After numerous waves of similar (and not-so-similar) wireless buds, Nothing is debuting its first pair of over-ear headphones. The Headphone 1 combines the company's recognizable see-through aesthetic with an intriguing array of controls and up to 35 hours of listening with active noise cancellation (ANC). Handily, for its most premium audio launch yet, the $299 headphones accompany the launch of Nothing’s new flagship smartphone: the Phone 3.
First impressions are everything, and these look like Nothing headphones. Once again, the company has incorporated a transparent design element. There’s also an oval shape that showcases a portion of the hardware inside, layered atop an aluminum rectangle with curved corners. The two metal dots on each oval are part of the acoustic chambers, not button inputs as you might think. While the white option looks more “Nothing,” I think I prefer the black, which makes the company’s design choices slightly more subtle.
Image by Mat Smith for Engadget
Nothing eschews touch sensors for buttons, paddles and a roller. The roller is a nice touch, offering a more sensitive way to adjust the volume, rather than abrupt level jumps. It can also be pressed to play and pause tracks. Long presses here switch the headphone between active noise cancellation and transparency mode. One unusual aspect is that the roller moves side to side, even when the volume fluctuates up and down. It feels a little weird.
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Just below that, the paddle control acts as a track skipper, but also includes the ability to scrub both forward and backward, similar to an old-school rewind. The latter feature depends on support from third-party apps to work.
On the same headphone cup, there’s also a traditional button that acts as a shortcut to voice assistants and my favorite bit of Nothing software, Essential Space. Nothing has added a further boon when paired with Nothing phones, allowing it to seamlessly switch between recent audio apps without requiring you to touch your phone. (Naturally, you’re hostage to whatever was playing last or is cued up.) This feature will first be compatible with the Phone 3 before being rolled out to older Nothing devices. There's already support from the likes of Audible, Soundcloud and Patreon in addition to the usual music streaming suspects.
There’s also an almost secret Bluetooth pairing button on the inner side of the same ear cup. It’s nice that this is a dedicated button as you’re unlikely to unpair from using the primary buttons and controls.
Image by Mat Smith for Engadget
Nothing has put work into comfort and fit, and as a mostly wireless earbud listener, I was pleasantly surprised at how the sub-12-ounce (329 grams) headphones felt. They’re almost two ounces lighter than the AirPods Max, which seems to be the product that Nothing is aiming to compete with. However, there are lighter over-ear headphones, including several Bose models and the Sony WH-1000XM6, which weigh under nine ounces.
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