Nothing Headphone (a) After 2 Weeks: The USD199 Headphones That Make Sony and Bose Look Overpriced

TL;DR / At A Glance: The Nothing Headphone (a) is a lightweight, more affordable over-ear alternative to the flagship Headphone (1). It focuses on extreme endurance and a “playful” aesthetic, featuring a durable plastic build with iconic transparent accents and physical tactile controls.

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$199 (RM699) and 135 hours of battery life! That’s the sweet spot where headphones either overdeliver, overpriced, or they look the same. So, Nothing looked at it and said, “Nah.” And released this, the Nothing Headphone (a). 

It’s not their flagship, but the question is, does it even matter since it’s $100 (~USD395) cheaper? I’ve been using this for 2 weeks, and there’s a lot of things that you need to know about it. So, watch first and buy smart.

DESIGN

First, let’s talk about how these headphones look because that is exactly what Nothing wants you to look at first. It comes in four colors: White, Black, Pink, and Yellow. 

But it’s not the entire headphone. It’s only at the outer earcups area and a tiny little accent dot. I got the White because of how minimal it looks. And I like White if you do not know. 

Someone actually commented about the Yellow variant looking like a sunny side up egg. And now I can never unsee it. 

There’s the transparent design around it, and you can actually see what’s inside. And that has always been Nothing’s DNA for your phones, showing you the insides as a design feature, not truly hiding it. 

But I know what you’re thinking. It looks cheap and it’s plasticky, right? Well, I thought the same thing. But the moment you pick it up, the sliding arms feel very reinforced with no creaking. The hinges are also metal and the build has this premium quality feel that you wouldn’t expect at this price. 

Comfort wise, it weighs at 310 grams, not the lightest, but it’s very comfortable to wear. This was very important to me because I get migraines very easily, and wearing this on a 6-hour flight was absolutely fine. I actually fell asleep with this on. 

But speaking of flights, the caveat is that this particular headphone does not fold flat. Like, you cannot bend it to fold flat. So keep that in mind when you’re packing this on. 

Then the memory foam ear cups and the headband padding are genuinely very well thought out even if you have ear piercings.

It is also IP52 rated, so whether or not it’s light rain, sweat at the gym, you’re totally covered. 

And Nothing also put these headphones through over 50 hardware reliability tests. Plugging in and unplugging the charger about 5,000 times and pressing each button 10,000 times. You probably won’t be hitting those numbers anytime soon, but based on how these particular buttons look and feel, I can vouch for that. 

CONTROLS

Speaking of buttons, there are three physical controls on these headphones, and all of them do something different. 

First up, the Roller. Honestly, this is one of my favorite things of the Headphone (a) and the flagship Headphone (1) where you roll right to raise the volume, left to lower it and press the button to play or pause and long press to switch the ANC mode, which has this unique “haaaah” sound that still gets me every time when you switch it on and off. 

But even adjusting the volume gives you real-time audio feedback to your ears. It’s like the headphone is confirming your input, which is nice and premium. So because of that the experience feels so much more premium. 

Then there is the Paddle where if you push right it goes to the next track or left it goes to the previous track and you can hold to fast forward or rewind as well where it worked on Apple Music, YouTube Music and even on a YouTube video as well. I do not have Spotify because I absolutely hate their audio quality but apparently it will work on Spotify too if you use that. 

Then there is this Button. We can customize this in the Nothing X app with a single press and a press and hold command. Out of the box when I use this with the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro, it activates Channel Hop which lets you swap between the media apps and what you have opened. So for example, if you already have YouTube on and you have Apple Music open, it switches between them accordingly. 

This came in very handy at the gym because when I was on a treadmill, I’ll be usually watching a YouTube video. And the moment I was done, when I switched to the weights, one press and I’m straight into the music, no touching my phone. 

But you can also remap the Button to your AI Assistant, Essential News, adjust Noise Control, trigger the Camera Shutter, mute your mic, or even lock in a specific EQ preset. Then there’s also an option for No Action, which I’m not sure why in the world you would choose that, but the option is there. 

But the main point though is that all of these three controls have proper tactile feedback. Not mushy, but very mechanical and precise. And there’s no annoying touch sensitivity issues with this since everything is a mechanical push of a button. 

And the first time I turned this on, it immediately prompted to pair and one tap and done. And even recognized them as my Headphone (a) by my name. So that was also a very nice touch. 

Since this headphone has Google Fast Pair, something very interesting happened because while I was listening to music on my Nothing Phone (4a) Pro, I picked up my Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra and I immediately got it prompted to pair without me doing anything manually. 

But if you’re using an iPhone or a Mac, you’ll need to press and hold this particular Bluetooth button, which is hidden. It took me a while for me to find this, but yes, that is located right inside of the right ear cup, just outside of the ear pads, and then you can pair them accordingly. 

I did test out the dual connection since these headphones do support that. Switching between the S26 Ultra to the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro was very quick and switching between the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro to the iPhone 17 Pro Max was a little delay. 

But when it comes to switching between the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro to my Mac was surprisingly seamless, about a 1 second delay as well. But switching back from the Mac to the phone, that took about a whole 5 seconds, which I felt was quite slow. So hopefully there’s a software update that can fix that. 

And while we are on the topic of the dual connection, I do wish that Nothing has included a manual switch option as part of the Button commands for this particular Button because for situations where I don’t want to have a delay, you want to be able to trigger that by touching this button. 

The idea of a seamless automatic switching is great in theory, but a manual option would still make it very much better. 

Then, one more thing worth flagging is that there’s no auto pause and play when you remove the headphones from your head. So, you need to make sure to put it on pause when you remove it from your head as opposed to the premium headphones.

But then again, for this kind of price point, I did not mind that. But adding that feature would be a huge cherry on top. 

SOUND

Now, for the part that is why you are actually here, which is the sound quality. How does it sound? 

Well, out of the box, the EQ is set to More Bass because Nothing clearly wanted the default experience to feel punchy and satisfying for casual listeners right away. 

So, I put it through its paces. I had a bunch of different types of music genres that I listen to. First up is Bruno Mars’ latest, which is “Risk It All” and “Cha Cha Cha”. The instrument separation was genuinely impressive and his vocals were very warm, inviting, and cutting through the mix like butter. 

And then I switched over to Billie Eilish’s “CHIHIRO” and “BLUE”. The low end, especially the sub bass, was the best I’ve ever heard from any headphones at this particular price point. Full stop. 

And then the real test, as a metal fan, I test out Falling in Reverse’s “Ronald”. And if you know this track, you know what’s coming. The double pedals, right? And on these headphones, you don’t just hear them, you actually feel them. 

And at the 43 second mark, there’s that gun loading sound right before the sub bass drops. And that is something that really was mindblowing on headphones within this particular price range because you don’t just hear it, you actually feel that particular low sub bass over there. So yes, it was totally audible and clean even for a metal genre music. 

And here’s what really genuinely surprised me. Because most headphones are usually tuned to one genre, which if it’s great for Metal, it’s average for Pop, great for Pop, but is weak for Metal. 

Well, this particular headphones does not make you choose because technically it is running a 40mm titanium-coated diaphragm, which covers 20Hz all the way to 40,000Hz. So, because of that, it has a very wide dynamic range. 

Then from a codec perspective, it supports LDAC for High-Res Wireless Audio up to 24-bit/96kHz Hi-Res Audio certified. I also set the Bass Enhancement to Level 2. And what’s interesting is that this is actually AI powered. So it locks into the low frequencies and boosts them in real time without distorting, which is great for EDM, hip-hop, or anything with a heavy beat. 

Then there’s also the Static Spatial Audio, Cinema Mode, and even the Concert Mode, which are fun features to play around with, which I’m usually not a fan of this spatial audio. So, in case you do, this is great for you. 

But the beauty is the Nothing ecosystem because the Nothing X app gives you an 8-band equaliser to completely customize your sound profile, which is perfect for audiophiles. 

There’s even an EQ Library under the Explore tab where you can download profiles made by audiophiles, the Nothing community, and collaborating artists as well. Now, you can even create your own EQ and share it as a QR code. 

So whether or not you’re a casual listener or an audiophile who wants to know exactly what they want, this app genuinely delivers. 

[Check out my YouTube video for the sound test]

ANC & TRANSPARENCY MODE

There are three levels of the ANC with up to 40dB of noise reduction. I tested this on a flight, in a cafe, and even on a train, and for the price, it works. You can focus, you can zone out, and no complaints at all. 

Look, I’m a very simple man. As long as the ANC gets to a point where I’m deep in my music, scripting my videos, and I cannot hear my mechanical keyboard clacking away, that is a huge win. But if you’re coming from an AirPods Max, a Sony, or a Bose flagship, you will notice a difference because it’s not on that ANC level. 

However, if you never used ANC before or you’re upgrading from a basic pair of Bluetooth headphones, this will feel like a superpower. 

Then the Transparency Mode is also decent, too. Picks up surrounding sounds well enough. Not flagship level, but it does the job. 

CALL QUALITY

Now, as for call quality, there are four microphones in total. Three of them specifically tuned for calls through Nothing’s Environmental Noise Cancellation system. And Nothing has trained their Clear Voice Technology on over 28 million real world scenarios. 

In practice, calls are totally crisp. The person, on the other hand, could also hear you clearly even in a noisy environment. 

Was I expecting something within this particular price? Probably not, because call quality on a budget and mid-range headphones are usually an afterthought. Brands just slap on a mic and call it a day. But Nothing has actually put in some real work over here. 

[Check out my YouTube video for the mic test]

BATTERY

But when it comes to battery, here’s where Nothing went totally wild with 135 hours of playback with ANC off and 75 hours with ANC on. That’s over 5 days of non-stop music. Yeah, let that sink in. 

Now, this is because of the two core batteries running on a dual core chipset, keeping everything efficient without any compromise. And if you’re in a rush, no worries because 5 minutes of charging gives you 8 hours of playback and it gets from zero to full in just 2 hours. 

Then you can also charge these headphones directly on your phone or your laptop via the USB-C. No adapter needed and no hunting for a wall plug. Just plug into whatever you have nearby. 

And speaking of which, inside of the box there is the 3.5mm audio cable and a USB-C to USB-C cable. 

But all of those numbers Nothing mentioned earlier, makes sense only if it really performs as well in a real world use, right? Well, the good news is that it actually lasted a bit longer than what they say. 

So, yeah, if battery is high on your priority list, this is genuinely one of the strongest reasons to get these headphones. 

VERDICT

So, with that, should you buy the Nothing Headphone (a)?

Well, if you want headphones that look very unique like this, sound great, have useful EQ, and a battery life that makes everybody look embarrassing, then yes, you should. 

But remember, you’re giving up the best-in-class ANC and Transparency Mode that Apple, Sony, and Bose have. And as mentioned earlier, there’s no auto pause and play when you take the headphones off. And these headphones do not fold flat. And there’s no hard case in the box except for this particular drawstring bag. 

So you need to ask yourself, do you need all of those things mentioned? 

If you want to know how these headphones compare to the Headphone (1), the flagship, check out that review over here.

[Watch the full review video on YouTube]

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Related:

• Nothing Headphone (1) : BUY ✅ or EVADE? ❌