Nothing Ear 3

I love a lot of what {Nothing} is doing, I just have to admit it honestly. As the lovely {Mr. Mobile} says (seriously, watch his videos), "fun" is a totally underrated basis for a purchasing decision. Too often we are drawn to pure function, but {Carl Pei}'s start-up, which is today a behemoth in its own right, wants to take its starting point from something completely different; namely technology's ability to fascinate with striking aesthetics.

There is no real reason for {Nothing}'s design profile to be transparent. It doesn't help battery life, charging speed, or the like that the case lid is completely transparent, and it doesn't make the two devices better that you can also see the insides through the transparent outer shell. It's just because... well, because it's cool.

First of all, {Nothing} has really done something with the design this time. The lid itself is plastic, but where the devices are placed, it's all covered in shiny aluminium, and there's a kind of refinement, a process that's clearly been crucial to {Nothing}, and it shows. Both the case and devices are IP54 certified, there's wireless charging, and although the battery life is the biggest disappointment with only about 20 hours of actual use divided between devices and case, this is a great gadget all the way through.

There are new 12-millimetre custom drivers here, which still not only sound absolutely brilliant, but actually have a kind of... well, attitude about how sound should be cut. It's not that they sound significantly different from a pair of {Google Pixel Buds Pro 3}, or a pair of {AirPods} for that matter, but there's a kind of crispness, a tuning that gives them character. They run in the 20Hz-40kHz frequency range, and they just sound pretty good all the way through.

Likewise, the active noise reduction is completely and utterly reliable, although without coming close to the absolute giants of the industry. Here it's worth mentioning the {AirPods Pro} and {Bose}'s various {QuietComfort} in-ears, but for that £180, which is actually a pretty significant price jump, it's still a good deal.

And then there is the whole {Super Mic} thing. It's actually a microphone that sits on the side of the case, and the idea is that this "super mic" can be used to, for example, record and transcribe meetings, and which therefore synchronises with your {Nothing} phone's {Essential Space}. It's not a breakthrough, it's a set of MEMS beamforming microphones that can separate noise from an actual sound source, and use an AI service for transcription. I am not saying it's useless, on the contrary, this is an example of a slightly original new idea, but it must be said that it requires a phone with an "Essential Space". That is, one from {Nothing}.

Besides, it's mostly about the sound profile. There's Bluetooth 5.4, there's LDAC support for hi-res audio, and both connectivity, active noise cancellation, Transparency Mode, and actual daily use add up to a host of positive aspects of a product that may cost more, but has also been refined since the first set of {Nothing} in-ears.

It's therefore surprisingly easy to recommend the {Nothing Ear 3}, which once again proves that {Nothing} has designers who think outside the box, but never forget to deliver where it matters.