Nothing Ear (3a) Review

Design

• Sleek transparent design
• Pinch controls
• Clever new LED lights in the case

Let’s be honest, these look pretty much identical to the Ear (a) that they replace. The buds have the same squeeze controls, the glossy plastic case is around the same pocket-friendly size, and they’ve got a pairing button to make life easier.

There’s now a fun pink colour to go with the white, black and yellow options, though, and I like the addition of a more informative LED system in the case, which flashes in different ways for pairing mode, battery level, charging status, firmware updates and more. It’s neat, and functions well.

I’m a fan of Nothing’s distinct transparent look, and I find the customisable pinch controls responsive, although sometimes a little fiddly. However, one downside is that the “pill box” case is definitely tricky to open one-handed.

A slight but appreciated change is that these now fit more securely and come with an “extra small” tip size, so they’ll fit more people, too. They still don’t stay in as well as the most secure budget buds (such as the Google Pixel Buds 2a); but, due to the improved fit, I’ve found they have better isolation and noise-cancelling than even the flagship Ear (3). I personally find that the pricier pair don’t cancel noise well enough to use on the London Underground.

Noise Cancellation

• Improved noise cancellation
• Upgraded transparency mode
• The new ear tips block out more noise

I’ve put in the hours testing the ANC of the Nothing Ear (3a) on walks, at home, on two flights, in the London Underground, and more. For me, they’re not only an improvement on the old Ear (a) but also on Nothing’s current flagship Ear (3), which I’ve not found to be all that impressive at nixing noise.

Part of the upgrade feels related to ear tips that feel more secure and comfortable, providing better isolation, but there’s also a stronger ANC effect in general.

Is it class-leading, though? Not quite. I find that it does fine with low rumbles, handling the background drone of cabin noise in a Boeing 737 (measured to be 82dB) pretty well and reducing the sound to a less-distracting hum rather than silence.

I played music, podcasts and videos at 50% volume in these conditions and found them audible, but you’re likely to want to dial up the volume a little bit over that hum. They do an adequate job cancelling midrange and higher frequencies, too, but conversational chatter can get through, and while walking around I found I tended to hear wind noise in the microphones.

The performance is solid rather than excellent. The OnePlus Buds 4 or Soundcore Liberty 5 are the better noise-cancellers. Transparency is good on the Nothings, though, and definitely a clear upgrade in this department. I’ve been able to hold conversations while leaving the buds in, and sounds around me felt natural.

Features

Just like the original Ear (a), the Nothing Ear (3a) has a good number of extra features if you download the companion Nothing X app. These include an ear tip fit test, multipoint for dual device connectivity, custom controls, and a low-lag mode for gaming. There are also updated features, like a new advanced parametric equaliser (handy for fine-tuning your sound) and a fixed spatial audio mode, which isn’t that useful.

The headline feature is that these now have on-board storage for some slightly questionable recording features, both for short snapshots of what you’re hearing in the earbuds, and for recording calls. You enable both by pinching both earbuds at the same time, while listening or while on a call.

Let’s discuss audio snapshots first, as they feel slightly less obviously problematic than call recordings. Essentially, this can record something currently playing through your earbuds in a window of 30 to 60 seconds. You can turn on pre-recording, and that’ll capture what you’ve heard up to 30 seconds before you press the buttons, but using this turns off LDAC.

Essentially, whichever you choose, this is a 60-second maximum recording, and might be good if you’re capturing ideas from a video you’re watching or a podcast you’re listening to. I wouldn’t find much use in it, but some people might. All recordings are saved to the Nothing X app.

Call recordings are exactly what they say they are. They take the audio of your call and save it to the app – it’s only available in selected regions and off by default. Thankfully, you get a little note telling you to ask permission first.

In a call with my wife, we were both able to hear a loud warning and countdown to the start of the recording (“This call will be recorded in 3, 2, 1”). However, it is a little concerning to imagine how this feature could be misused. Overall, Nothing has built in the right guardrails at this stage, but it is a bit of a strange addition and not one I can see myself using.

AI-powered transcription is also part of the app, of course. There’s a “fast” standard mode, a “precise” mode which takes a little longer, and, unsurprisingly, a paid “Pro” tier with a free trial.

You’re encouraged to try the plan with 120 minutes a month of cloud transcription, but Nothing hasn’t revealed the ongoing cost and says the “exact pricing and subscription plans may vary”, so just be aware that there’s a hidden subscription in the app that you might end up using and needing to pay for.

Battery Life

• Slight battery life improvement
• Total case battery life is virtually unchanged
• Makes for an incremental update

Overall battery life was one of the main flaws of the original Nothing Ear (a), as it claimed just 5.5 hours with ANC on. There’s a slight increase for the new version, with it now going up to 6 hours on a single charge with noise-cancelling on.

Of course, this all increases with ANC off, where it should reach about 10 hours of uninterrupted playback, and a maximum of 42 hours (when factoring in the extra juice in the case, the total should be around 25 hours with ANC on).

This isn’t as much of an improvement as I’d have hoped for from the buds or case. It represents a fairly average battery life for the category. By contrast, the cheaper EarFun Air Pro 4 Plus delivers around 8 hours of use on a single charge with ANC on, while the OnePlus Buds 4 offers 6.5 hours. Google’s Pixel Buds 2a have a smaller case battery, but should still go for up to 7 hours from the buds with ANC.

Advertisement

It’s worth remembering that the battery life isn’t only relevant for your expected amount of use of the buds, but also for how long they’ll last; all batteries inevitably degrade over time, but if you’ve got more battery to start with, they should last you for more years of use!

To check the claims, I ran a battery drain test playing back music over the earbuds from a Spotify playlist at 50% volume for three hours (with ANC on) using an iPhone 17 Pro (so the AAC codec), and I saw them drop from 100% to 65%, suggesting that they should actually last a fair bit longer than Nothing’s quoted battery life, as long as you listen without turning up the volume.

It’s a refreshing result, and even if battery discharge isn’t always perfectly linear, it bodes well. Using LDAC instead of AAC would likely reduce battery life, which could help explain why Nothing’s official figure is lower.

Sound Quality

• New 12mm dynamic drivers for punchier bass
• Bass-heavy default tuning
• Full 8-band equaliser in the app

Sound is subjective and a lot of people find heavy bass desirable; but, to my ears, the Ear (3a) just has too much thump by default. They’re boomy and muffled, with Sam Fender and Olivia Dean’s Rein Me In sounding like a woolly mess on the stock tuning. Nothing calls this default setting “Balanced”, but that’s far from accurate.

Advertisement

I listened to Hit the Wall by Gracie Abrams and felt much the same about the overwhelming bass, but here you can hear a lovely rendition of her shimmery vocals. My fix would be to use either the custom “Simple Equaliser” or the 8-band parametric “Advanced Equaliser” in the Nothing X app. Here, you can tame the bass and slightly bump up the mids to your taste.

With these slight tweaks, I found they sounded significantly better, but still didn’t quite provide the most detailed listen. Because I used them on both my iPhone 17 Pro and Nothing Phone (3), I can confirm you can hear a little bit more texture and nuance when using LDAC on Android.

Don’t bother with the presets in the “Simple” tab. These all take a heavy-handed approach to changing the sound profile, and you’re better off taking the time to get the custom setting sounding just right. There will also be “expert-tuned” EQs to download from the “Explore” tab, which may end up being a fun way to try different sounds out, and you can share EQs with your friends.

Sadly, I don’t think much of Nothing’s take on “fixed” spatial audio. It’s hollow and echoey, and doesn’t add anything to Dolby Atmos tracks. I’d avoid it.

Should you buy it?