Nothing Headphone A – Cheaper and charming headphones

British Nothing has carved out a niche with smart marketing and different design. They are best known for their mobiles but their first product was a headset and there have been many more headsets since then. This summer saw the release of the first Over Ear headset Nothing Headphone 1, a premium model for SEK 3,500.

Nothing Headphone a that I am testing now costs just under 2000 kroner, yet I recognize most of it. The materials may be cheaper, less metal and glass and more plastic, but they are still square covers that are transparent so you can see some of the electronics inside.

I also recognize the steering. The headset has no less than five buttons (I have to look for a long time for the pairing button on the inside of the cover), all distinctly different and easy to feel the difference. In addition to the pairing button and the on/off button, there is a scroll wheel. It adjusts the volume but you can also tap it to play or pause the music or answer calls. There is also a toggle button that you can press one way or the other. Short presses change the song, long presses rewind the song. Finally, there is a regular button that you can program yourself. By default, it activates the voice assistant, but in the app you can choose from a number of functions, such as toggling noise cancellation or switching between different equalizer modes. In the app there are ready-made modes for more bass (standard), more treble, voice and balanced. I’d like to use the button to switch between standard mode and voice mode when listening to podcasts, but this prevents me from being able to choose which modes I can switch between, I have to rotate between these four modes, and I don’t get an audio signal when I switch modes, so it’s easy to lose count of which equalizer mode I’m in. However, there’s surprisingly little difference between the default modes, and I can’t tell in blind testing which headset is which set to. There is of course manual equalizer in the app as well, and you can also turn on high-resolution audio with Sony’s LDAC technology if you have an Android mobile.

Lasts a long time

Nothing Headphone A are large and they cannot be folded very much so they take up some space in the bag. But the memory foam in the ear cups and on the headband makes them comfortable even when I wear them for a long time.

I can wear them for a really long time too because they have a really long battery life. Up to 135 hours indicates Nothing. Of course, it is not at maximum volume (which is also not needed, the maximum volume is significantly increased), and not with noise reduction, but even with noise reduction and high-resolution LDAC sound, it can handle 62 hours of music playback. In fact, I never charge the headphones during the time I’m testing them. Otherwise, you can get up to 5 hours of playback time in 5 minutes of charging.

The music sound sounds really good, with a bit of exaggerated bass, but that’s the default setting for the qualiser that you can change. The details of the music come through well and the headset sounds good enough that it will make a difference when I improve the transfer with LDAC.

The headset has active noise reduction (ANC) but it is quite weak. It is best at removing dull noise like the engines of a bus, while more high-frequency noise is barely filtered out at all.

The call sound when I speak in the headphones really does not impress. At best, in a quiet environment, you can still really hear me talking in a headset, I sound tinny and with sharp s. If I add some background noise, like a kitchen fan or a passing car, it becomes immediately impossible for the person I’m talking to to hear what I’m saying.

No headset for taking calls on the go, then, but if you want a pair of comfortable over-ear headphones for music and podcasts, it feels like you get quite a lot for SEK 2,000 with the Nothing Headphone A.