For some reason (or maybe it just became a fad), it’s nearly impossible to walk down the street now without running into someone with a long piece of plastic stuck in their ear. This is often for a number of reasons, partly to balance the in-ear portion and partly to prevent the in-ear portion from being huge, as is the case with some models from Jabra, JBL and B&W . And there are also many who prefer to press on this stick, instead of pressing directly on the part inside the ear which, well, is inside the ear.
So now you get the Nothing Ear (Stick), which like its predecessor has a little stick, but now looks a lot more like a competitor product from Apple, and that’s probably the highlight, because I’m having trouble see that it differs from the reverse visually, that is, apart from the fact that there are no more silicone tips.
They are very well made, with a designer case where the whole barrel rotates for easy access, sort of a combination of an insulin syringe and a pill box, but it’s cool and looks super unique. Only lack of wireless charging. Yes, there’s no wireless charging, although the first Nothing Ear had it as a key selling point. So bizzare.
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The devices themselves do not take up much space. The tiny 12.6mm device sits in a body that weighs just 4.4 grams, and the fit is incredibly good. However, instead of putting silicone around it, like the standard model, they just put a hard plastic shell. However, it works well and they fit very well. The battery lasts just under 30 hours. I have traveled with them and charge them every three weeks or so.
Nothing’s website is full of nonsense, such as “tech gets in the way too often” followed by “ear (stick) removes those walls”. It is a technology that does not feel. So that you can find out everything else.” Here I must point out that wireless charging is not the only thing missing, because Nothing has also chosen to do without active noise reduction, and that is disastrous when you also don’t have silicone tips and charge just under 80 pounds for the product.
The Ear (Stick) sounds pretty good and comes with a really good app – however, Nothing’s own marketing says you could actually get even more functionality if you were to use your particular cell phone, and that guy of “feature” happened to me. looks silly, puts me off as a potential buyer, since I want what I pay for, I shouldn’t have to switch cellphones to get all the benefits of a pair of headphones. It pretty much feels like its low-latency gameplay is only supported if you’re using a Nothing phone, and that may matter to many.
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At Nothing, on the other hand, they are good at giving specs, I can clearly see that AAC and SBC are supported and the device itself is plastic on the good side. On the other hand, I’m surprised that AptX was omitted, especially the low latency version, because then you might get about a quarter lag of what Nothing’s Gaming mode offers, ie say if you have a mobile Nothing (who has one?). SBC offers less than a quarter of the latency of CD, and AAC is actually worse, and you might not get LDAC, as it’s a Sony standard, but you at least expect to find at least less AptX HD in this price range.
The sound is a little bassy, but otherwise thin and clear, although of course it lacks a bit of clarity, so it was hard not to notice some connection issues during calls, where there are better alternatives in terms audio quality. .
For daily music playback and podcasts they work passably, but personally I can’t live without active noise cancellation when I lead a noisy life, and if you have kids or live in a very noisy house, it is probably even worse. Always price of 110 eurosit’s an essential feature to miss, especially when there’s no passive noise cancellation otherwise, and that’s a shame because the design, casing and battery life are all good.