Waiting for Nothing products to test are like Christmas presents.
Some stay for a short while and are memorable. Some are those tiny surprises that somehow stay with you forever.
The Ear (3a) is one of those devices.
It not only draws attention to you, but somehow makes you feel a little different altogether. From the design, to the packaging, to the whole experience of using an audio device, the Ear (3a) has pretty much everything it needs to be a very good pair of earbuds for the money.
And I’ve been using them for about a month and more. So here’s what I think.
First Impressions
The unboxing is as minimal as it gets. You get the earbuds, the case, a charging cable and that’s pretty much it. Nothing style, as you’d expect.
I wanted to try the pink colour this time and I got one. So good to read my mind there, team Nothing. The case immediately feels like a Nothing product, but it isn’t exactly the same design we’ve seen before. It’s a little softer and rounder, and those three LEDs on the front are actually quite nice. They’re simple, but they tell you what’s happening without making you open the app every five seconds.
The earbuds themselves are also really light at around 4.5g each. They’re comfortable enough that I could wear them for long periods without constantly being reminded that they’re sitting in my ears. And yes, they’re IP54 rated too, so your normal sweat, dust and occasional splash aren’t really something you need to worry about.
Basically, they look like Nothing earbuds.
And that’s a good thing.
Audio
Now this is where things get interesting. I have both the Ear (3) and Ear (3a), so I had a pretty unfair comparison sitting right next to me.
The Ear (3) is obviously the more premium one. The sound is cleaner. The details are better. The treble feels more refined, the bass has more control and there’s just more happening when you’re actually sitting down and listening to music properly. The Ear (3a) falls short here.
But, and this is important, it doesn’t fall that far short. The 12mm drivers give the Ear (3a) a nice amount of bass and energy. Out of the box, I found it slightly bass-heavy for my taste, but Nothing X gives you plenty of room to play around with the sound.
And that’s probably where the Ear (3a) makes sense. I’m not sitting down every evening with a pair of earbuds thinking, “Let’s analyse the separation between these instruments.”
I’m listening to Spotify while working. I’m watching YouTube. I’m taking calls. I’m watching something before sleeping. I’m walking around.
And for all of that, the Ear (3a) sounds really good. You also get LDAC support, which is a nice addition at this price, along with Bluetooth 6.0.
So no, it isn’t going to replace the Ear (3) for me. But that’s not really what it’s trying to do.
Features
Nothing has packed quite a lot into these little things. You’ve got ANC, Transparency Mode, dual-device connectivity, low-lag mode, Find My Earbuds, spatial audio, an 8-band EQ and LDAC. There are also three microphones on each earbud for calls and noise reduction.
But then Nothing did what Nothing usually does. It added something slightly weird.
The Ear (3a) can record audio through the earbuds. You can record calls and sounds around you, and the earbuds have their own storage for recordings.
Is it useful?
Sometimes.
Is it something I use every day?
Absolutely not.
But I actually like that Nothing keeps experimenting with features like this. It’s better than having another pair of earbuds that does exactly what every other pair of earbuds does. Although if you’re asking me what I would have preferred instead, wireless charging would probably be pretty high on that list.
Battery Life
Battery life is good. Not amazing. Not terrible. Just good. And that’s basically how I’ve experienced it. I wasn’t carrying a charger around thinking, “Oh God, my earbuds are dying.” They just worked. USB-C charging is obviously convenient, and a quick top-up gives you enough listening time to get through a decent chunk of the day.
Daily Usage
This is probably where the Ear (3a) impressed me the most. They’re light. They’re comfortable.
They don’t constantly fall out. And the controls are physical pinch controls rather than just tapping the stem and hoping you’ve actually registered the gesture. I prefer this. You get an actual click, so you know you’ve done something.
The Nothing X app lets you customise these controls too, which means you can set things up according to how you actually use them.
I’ve used the Ear (3a) while working, walking, traveling, watching videos, listening to music and taking calls. Nothing particularly dramatic happened. And that’s actually the point. After a month, I stopped thinking about them. I just picked them up and used them. For a pair of earbuds, that’s probably one of the best compliments I can give.
Noise Cancellation
The ANC is surprisingly good. Nothing rates it at up to 45dB, and you’ve got different levels as well as adaptive ANC. In real-world use, it does a good job taking away the annoying background stuff, air conditioning, traffic, people talking and general noise around you. No, it’s not going to magically turn the world into a silent room. But for this price, I wasn’t expecting it to. And I was actually quite happy with the result.
Transparency mode is also pretty decent. Voices don’t sound completely unnatural, and I can leave the earbuds in when someone starts talking to me without immediately having to take them out.
Nothing X
INothing X is probably one of those apps you don’t think much about until you use an app from another earbud manufacturer. Everything I need is basically sitting there. ANC, transparency, EQ, controls, connectivity, firmware updates and all the little settings that I actually care about.
And I really like how much control Nothing gives you over the sound.
The 8-band EQ means I don’t have to simply accept how the earbuds sound out of the box. I can actually spend a few minutes tweaking them until they sound the way I like. If you’re using a Nothing Phone, things get even more interesting with features like ChatGPT integration through the earbuds. Will I use every single feature? Probably not.
But that’s not really the point.
Nothing is slowly making its products feel like they’re part of the same family. The phone, earbuds, headphones and the software all have these little connections between them. And when you’re already inside that world, it makes the experience feel a lot more intentional.
That’s something I appreciate about Nothing. They don’t just want you to buy another pair of earbuds. They want the earbuds to feel like they belong with everything else you own.
The Finale
The Ear (3a) isn’t the Ear (3). And it doesn’t need to be. Having both makes that very obvious.
The Ear (3) is the one I’d pick when I want the better audio experience. It’s more refined, more detailed and simply feels like the premium option. The Ear (3a) is different. It’s the one I’d recommend when I want something that does almost everything I need without asking me to spend flagship money.
It sounds good.
The ANC works.
The battery is good enough.
It’s comfortable.
The Nothing X app is great.
And after using it for more than a month, I think that’s probably what I like most about it. It’s not trying too hard to be the best earbuds in the world. It’s just trying to be a really good pair of earbuds that happens to look and feel like a Nothing product.
And honestly?
That’s more than enough for me.
