dust resistance rating for both the earbuds and their housing. The IP54 rating for the case is something rarely seen among competitors.
Performance and sound quality
TWS open-ear earbuds aren’t known for particularly detailed sound signatures, but the open-ear (open) ones deliver a pleasant listening experience if you’re not paying attention to the bass. One of the first things you’ll notice is the lack of bass, which isn’t surprising given the loose fit. The Xiaomi buttons 5 those we recently reviewed are in a different league in terms of bass response, while still falling into the OWS buds category.
Aside from the lackluster bass, Ear (open) delivers crisp highs and mids. Vocals and instruments sound rich and vibrant with surprising levels of detail for buttons of this form factor. That’s paired with a great set of EQ adjustments that let you get more out of the ear (open) than the standard presets offer.
You will need to turn up the volume when listening in noisier environments than with in-ear earbuds. My first time at the gym with the ear (open) was overshadowed by the loud music coming from the gym speakers. I used the earbuds at 90% volume, something I don’t resort to with regular earbuds.
Call quality is about average, with the buttons having a hard time isolating my voice in busier environments. Bluetooth connectivity remained top-notch throughout our testing, with no issues even when we stepped outside rooms. Pairing two devices worked flawlessly when switching between a MacBook Pro 14 and iPhone 15 Pro, as did the pinch gestures.
Battery life
Nothing claims that the ear (open) will last up to 8 hours of listening time, while the case offers an additional 22 hours for a total playback time of 30 hours.
In our tests, the earbuds lasted for two weeks of daily use in the office and gym before the red LED indicator on the case started flashing. Please note that talk time will be lower as calls will clear the buttons in approximately 6 hours compared to the 8 hours of media playback time.
When you finally need to charge the ear (open), a quick 10 minute charge will give you 2 hours of use.
Pronunciation
Nothing Ear (open) is one of the most comfortable earbuds we’ve tested to date. Thanks to the soft hooks, they always stay on your ears and you won’t feel ear fatigue, even if you’ve worn them all day. Combined with their signature Nothing design and a great range of features such as two-device pairing, panoramic EQ adjustment and reliable pinch controls.
The Ear (open) aren’t flagship buds in terms of sound output, but they were never designed to compete with the likes of the AirPods Pro or Sony WF-1000XM5s. Nothing offers these buttons for people who want to be aware of their surroundings while commuting or jogging through busy cities, and we can certainly find them appealing to that category of users.
Combined with the flashy design, solid battery life, and great companion app, the Ear (open) is a worthwhile consideration if you’re looking for a pair of open earbuds.
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