Nothing Ear (3a) announced: incredibly colourful earbuds

Nothing Ear (3a) announced

Nothing has made a new announcement today. The manufacturer has unveiled a new set of earbuds at a reasonable price: the Nothing Ear (3a). They’re priced at 99 euros, and you get a lot for that. First of all, there’s a wide choice of colours: as well as black and white, the Nothing Ear (3a) is available in bright yellow and hot pink. The Ear (3a) builds on the popular a-series and introduces several new features, including the ability to record audio and phone calls. Nothing also promises improvements in sound quality, active noise cancellation and battery life.

One of the most striking new features is Audio Snapshot. The earbuds have 32MB of internal storage, allowing you to capture sound clips instantly. Pressing both earbuds simultaneously not only records the sound from that moment onwards, but also a short clip from before it. This allows you, for example, to save an important part of an online lesson or an interesting conversation.

The recordings are automatically synchronised with the Nothing X app, which is available for Android. There, you can play them back, edit them, share them and have them transcribed. You can then convert important text from such a transcription into shareable quote cards.

Another new feature is the ability to record phone calls and meetings directly via the earbuds. Recordings can last up to two hours and are also automatically saved in the Nothing X app. As soon as a recording starts, all participants receive a notification.

For music, the Ear (3a) is equipped with a new 12mm dynamic driver. According to Nothing, this delivers deeper bass and greater detail than the previous generation. The earbuds also support Hi-Res Audio Wireless and LDAC for audio streaming up to 24-bit/96 kHz. Via the app, you can further customise the sound with a comprehensive 8-band equaliser and share your own sound profiles.

According to Nothing, the active noise cancellation has also been improved. According to Nothing, the Wideband Active Noise Cancellation suppresses sound by up to 45dB and works particularly well with common ambient noises. If you want to hear what’s going on around you, you can switch to transparency mode. For phone calls, three microphones per earbud, combined with AI noise cancellation, ensure better clarity.

The design remains recognisably transparent, but the charging case has been given a new, rounder look. An extra-small XS earbud size has also been added for a better fit. The updated case also features an LED indicator that shows, amongst other things, the battery status and the pairing process.

In terms of battery life, Nothing promises up to 42 hours of listening time with the charging case when ANC is switched off. With active noise cancellation switched on, this increases to a maximum of 25 hours. According to Nothing, a five-minute charge is sufficient for approximately one hour of playback.

The Nothing Ear (3a) will be available from 7 July via Nothing at a recommended retail price of 99 euros.

We now have the Nothing Ear (3a) here at the editorial office. We’ll be sharing our review soon!