It’s been four years since Nothing launched its earphones (1) and the London-based brand is now an established player in the TWS market. Enter Kuch Nahin Kan (3) – its latest flagship wireless earbuds now with a recognizable transparent look and some key improvements.
While nothing’s naming scheme has always been the most consistent, its earbuds have offered impressive hardware paired with a polished software experience. The EAR (3) comes with a more premium build, a dedicated microphone in this case and claims for better sound output and superior noise cancellation.
Has nothing come up with its claims, or is this a generational update? The short answer is yes, these are the best earbuds from the brand to date, but we’d take some of the maker’s claims with a grain of salt. Read on for our full breakdown.
Table of Contents:
Design
Nothing but product design is its key selling point. Ear (1) was unlike any other pair of TWS buds back in 2021 and ear (3) isn’t going for a big design but a different choice of materials.
This is mostly visible in the case, which now includes a recycled aluminum base layer, which is cool to the touch and adds a much more premium feel than all-plastic cases of the past.
This premium feel comes at the cost of some heft as the ear (3) case and buds now weigh 71 grams – 10 more than its predecessor. The top and bottom of the case and the buttons are still made of plastic with the same look as the previous ones.
In terms of fit, the ear (3) matches the brand’s previous entries. Provided you go for the right size of silicone tip for your ears, the buds will stay snug and we had no irritation after several hours of continuous use.
The other notable design change on the case of the ear (3) is the addition of a talk button, which, along with dual microphones and speakers, brings the super mic feature of Nothing.
Nothing Ear (3) Talk button and microphone
The idea is that you can use the case as a portable microphone for calls, voice recordings, or talk to your voice assistant.
As for the retail package, Nothing is offering your usual box that contains the buds and case, three sets of replacement silicone ear tips and a short USB-C cable for charging. The buds and their case are IP54-rated for dust and water resistance.
Features
Flagship earbuds of any kind offer a healthy dose of features that are expected in the premium TWS market. They include 12mm dynamic drivers with a 20Hz – 40kHz frequency response range and adaptive noise cancellation of up to 45dB, just like their predecessors. What’s new with the ANC system is that it now adjusts to your surroundings at a rate of 600ms.
Ear (3) Pair over Bluetooth 5.4 Multi-point pairing with support for Google Fast Pairing and Microsoft Swift Pairing. It also comes with native audio, though it doesn’t support head tracking. You get AAC, SBC, and LDAC codecs, as well as in-ear detection for automatic play and pause, and a low-latency mechanism for gaming and video.
Nothing comes with its signature pinch control on the earbuds’ stems. You have single, double and triple pinch gestures, as well as single and double pinch and hold, which are programmable. A bone conduction voice pickup unit (VPU) is included in each earbud as well as a 3x directional MEMS microphone in each earbud.
Callers running nothing OS 3.5 or later voice recordings are automatically uploaded to the Essential Space app. Those recordings are also automatically transcribed, which is neat if you plan to use the buds and their case as voice recorders.
Nothing (3) Nothing is managed by the X App, the most sophisticated and feature-rich companion app on the market. It works equally well on Android and iOS and offers a great selection of controls and toggles to help you personalize the earbuds to your liking.
Super mic
And then we get to the key new addition. The feature only works when an earbud is inserted into your ear and lets you use the new microphone setup once you press the talk button located in the corner.
Nothing claims that the dual microphones in its case are powerful enough to isolate and pick up your voice in the loudest environments up to 95db. The premise is that you can use the case for calls in noisy places, choose to capture voice notes or talk to your phone’s virtual assistant. Sadly, the SuperMic system is limited to phone calls, your native voice assistant and the native voice recording app.
In our experience, the SuperMic picked up sound significantly better than the microphones on the earbuds. Positioning the microphone close to your mouth does wonders for call quality.
While testing the Ear (3)’s Super Mic feature during calls, I routinely reported to people on the other end that my voice sounded just as good as when speaking through my phone’s built-in microphone. So, if your current earbuds are always letting you down during calls, the Ear (3) case is a powerful way to stay on top of your calls as long as you don’t mind taking it out of your pocket.
Sound quality and ANC
Nothing has a long history of having as much bass as its earbuds and no ear (3) expectations. The bass is definitely overpowered, but in a fun and enjoyable way. There’s an instant oomph when you play music, especially noticeable in rap or EDM tracks.
The latest 12mm drivers come with a redesigned diaphragm, which is claimed to translate to better bass and treble reproduction than last year’s model. They also feature a 20% larger radiating area, further exaggerating the strong bass feel.
Overall, the Ear (3) provides a wider soundstage than its predecessor, and has less noticeable distortion going on. The new model feels livelier and more energetic than any of last year’s in-ears, while also offering better clarity in the mids and highs. Device separation has also been improved.
Nothing’s signature advanced equalizer tuning resides within the Nothing X app with a fully customizable 8-band EQ. EAR(3) also gets some additional customization with the ability to select specific frequency values for each band and a Q factor, which offers control for the shape of the equalization curve and bandwidth for more granular adjustments.
You can save your custom profile and share it with others, or import anything from the community, which has tons of options for different tastes. With the right EQ, the in-ear (3) can deliver a more balanced sound stage, although it does take some tweaking, and we’d appreciate it if we weren’t able to deliver that experience straight out of the box.
ANC
On-ear (3) adaptive noise cancellation is pretty good, provided you have the right set of ear tips, though it’s not as powerful as something like the Sony WF-1000XM5, for example. In my testing, the ear (3) held its own in the office, drowning out the AC, water cooler, and keyboard clicks. With music playing in the background and the ANC set to high, the ear (3) helps drown out unwanted noise and makes a great companion on your daily commute.
Battery life
Nothing claims up to 5.5 hours from the buds. These numbers extend to 10 hours and 38 hours with ANC off, respectively. There’s a 500mAh battery inside the case, just like last year’s Kuch Nai Kan, and 55mAh in each earbud, which is a small upgrade.
In our real-world usage, we got 6.5 hours With ANC out of the box, with playback primarily via the AAC codec. Although not class leading, the endurance is very respectable. Listening to audio via the LDAC codec limits playback to 3.5 hours with ANC on and 5.5 hours with ANC off.
Charging the case and buds from 0 to 100% takes about 70-70 minutes and you can also go the wireless route (at 2.5W speed), though it will take even longer at 120 minutes.
Verdict
Nothing reinvented the wheel by ear (3) but it did bring a better sounding pair of buds with better build quality and a richer feature set that befits a premium product. The seemingly gimmicky super mic feature actually led to significantly better-sounding calls, even if positioning the case close to your mouth isn’t the best solution out there.
If we were to rate the audio from Nothing Happened (3), it’s full and loud, which will likely appeal to a general audience. If you’re not a fan of the default V-shaped tuning, the Nothing X companion isn’t offering the same granular adjustments as its advanced equivalent within the app.
While ANC is decent, rivals like Sony and Apple give you better sound isolation. Battery life is fine but you can get more if you look elsewhere. At their core, the Ear(3) are a great pair of earbuds, and nothing but software polish is proving to be a differentiator in the crowded TWS market.
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