This is the Nothing Headphone (1), the first attempt from Nothing in the headphone space.
But how does it fare against other veteran players on the consumer market, like Sony’s XM series, or even the Sonos Ace and the AirPods Max? Well, here are 5 reasons to get it and 5 and a half reasons not to get it.
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REASONS TO GET ✅
✅ #1. Unique Design
The first reason to get the Nothing Headphone (1) is, yes, the very unique design. As expected, Nothing has gone with the out-of-the-ordinary approach. While the headbands are pretty standard and adjustable, what really caught my attention was the hinge, first and foremost, that connects to the ear cups. It had a nice angular shape and design to it.
The outer ear cups are, of course, where the uniqueness comes to play. The outer part is transparent, which has that Nothing-esque look that reveals the internal acoustic chambers and components, very similar to the Nothing earbud series.
While this had a retro feeling to it, my wife said that it looks like those cheap headphones that you get in a “pasar malam” (night market). But to me, I kind of like this overall look because it feels like it is a Walkman meets sci-fi look.
The left has a text on how the sound is by KEF, a collaboration between them for this audio or the headphone series, and more on the audio later.
Then, on the other outer part of the right ear cups, there’s the branding of the headphones. But if you’re expecting these areas to light up, like probably the red area or anywhere like a Glyph Interface style of light, well, there isn’t.
Complementing this outer plastic material of the ear cups is a nice aluminum matte finish that holds everything together. So, a huge yes on the headphones’ design.
✅ #2. Carrying Case
As for portability of the Nothing Headphone (1), this one also is a huge yes because not only were the headphones really light, but Nothing also ships the headphones with a nice carrying case, which is made out of a felt material that is certain to be covered by my cat’s fur.
There’s also a similar dimple over there which the Nothing Ears case has too, but the zippers were not the best; honestly, it feels like it’s just one pull away from retirement.
But what’s extra nice was on the inside, as there was a nice area or a pouch to put the included USB-C to USB-C cable and the 3.5mm jack cable. Those cables are inside of the box.
Well, if you’re expecting this to fold in half, it doesn’t. But honestly, it is something that I felt was not a real huge negative, even though it sounds like it’s not portable.
But yes, there are other areas which were not good, but let’s first look at the other further positive reasons.
✅ #3. Amazing Controls
Reason number 3 would be the amazing controls that the Nothing Headphone (1) had. There are 5 buttons or toggles in total on these headphones, all on the right-hand side of the ear cups.
Towards the side, there is the Roller, and this is for the volume controls where you just have to roll the roller. When you put the headphones on and roll it, you sort of hear a rolling kind of sound, which is really nice. It also has a press function to play or pause, and you can also press and hold to toggle ANC or to change between transparency modes.
But the second button over here is called the Paddle, which is a real godsend! These are for switching music tracks easily back and forth and are also used for phone call controls as well, where you can even use this pedal to hold right to fast forward or hold left to rewind, which is a truly amazing feature.
Then the button on top over here is a very unique button to channel hop between, say, Apple Music to YouTube. On the Nothing Phone (3a), by default, you can activate ChatGPT or the Essential Space, it activates Siri on iOS and it brings out the voice assistant like Samsung’s Bixby or even Google Assistant. However, you can remap this button for a press and hold and pressing once on the Nothing X app to several actions.
Then the fourth button is the Pairing button, which is inside here. Yeah, more on my opinions on the placing of this button later.
But at least there’s a final button which is more of a toggle to turn off and on the headphones, compared to something that the AirPods Max doesn’t have. So, when it comes to control-wise, that was super cun!
✅ #4. Sound Quality
Reason number 4 is the sound quality of this Nothing Headphone (1) because that matters the most, right, when you buy headphones?
Based on my quick first impressions, as expected, Nothing’s audio team has done it again, giving the best audio quality with the included 40mm driver. Whether or not this sound tuning is because of the partnership with KEF, for me, it sounds really good.
But we kind of expected that because Nothing has always been great when it comes to audio quality, and there’s not going to be any compromises on this.
Then there’s also codec support for AAC, SBC, and LDAC as well, and you can even get Lossless Audio via the included 3.5mm cable and the port, which is also available on the headphones as well.
But as usual, you can also use the Advanced EQ in the Nothing X app as well.
✅ #5. Nothing X App
Speaking of the Nothing X app, there’s also a reason why and what makes the Nothing Headphone (1) great, as I feel that you won’t get the max potential of the headphones without it.
Besides the EQ controls, you can also share your EQ Profile, especially for that one friend who still uses default mode all the time.
There’s also the automatic detection where the music pauses when it’s off your head, but it doesn’t work without having the app installed because it is turned off by default. The dual device toggle is also turned off by default too, so keep that in mind.
You can also customize the buttons, access the “Find My Headphones” feature which has a sort of a cricket sound to tell you where the headphones are.
You can also even toggle the “Low Lag Mode” over there for gaming and go through the further settings over there, like Spatial Audio or Head Tracking, including all the other Essential Space customization, which will be obviously more helpful with a Nothing Phone.
But yes, the app was nice and clean compared to the crap, clunky app that you get on the Sony XM series.
REASONS NOT TO GET ❌
So, that we’ve got all the good out of the way, let’s look at why you should not get the Nothing Headphone (1).
❌ #1. Annoying Button Placement
Firstly, is the annoying placement of that one button, which is the Pairing button. While the Bluetooth version is great because it’s at version 5.3, for the life of me, I don’t get why it had to be on the inside without a raised button, at least.
So you need to squint your eyes like you’re diffusing a bomb and pray that your finger finds the button. Knowing that I have to take off my headphones to pair them instead of just easily pressing it while it was on, was very annoying.
I do understand that if you pair it once, then you don’t have to do it again, but for a company that is usually very thoughtful when it comes to the design, this button here was very questionable.
❌ #2. Indicator Placement
The second one sounds like a very nitpick, but instead of putting the ear cups indicator underneath here at the headbands, I feel that it would be better if they put it on the ear cups instead, like how they did on the AirPods Max or even the Sonos Ace.
Speaking of the Sonos Ace, it had a nice little indentation towards the headbands on each side for your fingers to rest before putting them on, so you know that it is on the correct side, where you can even put the headphones and know that you’re on the correct side even in the dark.
Speaking of these PU material ear cups, while it is apparently great for resisting oils and makeup, there’s no way of easily replacing them compared to the magnetic ones that you get on the Sonos Ace, or even the AirPods Max as well.
❌ #3. Long-Term Comfort
Then, as for the third reason not to get this Nothing Headphone (1), is honestly the long-term comfort. Because while the passive noise cancellation was really good, if you’re wearing this for more than an hour, your ears feel like they are in a sauna, especially for the amazing weather here in Malaysia.
The PU material ear cups also didn’t help with that, and the space between the surrounding areas for your ears and the ear cups was not nicely spaced compared to the AirPods Max.
For someone who has a medium-sized head, the headbands didn’t feel like it was very comfortable, where it felt like it was pressing the crown of my head, which made me keep adjusting the headband. So, I was stuck between getting it too loose or too tight all the time.
❌ #4. Active Noise Cancellation
Speaking of the passive noise cancellation, the active noise cancellation on this Nothing Headphone (1) wasn’t as good compared to what the others provide.
Because while it did a decent job at cutting out the noise when I was at home in a quiet room with just a ceiling fan on, I still heard some gentle wind sounds in the headphones even when I set the ANC to High all the time.
While that was fine to a certain level, the discomfort of that vacuuming sealing effect was the biggest drawback to me. Coupled with the discomfort of the headbands, after about an hour watching a movie or half a movie, I even got a migraine putting this on.
❌ #5. Battery Life
The other reason is, of course, the battery. While Nothing claims that you can get up to 35 hours with the ANC on, I only got about roughly 24 hours from the Nothing Headphone (1).
And this is, of course, subject to the fact that Nothing can always provide us with a software update, so that is fixable, hopefully, in the near future.
❌ #5.5 Audio Distortion
Then remember the half reason I said that you should not get it? Well, if you’re like me, who likes to listen to music at the maximum volume, be prepared to hear some audio distortion at the lower frequency.
Specifically for songs like “Bad Guy” by Billie Eilish and some parts for Tiesto’s “The Motto,” or even worse, Polyphia’s “Playing God.” And this was even with me turning off the EQ on Apple Music.
What’s funny is that this distortion at maximum volume only happens on the iPhone, unless Siri is running a secret compressor in the background. I’m not sure why, because the other headphones that I tested, like the Sonos Ace or even the AirPods Max, didn’t have such an issue.
But when I tested the Nothing Headphone (1) on my Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and the Nothing Phone (3a), it was totally fine at max volume. So, probably once again, a software update could fix this. For now, just listen to max volume of 80% or 90% volume, or two notches down instead of full, if you’re using the Nothing Headphone (1) with an iPhone.
So, am I being nice by calling this half a reason, or is that a deal breaker for you?
Conclusion
So, those are 5 reasons and 5 and a half reasons not to get the Nothing Headphone (1). I’ll be updating the Malaysian pricing at the pinned comment of my YouTube video once I get it.
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Related:
Nothing Phone (3a) – https://adamlobo.tv/nothing-phone-3a-vs-2a/
