Nothing Headphone (a)

I don't have any personal experience with Nothing Headphones (1), but when they were launched a while ago, they were met with global acclaim because, despite a relatively high introductory price, they embody everything consumers love about Nothing. They push the aesthetic boundaries with striking designs, they think outside the box, and they are willing to challenge established norms with a more outspoken strategy.

And it seems to have worked - Headphones (1) are a sales success, too, but at the same time, one could easily argue that a headset costing just under £300 is simply too expensive for many to even be relevant. So, just as Nothing did with the (a) series in their smartphone line-up, they are doing the same with headphones.

Here is Nothing Headphone (a), a headset that looks a lot like its more expensive big brother, but is being introduced for around £100 less.

Fortunately, the general key elements of the design remain. Physical buttons are located along the edge of the enormously square ear cups, giving you access to ANC, volume and a host of other features. It works brilliantly, and this analogue user paradigm is something you notice and appreciate every single day. Truly.

The construction itself is solid too. I would have liked a little more PU foam under the top for extra padding, as the pressure from above on the skull is noticeable after a few hours, but it's far more comfortable than a lot of other headphones in the same price range. However, it's a bit of a shame that they can't be folded up into something a little more portable, and that Nothing hasn't included a case for the consumer. Yes, they're cheaper than the Nothing Headphone (1), but they're still not exactly cheap headphones. You get a really thin bag, and that's it, and you feel a bit silly when you take what looks like a fancy sick bag from a RyanAir aeroplane out of your bag, which is used to transport a headset costing around £200.

Other than that, it's hard to find fault with them. They are IP52-certified against rain, weigh just over 300 grams, which you don't really notice on your head, and the battery lasts for something like 75 hours with active noise cancellation turned on. So, all in all, they have pretty solid specifications.

Inside, we find 40mm custom drivers with LDAC and Hi-Res certification, backed up by Nothing's own static spatial audio setup. In addition to the fancy codecs above, we also have both AAC and SBC, and they come with Bluetooth 5.4, which delivered both solid range and sharp connection, both via single and dual-device connection in the test window.

Even the microphone, which is divided into three separate units with so-called "ENC", which is a kind of noise algorithm, worked really well, and I was really positively surprised by the daily use scenario consisting of long calls with friends and family, music and podcast playback, and ongoing volume adjustment and the like via the buttons I described earlier.

There are additional EQ settings for those who download Nothing's app, and you can even use the button on the side as a shutter for your camera, even if you don't have a Nothing phone - you just need to have the camera open beforehand. It's the little things, isn't it?

Nothing Headphone (a) is among the better semi-cheap headsets I've tested in a long time. I say "semi" because this price for a set of headphones can't really be classified as cheap, but rather cheaper. That said, these are really solid headphones that have been created out of a desire to stand out aesthetically, but just as much to shape the product according to the consumer's actual wishes and preferences.

That's why it's really, really easy to recommend them, even though Nothing really should have given us a case...