Apologies for the delay in replying to this! I had some initial thoughts but ideally wanted to spend some focussed time testing out that headline Latency Mode before reporting back.
Firstly, I’m really happy to see continued updates to the ear (1) app and device firmware; it’s telling of Nothing’s commitment to improving their devices post-launch and fills the end user with confidence that things will keep getting better with time.
Transparency Mode noise reduction - for me, this was the most noticeable change that the update provided. I use Transparency Mode at work and whilst static was never really a problem when content is playing, it was audible between tracks and whenever music/media was paused. I’m happy to say the static has indeed decreased, adding a bit of polish to the overall listening experience.
Latency Mode - I tried out this feature straight after the update was released and didn’t notice any immediate difference when watching videos on Youtube or Netflix. When toggling the mode on/off and focussing closely on the mouths of those talking, it was difficult to observe any significant improvement.
Whilst playing games, however, I did start to see a marginal reduction in the delay between inputting an action and hearing a sound, but it was definitely marginal. I chose to play Pokémon on a GBA emulator, where every keypress in a menu results in an audible chime, toggling Latency Mode on/off seemed to have a more pronounced effect here.
One other area that I observed an improvement was playing/pausing/skipping tracks using Spotify. There has always been a delay when navigating tracks whilst listening using Bluetooth on Spotify, but again, when toggling Latency Mode on/off, things felt a little more snappy and responsive when using both the onscreen controls and earbud gestures.
Hopefully, that’s helpful, thank you to the teams behind these improvements, we love to see them!
