Introduction
It started a few years ago with a couple of smartphones. Now, Nothing has a wide range of products, including headphones. In fact, Nothing’s earbuds lineup has gained impressive popularity, and it has its fans in the office too.
And after a few TWS earbuds, the company is venturing into the premium over-ear territory with the Nothing Headphones (1). The company wants to challenge titans from the likes of Bose, Sony, Apple and Sennheiser, among others.
The Headphone (1) are bringing premium features, along with an aggressive price tag, which should make you think twice before defaulting to the more established brands. The design is very polarizing, but there’s no denying it gets the conversation going.
Unboxing
The Nothing Headphone (1) come in a huge white box, containing a very nice soft shell case, USB-C cable, and a 3.5mm to 3.5mm audio cable that you can use when the battery runs out.
The case is a nice touch and is very well made, but it readily collects dust and hair from your pets.
Design and comfort
One of the centerpiece features of the Headphone (1) is the retro design. Why retro? Because the ear cups imitate old cassette tapes. And stand-out even if not universally liked design is a big part of Nothing’s DNA.
The available colors are White and Black and we have the first one for this review.
The build quality is excellent. It uses a blend of materials – metal, plastic and faux leather for the ear pads. In any case, they feel sturdy and sleek. Maybe even a bit too tight even.
One of our major complaints is the weight of Headphone (1). The pair tips the scale at 329 grams, which is about 80 grams more than the competing solutions from Bose and Sony. Also, the Bose QC Ultra are slightly taller and wider, but considerably thinner. The weight difference is not that important at first, but can be felt after wearing the headphones for hours on end, though.
Additionally, the headband on the Nothing Headphone (1) feels a bit too tight to my taste. Even if I fully loosen the headband, it clamps my head a bit too enthusiastically, which adds to the sense of heftiness after an hour of music streaming.
Another minor issue we had with the headphones is portability. Rivals such as the Sony WH-1000XM6 and the Bose QuietComfort Ultra fold their ear cups to fit in a smaller case, so they don’t take up too much space in your backpack at airports, for example. Despite being reasonably slim, the Headphone (1) case almost fills up my backpack on its own.
Controls
One of the best things about Nothing’s headphones is the controls. The company is going against the current with this approach as most brands prefer to use touch controls on the ear cups, which makes room for mistouches, especially during some activities.
With the Headphones (1), you get actual physical buttons. They are all located on the right side. At the back, you have the volume scroller, which doesn’t provide any tactile feedback and feels more like a free-scroll on a mouse, and also acts as a button for play/pause. Below the scroller, you get a physical paddle used for skipping to the next track or playing the previous one. It’s also used to answer and reject incoming calls. Holding the paddle right or left fast forwards or rewinds the track.
You will find the On/Off switch at the bottom right next to the USB-C port and the 3.5mm audio jack.
And then there’s the dedicated virtual assistant button on the ear cup. The headphones offer integration with Google Assistant and Siri.
Overall, controls are great, but a tactile feedback on the roller would have been made them better. I accidentally turned up the volume when reaching back to scratch my neck, for example. The roller is just too sensitive. I also think positioning them on the front of the would have been more convenient.
Software and features
The Headphone (1) works with a Nothing X companion app on Android and iOS to give you more customization options. The app itself is fairly straightforward and de-cluttered, with a user-friendly interface.
You’ve got the noise cancellation control on the top with Low, Mid, High and Adaptive modes. We recommend the High mode for the best possible experience. You can also use the Transparency mode, which amplifies the ambient sound, and that can be useful when commuting through heavy traffic on a bike or a scooter. Of course, you can turn off NC completely too.
Nothing X app
Since the headphones support Spatial audio too, you can set it to fixed or follow your head movements through the Head tracking mode.
And then there’s the Bass Enhancement and Equalizer settings. The first one is pretty self-explanatory, while the Equalizer offers you granular control over the sound tuning. The Simple tab offers a bunch of presets, and you can even set a custom one yourself. The Advanced tab, on the other hand, will be greatly appreciated by power users and audiophiles as it gives you more precise tuning for each frequency, and you can save different sound profiles.
Simple and Advanced equalizer
The Controls sub-menu grants you access to some of the controls. For instance, the dedicated digital assistant button can be reprogrammed to your liking.
Customize controls
Other notable features and settings include Low lag mode, which is useful when gaming, the ability to switch between AAC and LDAC audio codecs, Over-ear detection (pausing the audio when taking off the headphones) and Dual connection, which allows you to connect to two devices simultaneously. Let’s say your laptop and your smartphone.
Additional features
Performance
Audio quality
The Nothing Headphone (1) rely on two big 40mm dynamic sound drivers, which are fine-tuned in collaboration with the British audio company KEF.
Now, I must say that sound tuning is largely subjective. Some people find bass-heavy sound appealing, especially if they are listening to hip-hop or electronic music more often. However, I find the more balanced sound better. That’s why I find it hard to give these phones an excellent score because the bass can sometimes overpower the vocals and the mids.
The default tuning of the Headphone (1) is a bit too bass-heavy for my taste. Even with the provided sound tuning options, you can feel the powerful bass. Boosting the treble, turning down the bass a notch, and adding a little bit of mid frequencies in the Equalizer menu helps bring out the vocals and the mids more.
That being said, the overall sound quality is still pretty good. Moreover, I think it can easily go head-to-head with the Bose QC Ultra, the Sony WH-1000XM6 and Apple’s AirPods Max. People who like soft, warm-sounding tuning will definitely enjoy Nothing’s headphones.
For watching movies and videos, however, I recommend lowering the bass considerably, otherwise voices sound too boom-ish.
Microphones and call quality
The Headphone (1) is equipped with a total of 6 microphones, 3 on each side. However, the headphones use only 4 of those mics for calls.
Microphones
Unfortunately, this is one of the biggest downsides of this pair of headphones. The call quality is not up to snuff. I got constant complaints about the call quality on the other end, even in quiet environments. So if you are planning on using those for calls very often, you might want to look somewhere else.
Noise cancellation
Contrary to our audio quality experience, the noise cancellation performance is perhaps one of the best I’ve tried. Nothing advertises up to 42 dB depth and a frequency range of 2000 Hz. But no matter how good your active noise cancellation is, if the passive NC isn’t good, performance deteriorates.
Thankfully, Nothing got both of those right. The passive isolation is so good, you won’t need maximum noise cancellation in milder noise environments. Turning on the ANC blocks out most noise. They are perfect for commuting in the city or travelling by plane.
ANC-wise, the Headphone (1) are definitely up there with the best.
Battery life
Nothing is one of the few manufacturers that openly discloses the battery capacity of its headphones. The Headphone (1) offers an impressive 1,040 mAh cell that takes up to two hours to fully charge. However, the fast charging capabilities aren’t bad. You get about 2.4 hours of audio playback with ANC on for just 5 minutes on the charger.
According to Nothing, the Headphone (1) can last you up to 35 hours with ANC on and up to 80 hours without ANC. But that’s with the AAC audio codec. Switching to LDAC lowers the runtimes to 30 and 54 hours, respectively.
My experience shows that these numbers are more or less accurate. In AAC mode, the pair comfortably reached the 35-hour mark with ANC, while LDAC lowered the runtime by a few hours.
No matter whether the ANC is on or off, the Headphone (1) offers solid battery life. Better even than the competing solutions from Bose and Apple.
Conclusion
The Nothing Headphone (1) is the talented kid on the sports team who has just started, but he’s as good as everyone else. Nothing did it on the first try. The first over-ear headphones from the company are a success.
Sure, they are rather hefty, not the most portable pair out there, and voice call quality subpar, but they easily match the best in the industry in terms of sound quality, noise cancellation and build quality. The polarizing design grew on me, and I absolutely loved the hardware controls, which are very much unique to the Headphone (1). Not to mention, Nothing’s solution is considerably more affordable than the rest. They are priced at €300 in Europe and $300 in the US, massively undercutting headphones like the Bose QC Ultra and the AirPods Max.
So do I recommend the Nothing Headphone (1)? Yes, they are easy to recommend, especially for people looking to buy adequately priced over-ears with premium features and warm, bassy sound.
