Product test

Testing the Nothing Ear (Stick): snazzy design, solid sound, but no noise cancellation

28/10/2022

Translation: Patrik Stainbrook

Nothing’s Ear (Stick) comes in a fancy case, but lacks active noise cancellation. Still, the earbuds convinced me with their design and sound.

No matter if I’m listening to music with the Nothing Ear (Stick) or not: I thoroughly enjoy playing around with the charging case. The headphones sound good, but they’re quite loose and I’m really missing noise cancellation.

Nothing remains true to its transparent design

The Nothing Ear (Stick) charging case is the real looker here. It sets itself apart from other models with its shape. Few would think that it’s a case for in-ear headphones at first. Nothing drew on lipstick cases for comparison. However, I’ve also had people guess it was an asthma inhaler.

Featuring transparent plastic, a white interior and red accents on the side, Nothing is continuing the design previously seen on the Ear (1) and Phone (1). The white interior is exposed on one side of the case. It’s slightly rough and quite tactile, unlike the smooth transparent plastic. I could fiddle with it for hours – opening and closing it over and over again.

Quickly inserted – and quickly dislodged again during sports

The Nothing Ear (Stick) is easy and fast to connect to your smartphone via Fast Pair. Once the headphones are in pairing mode, the smartphone will recognise them and you can connect. The earbuds feature Bluetooth 5.2 and support AAC and SBC as codecs.

After that, you can immediately start using them. With their half-in-ear design, they don’t lodge as deep as proper in-ears. They’re too loose for me. But when walking they’re snug enough. During a workout, they aren’t. They fall out too easily for me. However, Nothing claims there’s been a lot of demand from the community for such earbuds.

According to Nothing, the shape should fit most ears. Seems like my little ears are the exception. A common trend I noticed with other fixed half-in-ear models such as the AirPods or even older headphones. I insert them, but after an hour they press so hard that I have to take them out. But this isn’t true for all ears. I asked several colleagues who also received test units and none had these problems.

At 4.4 grams each, the Ear (Stick) buds are another 0.6 grams lighter than the Ear (1). I didn’t notice the difference while testing. Both are featherweights. No need to worry about rain or dusty environments with these headphones. They’re IP54 certified, protecting them against splashing water and dust.

Press, don’t tap, and a new old app

You must press the Ear (Stick) to control it. Tapping isn’t enough. According to Nothing, this gives you clearer sensory feedback during operation and also works with wet hands. They also mention that it’s cheaper to produce.

I squeeze the extension of the earbuds to pause or resume playback. Accepting and ending calls also works this way. It’s two presses for the next song and three for the previous one. The headphones meet my standards. It’s important for me to be able to adjust volume levels via my headphones. Here, you’ll need to hold down the Ear (Stick) button. Left to lower and right to raise the volume. However, the feedback isn’t really haptic. The earbuds don’t have any moving parts. Instead, they emit acoustic signals.

Screenshots of Nothing X, the Ear (Stick) app.

If you want to change the assignment of any functions, you can do this in the Nothing X app. It’s basically just an updated and renamed Ear (1) app. In it you’ll also find an equaliser with three controls to adjust the distribution of bass, mids and treble to your taste. You can also activate in-ear detection here, which automatically pauses playback when you take the headphones out of your ear. There’s also a search function that lets the earbuds emit loud alerts and a gaming mode that’s supposed to prevent delays between the on-screen image and audio.

Decent sound – even without noise cancellation

After testing numerous headphones with active noise cancellation, I definitely notice its absence in the Nothing Ear (Stick). They can drown out a lot of ambient noise at up to 125 decibels, but I don’t want to shatter my ear drums. When I’m out and about in the city, it doesn’t bother me much if I can’t hear part of the music because of ambient noise. However, the absence does bug me when it comes to podcasts or audiobooks.

The Nothing Ear (Stick), also features transparent elements.

If the lack of noise cancellation doesn’t bother you or you explicitly want to hear your surroundings, you can enjoy good sound with the Ear (Stick). Good in the sense of a very good average. There’s more volume than I expected from the loose-fitting earbuds. The highs are defined even without maxing things out. The mids sound pleasant and voices can be heard clearly. The bass booms, but remains discreet. This doesn’t build up any noticeable pressure either.

When making calls with the Ear (Stick), there’s one piece of good news: your counterpart will easily hear you. Ambient noise will only be audible to you.

A long battery life and fast charging

I was unable to test Nothing’s promised runtime of up to seven hours due to my unsuitable ears and the resulting discomfort. The total runtime including the charging case battery of up to 29 hours should be about right. If the batteries are empty, recharging them won’t take too long. The headphones supposedly have enough power for a total of nine hours of playback after just ten minutes of charging via the USB-C port. In other words, the earbuds are fully charged and the case’s battery also gets some juice.

The Nothing Ear (Stick) case doesn’t immediately suggest headphones.

The right choice – if you don’t miss noise cancellation

The Ear (Stick) is expected to cost 119 Euros and 109 Swiss francs, respectively, and will be available from November 14. This makes them more expensive than the Ear (1), which were launched a little over a year ago for 99 Euros. At the time, an unbeatable price-performance ratio. Seems Nothing has changed things up, increasing the recommended retail price of the Ear (1) to 149 Euros after debuting the Ear (Stick). The reason for this, apparently, was increased production costs.

With the Nothing Ear (Stick), you get well-fitting in-ear headphones (in most cases). However, they lack the customisation options that models with exchangeable attachments offer. You can expect decent sound, but will have to do without active noise cancellation. In addition, there’s a decent battery and intuitive controls. I like the playful case – especially as a fidgeting toy.

Nothing Ear (Stick) (No noise cancellation, 7 h, Wireless)

Headphones

EUR104,63

Nothing Ear (Stick)

No noise cancellation, 7 h, Wireless

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Jan Johannsen

Senior Editor

Jan.Johannsen@galaxus.de

When I was but a young student, I'd sit in my friend's living room with all my classmates and play on his SuperNES. Since then I've had the opportunity to test out all the newest technology for you. I've done reviews at Curved, Computer Bild and Netzwelt, and have now arrived at Galaxus.de.

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