Nothing Ear 3a – Cheaper and with new special function

They have hi-res audio, they have noise reduction, and they have a well-made companion app that brings some new features.

These are Nothing’s mid-range headphones, but we’ll make it clear right away, that this is Nothing Ear 3a, but there are no headphones called Ear 2a. This is instead a sequel to Ear a which came about two years ago, in 2024.

Just over a thousand

Intermediate price in Nothing’s world means that Nothing Ear 3a costs SEK 1,300. For that price, you get a lot that is offered in more expensive headsets, but with clear limitation. Even the predecessors clearly showed that the deepest, most detailed music sound and the most effective noise reduction are reserved only for models that cost more than this.

Nothing Ear 3a benefits from the fact that they support high-resolution audio, and in Android phones that support it, I can therefore get better sound and more detail than the iPhone, which lacks that support. Worse is the noise reduction in these headphones because even though I test the fit in the app and get confirmation that it is perfect, the noise reduction is weak. It is noticeable when I turn it off and on but not much more than that. Even keyboard clicks from the neighboring table in the office are clearly heard through the noise reduction and if there are more disturbing sounds in the environment, it has a clear negative effect on the music sound.

Just like with other headphones from Nothing, regardless of price range, you manage settings in the Nothing X app. It is clear and easy to use and also offers some bonus functions. on paper really fun ones. Because Nothing Ear 3a should support both call recording and give you the ability to record whatever you’re listening to, in short snippets to save and share. Unfortunately, call recording is not active on the Swedish market, but we hope it will be, because it is useful to be able to record calls without the phone itself necessarily having its own support for it.

60 second audio clips to share

Recording what you listen to is possible in any case, even here in Sweden, and the function is really smart. You simultaneously pinch the stick of both handsets and then up to 60 seconds of sound clips are saved, including the sound that was played before you pressed. You can choose exactly how long before in the settings, a total of 60 second clips and start up to 30 seconds before you pressed. So convenient if you heard something fun or interesting in a podcast and quickly want to share it with someone. The audio clip is saved as a wav audio file you can save locally or share directly. Unfortunately, the recording doesn’t work at all if you have LDAC, High Definition Audio active, so in order to record I first have to manually go in and temporarily turn it off which causes the headphones to restart. Sin.

When I make calls with the headphones, the sound is acceptable but not much more than that. The headphones are relatively good at filtering out disturbing noise in the background and emphasizing the voice, so when I’m standing on an escalator and talking it doesn’t disturb the person I’m calling, but when it’s messier and louder around me. The sound in quiet environments is noticeably tinny, so that, together with the weak noise reduction, is the Achilles heel of the headphones.