Last month we released two new audio products, Nothing Ear (a) - the perfect everyday buds, and Nothing Ear - designed for meticulous audiophiles.
Those familiar with our products will know that Nothing Ear is the successor to Ear (2). Maintaining its iconic design, the story of Nothing Ear lies primarily on the inside.
In this thread, we’ve delved into the internals of Nothing Ear to create a macro teardown photography series, highlighting all the improvements that our teams have made and admiring some of the great engineering within.
Many of us here at Nothing are fans of iFixIt and their contributors - we were inspired by their great teardown content and guides and decided to have a go ourselves. For our series, we took a fast-tracked route and picked one of each component straight from our production line, saving us some fiddly disassembly.
We worked with a London-based photographer, David Wilman, to create some compositions of the inner workings in high detail. The process was a lot of fun, so we hope you enjoy the teardown images!
Let’s Look Inside
Inside the Left Ear
🔴 Flexible Printed Circuit (FPC)
🟢 Pressure/touch sensor
Despite their large size, the earbud FPCs intricately fold into the housing of each earbud, bridging all of the components such as the batteries and drivers to the main PCBA. Each earbud contains 3 mics - you’ll spot one of these at the end of the FPC in the image above. The other two are positioned on the main PCB - more on that later…
The touch sensor is what allows for pinch inputs from the user - allowing them to skip tracks, switch between noise cancellation modes, and adjust volume.
Circular Earbud Components
🔴 11mm driver - Ceramic diaphragm
🟠 Driver rear with 4 vents
🟢 46 mAh earbud battery
One of the biggest upgrades to Nothing Ear is the new ceramic driver. Rarely seen in audio products, the ceramic material is distinctly rigid, making it a great choice for delivering crisp highs.
On the rear of the driver, you’ll see two additional vents, making a total of 4, to allow 10% more airflow within each bud compared to Ear (2).
Each earbud also contains a 46 mAh battery, which is a noticeable improvement compared to the 33 mAh batteries in Ear (2).
Elements of the Earbud Stem
🟢 Transparent stem shell
🔵 Antenna module
🟠 Printed Circuit Board Assembly (PCBA)
The stems of Nothing’s audio products have maintained the same iconic silhouette since the ear (1). Here you see the main components of Nothing Ear that contribute to creating this shape. The words ‘Nothing Ear’ in the Ndot font are etched onto each transparent stem shell and are easily read when assembled on top of the black antenna module.
A Closer Look at the Earbud PCBAs
🔵 Mic for voice/talk
🟢 Feedforward mic for ANC and ENC
🟡 Bluetooth audio SoC
🔴 Battery charge chip
🟠 Touch/press chip
Above are the front and rear sides of our earbud PCBAs, featuring a series of chips, mics and 2 connectors for the FPCs and touch sensors.
Together, the 3 mics and an AI-noise reduction algorithm detect a voice, enhance it, and filter out unwanted background noises in real time.
Inside the Ear Case
🟢 500 mAh case battery
🟠 Case PCBA
🔵 Wireless charge coil
The largest electronic component inside the charge case is the battery - Nothing Ear has a battery life that lasts 25% longer than Ear (2). The larger 500 mAh case battery and 46 mAh earbud battery mean a combined battery life of 40.5 hours with the case and 8.5 hours of non-stop playback on a single charge (with ANC off).
Our case PCBA and charge coil are uniquely shaped to fit inside of our distinctive charge case design, more on that below.
Case PCBA
🟢 Pairing button
🔵 USB-C port
🟠 Inductor
🟡 Charge chip
Above is the PCBA from inside the Nothing Ear charge case, featuring the pairing button, USB-C charge port and all the logic and components required to safely charge the earbuds.
Elements of the Ear Case
Contributing to Nothing Ear’s iconic appearance is the transparent charge case with its aesthetically pleasing unibody design; it’s made from a pressure resistant PU material, with 89% light transmission for a glass-like appearance. The electronic case components seen in the other images are all housed within the white central housing which is composed of two parts.
On the bottom right you see a series of magnets, the pairing button, case hinge and coloured dots which indicate where each bud should be placed.
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We hope you enjoyed diving into Nothing Ear’s improved internals! We had a lot of fun working on this project, learning about each part in more detail and composing the shots alongside our photographer.
Giveaway [Now Closed]
If you’d like to win a pair of Nothing Ear in the colour of your choice, like this post and comment below your answer to this question: which part of the Nothing Ear teardown made you appreciate the engineering behind these earbuds?
T&Cs: the giveaway will end on May 28th at 12pm BST! 3 winners who have liked and commented on the post will be selected at random, and given 1x pair of Nothing Ear in the colour of their choice (subject to availability), 1x Entei plushie, and 1x Nothing pen and notebook. A member of the Nothing team will be in touch via DM to inform you of your win. The winners must respond to this DM within 48 hours to claim their prize, or a new winner will be selected. Please note, there some regions we may not be able to ship to. Nothing staff or members of their family are not eligible to win 🎵
Winners will need to provide some personal data to claim their prize. Read our privacy policy for more information. You can familiarise yourself with our privacy practices, and contact us at privacy@nothing.tech if you have any questions.
