Nothing Ear Open review: slim, stylish and sporty in equal measure

Introduction

Nothing has pumped out several generations of wireless earbuds now, but all have pretty much stuck to same style. Even the AirPods-aping Ear Stick still sat inside your ears, limiting situational awareness and lacking a limpet-like seal to keep them secure while working out. The Nothing Ear Open is out to change that, with a true open fit that should add a bit more fitness focus.

Rather than going down the clip-style route seen on the Huawei FreeClip and Bose Ultra Open Earbuds, the Ear Open has bone conduction buds and hook-style rivals like the Shokz Open Fit in its sights. They’ll arrive at a considerably lower $149/£129/€149 price point, and unsurprisingly put a new twist on Nothing’s signature styling. But do they sound as good as they look?

Design & build: see-through meets skinny

There’s no mistaking the Ear Open as anything other than a Nothing product. The see-through charging case; the high contrast black-on-white buds; and the transparent casing that shows off the circuitry lurking within are all present and correct. Unlike the firm’s more mainstream efforts there are no colour choices: white is the option at launch.

The buds themselves are properly dinky, with pretty much all the internals contained in the driver housing. The ear hooks are slim silicone numbers, capped in a metal counterweight that looks a lot more high-end than the price would suggest. You’ll still stand out with a pair of these wrapped around your ears than a traditional pair of wireless earbuds, but they’re much more streamlined than the other open fit wireless buds we’ve seen lately. Top marks to Nothing for slimming down the Ear Open as much as it has.

That’s true of the charging case, too. It’s still bigger than any of the cases you get with traditional wireless earbuds, but is suitably slim and doesn’t eat up an awful lot of pocket or bag space. The buds slot home easily and magnets hold them firmly in place, so I never worried about stashing them incorrectly and returning to a flat battery. How well the clear plastic will hold up to the rigours of daily use remains to be seen, but it stayed scuff-free throughout my testing.

An IP54 rating is decent, if not quite class-leading for fitness focused earphones like these. The Soundcore AeroFit is IPX7 rated, and is even cheaper still. The Open Ear will still survive the sweatiest workouts, though, and won’t lose composure in the rain.

I found the fit to be a mixed bag. The right bud looped perfectly over my outer ear, lining the driver up nicely with my ear canal, but the left bud sat in a more awkward position and didn’t feel quite as secure. The hook design meant it never actually came off my ear, even while running, but it meant there was always a slight imbalance to the sound. This was true whether I was wearing glasses or not. All ears are different, of course, so YMMV.

The silicone hooks, metal counterweights and plastic driver housings were otherwise comfortable enough I could wear the Ear Open pretty much all day with no ill effects.

Features & battery: marathon man

Nothing’s Clear Voice tech sharpens up your speech while on voice calls quite convincingly. I had no complaints from my contacts, even while walking along busy city streets. If anything I had more trouble hearing them, on account of the open fit letting traffic noise in too easily. It usually meant I had to crank the volume up to levels my phone deemed unsafe.

The Ear Open put in a very good showing on battery life, lasting pretty much dead on Nothing’s claimed eight hours of playback from the buds themselves in my testing. With the case having enough in reserve for a further three charges, it means you’ll comfortably get through multiple days of listening without needing to top the case up.

A ten minute quick charge over USB-C was good enough for roughly two extra hours of playback. There’s no wireless charging here, but given I struggled to find any open fit alternative that do include it, I don’t think it’s a major omission – especially given the keen pricing.

Interface: solve for X

It might use the same smartphone companion app as the rest of Nothing’s earphone line-up, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it looking so bare: the Ear Open is pretty basic, with just a few settings available for tweaking. There’s no high quality codec on offer, no ANC modes to toggle through, and no ear fit test.

You can pick what the double- and triple-pinch gestures do, and change what happens with a single or double pinch-and-hold action, but only from a limited list. You can’t mix-and-match, either: double- and triple-pinches are only good for skipping tracks, while the pinch-and-hold gestures are just for volume. Any one of ’em can launch Nothing’s chatGPT-integrated voice assistant, though, as long as you have the GPT app installed.

It’s great to see a low latency option for the best possible audio sync when watching videos or playing games, and the dual connection is very handy if you regularly bounce between gadgets. Google Fast Pair speeds up the pairing process on Android phones, too.

The biggest reason to download is the extensive audio equaliser. The more basic version lets you pick between four presets or tweak bass, mid and treble individually. Head to the Advanced section, though, and you get a full eight-band parametric EQ with exact frequency filters. Some will say this is overkill for an open fit earbud, but I’d rather have the option than not.

Sound quality: feel it coming in the air tonight

Nothing hasn’t gone for anything fancy like bone conduction here, sticking instead with a tried-and-tested dynamic driver setup. The custom-built 14.2mm driver uses lighter components than some open fit rivals to keep weight in check, and the driver cone has a titanium coating for better high frequency control.

Open fit earbuds start at a big disadvantage to in-ear style ones, as they have zero isolation and simply can’t compete on the sense of presence. The Open Ear is no different, with everything I listened to sounding too airy and recessed for critical listening. There’s just not a lot of depth to the sound, with basically zero sub-bass. Bass in general is pretty anaemic, even with some EQ tweaks, while the opposite end of the frequency range can come across as sharp or sibilant once you crank the volume to account for any background noise. I rate Shokz more highly for overall sound quality.

Where you listen has a big impact on the sound; I couldn’t hear podcasts at all while on the London Underground. On the other hand, the Open Ear is top notch for situational awareness; being able to have conversations perfectly without relying on transparency modes, hearing approaching cars while on public roads and even just knocks at the door while working from home are what makes Open Fit so useful. In quieter environments the Ear Open delivered decent mid-range clarity, especially around vocal frequencies.

Sound leakage is inevitable on a product like this. Nothing has done its best to minimise it, pointing the drivers towards your ear canals and sending reverse sound waves out the rear acoustic ports; with a bit of background noise you’re probably fine, but my wife could hear my music while in the same quiet home office.

Nothing Ear Open verdict

Nothing has effectively translated its trademark transparent design to a new earphone category, in a way that should have more established rivals looking over their shoulders. The Nothing Ear Open’s slim dimensions and compact case are almost best-in-class, and sound quality is really rather good too, while still keeping you aware of your surroundings.

I wasn’t fully convinced by the fit, and thought water resistance was a little basic given how fitness-friendly the buds are. Open-fit earphones aren’t great in every environment, and with only average sound quality even in quieter areas I wouldn’t recommend them as your only pair. But given a competitive price, they’re a slam dunk second set for workouts and cycle commutes.

Nothing Ear Open technical specifications

Drivers	14.2mm dynamic
ANC	No
Bluetooth version	Bluetooth 5.3
Codecs supported	AAC, SBC
Durability	IP54
Battery life	8hrs (buds), 24hrs (case)
Dimensions	51x41x14mm, 8g (buds, each) 126x44x19mm, 62g (case)