I tested Nothing’s new earbuds — they sound great but have a huge privacy problem

The Nothing Ear (3a) are the latest mid-range earbuds from budget British brand Nothing. The new buds sit underneath the flagship Nothing Ear (3), but there’s really very little between the two.

For $99, the Nothing Ear (3a) are a bit of a bargain. They offer striking design, plenty of features and decent sound quality (after some fettling in the EQ). If you’re only considering their core performance, these are some of the best wireless earbuds around for people on a budget.

However, I have one major concern around some new onboard recording features. In short, these earbuds will let you secretly record and store phone calls. So… spy buds. Is this a bug or a feature?

Want to know more? Keep reading my full Nothing Ear (3a) review to find out.

Nothing Ear (3a) review: Specs

Nothing Ear (3a) review: Price & availability

The Nothing Ear (3a) cost just $99 / £99, undercutting the brand’s flagship Nothing Ear (3) ($149), as well as big-name rivals like the Apple AirPods 4 ANC ($179) and Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 ($179). If you’re using either an iPhone or Galaxy phone, you’ll benefit more from the ecosystem integration of the latter two earbuds — the ability to swap seamlessly between an iPhone and iPad, for example. Otherwise, it’s difficult to recommend the big names over the Ear (3a), given the $80 difference.

At this price, the Ear (3a) are in direct competition with other budget-ish heroes like the EarFun Air Pro 4+ ($99) and CMF Buds 2 Plus ($79). The Air Pro 4+ are the toughest to beat, offering equally as powerful ANC and excellent sound. That said, the Air Pro 4+ look cheap and don’t offer the same number of features as the stacked Ear (3a).

Nothing Ear (3a) review: Design

Nothing is known for its striking design ethos. True to form, the Ear (3a) look phenomenal. Bold colors and Nothing’s trademark see-through design give pure cyberpunk vibes. I tested the hot pink variant, but there’s an equally striking yellow model, plus Nothing’s typical white or black colorways.

Build quality is excellent, with both case and buds feeling high quality. The case lid is magnetic and snaps closed reassuringly, while the buds click magnetically into place with similar confidence. The case is transparent, which looks scruffy pretty quickly, but I’ve yet to see a case that doesn’t reach that point eventually.

The flagship Nothing Ear (3) have a more premium case, with wireless charging and a microphone built into it. They also have a bone-conduction mic in the earbuds. But I wouldn’t say there’s enough there to justify an extra $50 on the Ear (3). They use the same 12mm drivers, while the Ear (3a) benefit from the new stem controls and the recording features I’ll cover later.

The Ear (3a) buds and case are each IP54 rated, just like the Apple AirPods 4, meaning they’ll stand up to rain if you’re caught in a shower, and you can use them for working out. The EarFun AirPro 4+ are IP55 rated, so a little tougher against water.

The CMF Buds 2 Plus have a slightly higher IP55 earbud rating, but only IPX2 for the case. That could be an issue if your clothes got wet with the case in your pocket. I’d rather have IP54 all-round.

Comfort

Mileage is always going to vary with earbud comfort, based on your individual ear holes. But I’ve found the Ear (3a) extremely comfortable. The tips are made from a softer, lighter silicone than my daily drivers, the EarFun Air Pro 4 ($79), and I noticed immediately how much nicer the Nothing tips felt. I wore the buds for two train journeys, plus daily life around the city, with no issues or soreness whatsoever.

Controls

I really like the Ear (3a) controls. You pinch either side of the drop stem, which I much prefer to the touch controls we often see on earbuds. The stem gives subtle haptic feedback to confirm you’ve actuated the controls, and they proved reliable and accurate when I used them while walking through central London.

You can reassign commands in the Nothing X app, with loads of combos to choose from. There are a few too many, to be honest. I simply memorized playback controls and the ANC toggle, which is all I really need.

Connectivity

The Ear (3a) use the latest Bluetooth 6.0, which is nice to see (and not a given) — even the Apple AirPods Max 2 launched in 2026 with the ageing version 5.3.

Bluetooth 6.0 offers higher data transfer rates and more modern codecs than older iterations, reduced power consumption, more stable connection, plus better pinpoint location detection (for ‘Find My’-type services). It’s always nice to see the latest tech in products, but especially budget ones like this.

Codec-wise, the Ear (3a) support the usual AAC and SBC, plus LDAC for hi-res streaming. There’s no LC3plus, an updated version of the LC3 low-energy codec, which is one of the key codec updates in Bluetooth 6.0 and improves latency. That’s not a huge deal, though.

The Ear (3a) feature multipoint connectivity, so I hooked up my phone and work laptop simultaneously and switched between the two. The Nothing X app shows you all connected devices with on/off toggles, so you can curate your connections easily.

Nothing Ear (3a) review: Sound quality

The Nothing Ear (3a) stock tuning (i.e., how the equalizer is set up by default) needs work. It’s not awful. Treble and higher mids are clear, with lighter percussion sounding pretty crisp and vocals staying prominent. This is actually an improvement on the flagship Ear (3), whose treble we found overly bright and uncomfortable. Similar to the Ear (3) though, the (3a)’s low end is way over-amplified by default, at least for my liking — if you like bass and bass alone, it might be for you. Not me.

I found heavier and busier tracks difficult to listen to. Mid-range instrument separation effectively disappeared under overwhelming bass. Despite boasting impressive low extension (i.e. how low in the frequency range they can actually reproduce), the drivers can’t handle all the bass amplification EQ’d their way either. In deep electronic music like Burn Water’s Ikigai, larger warbles suffered distortion, as did the sweeping wave of sub bass in the final 20 seconds of SOHN’s Antigravity.

The low end simply needs controlling. Thankfully, you can retune the buds all you like in the Nothing X app. There are three different EQ modes. A simplistic version; some per-genre presets; plus a full and fantastic 8-band parametric EQ. After a lot of fettling in the parametric EQ, paring back bass in particular, the Ear (3a) sounded way more balanced.

Kick drums and basslines were no longer just boomy, fuzzy messes. Addison Rae’s Fame Is a Gun was no longer just one big kick drum, and I could hear the individual oscillations of the track’s wavy synths. Melvins’ Honey Bucket and The Smashing Pumpkins’ Siva, whose distorted, sludgy guitar riffs were effectively buried by booming before, now sounded fantastic, with a hearty amount of crunch and separation in the mid-range.

Likewise, with space to breathe, vocals sounded fantastic. I could pick apart each of Blusher’s voices in the harmonies of Your Love Is My Drug, and could hear the soft, slowly fading reverb on Chris Stapleton's vocals in Death Row.

Sure, it took a little time with EQ to get the Ear (3a) sounding grown up, but for $99, that’s not a big sacrifice to make.

Soundstage

The Ear (3a)’s soundstage is pretty decent for a set of ANC earbuds (which are inherently intimate) — Antigravity’s bouncy spatial intro had a convincing amount of width, for instance. There’s a ‘Spatial’ mode in the app, intended to boost three-dimensionality, but it isn’t worth it. It forces the EQ back into ‘Balanced’ and then just makes everything echoey. It’s how I’d imagine music sounds inside a medieval dungeon.

Listen along to my testing playlist on Qobuz, our favorite music streaming service for audiophiles.

Nothing Ear (3a) review: ANC

The Nothing Ear (3a) have three-level ANC (low, medium, high), plus an adaptive mode that changes automatically, and a transparency mode for staying aware of your surroundings. You switch between these via the app or stem controls.

Adaptive did a good job at tailoring the ANC to the scenario I was in, and I could hear it switching up to the highest level when I entered the busy Paddington Station in London.

The ANC itself is okay, too. It’s not the best, with nearby conversations and hubbub making it through during a train journey. However, lower-frequency sounds like the train’s engine were mostly cut. I also wore the buds while walking around the city, and the ANC cut most traffic noise, too.

You’ll get better ANC performance on the EarFun Air Pro 4+, but the Ear (3a) still did the job I needed them to do: I was able to work on the train with no distractions.

Nothing Ear (3a) review: App

I love the Nothing X app. It’s absolutely packed full of features, and useful for virtually every aspect of operating the buds, from sound (where it’s absolutely necessary) through to call recording, controls, ANC and updates.

Given the app plays such a pivotal role in using the buds, I’m glad it’s so slick and polished. It hasn’t crashed on me once, and is extremely easy to navigate and use.

Nothing Ear (3a) review: Call quality

To test call quality, I called my wife while on a walk. With three bars of reception, she said my voice sounded weak and distant, although she understood everything I said. I didn’t sound hi-res, but then again I didn’t need to. The Ear (3a) got the job done.

Nothing’s flagship Ear (3) have the usual earbuds mics, plus an additional microphone built into the case. Given this is one of the only differences between the two sets of buds, it’s not enough reason to recommend the pricier model.

The Ear (3a) have some novel call recording features, but I’ll discuss these in the Privacy concerns section below.

Nothing Ear (3a) review: Battery life

Nothing claims the Ear (3a) will last up to 10 hours with ANC off, or 6 hours with ANC enabled. This aligns with my testing, with the buds dropping about 30% over a nearly-two-hour train journey. In total, you can expect 42 hours without ANC from the buds and charging case combined, or 25 with ANC.

This is on the low side, but not awful. The Apple AirPods 4 ANC, for example, manage 24 hours in total with ANC on, while the (Nothing-owned) CMF Buds Pro 2 last 26 hours. The CMF Buds 2 Plus offer 33 hours, while the EarFun Air Pro 4+ can go for 36 hours.

Nothing Ear (3a) review: Privacy concerns

I wouldn’t normally need to write a section on privacy — and the fact that I have should raise alarm bells. The Ear (3a) have a range of recording features, which look fairly innocent on the surface. There’s an Audio Snapshot mode, which will store the last minute of media playback — i.e. your favorite excerpts from music or TV.

They can also record and store two hours of calls or voice notes, with a transcription service available via a subscription in the Nothing X app. Very handy for any students or journalists needing to record and transcribe online meetings. But I have serious privacy concerns with this feature.

During test calls, initiating ‘call recording’ delivered a prompt to both parties saying “this call will be recorded in 3, 2, 1.” Fine — good, even! Not so fast. After hitting mute on my side, the other party heard no prompt whatsoever. I ran the test with my colleague Nikita, then again with my wife. Same result for both. So, the Ear (3a) can record calls without the other person knowing or consenting. Here in the U.K., that isn’t illegal, but in many U.S. states it is. Regardless, it’s immoral unless under specific public interest needs.

I don’t like the idea of this feature becoming widespread in earbuds, either. Sure, there are already plenty of ways to record calls nefariously. But adding this kind of thing to tech as ubiquitous as earbuds feels like it’ll make non-consensual recording much easier and more commonplace.

I’ve reached out to Nothing for comment on this issue, but it hasn't got back to me yet.

Nothing Ear (3a) review: Verdict

The Nothing Ear (3a) surprised me. I thought nothing could tempt me away from my long-term daily drivers, the EarFun Air Pro 4. But it seems Nothing can!

I really, really wish they didn’t make it so easy to spy on people, but, putting aside the privacy stuff just for a minute and judging these on their merits as earbuds, the Ear (3a) offer impressive performance for their price. Consider the striking design, premium build quality and decent comfort, and these buds start looking like a proper bargain — in fact, I’m not sure why you’d buy the pricier Nothing 3 flagship.

OK, the sound needs some work by default, but the drivers are inherently very good, and it only takes a little time in the EQ to sort everything out. For under $100, that’s time I’m more than happy to spend.