Like music, headphones also have their niche. There are those that target foodies, travelers and also those who practice sports. Sometimes they can merge, but in general each one occupies its space. The new ones Nothing Ear Open belongs to those who seek to remain in contact with the environmentwhile listening to music.
Nothing, the company created by Carl Pei (former director of OnePlus) has been characterized from the beginning by its (transparent) designs and the use of three basic colors: red, white and black. He has done it with his phones, his headphones and his smartwatch. And Ear Open are no exception. The focus is on design, but since design without function is equal to whim, here the function is excellent support and “respect for the environment” according to Nothing: it allows us to capture the sounds around us. That’s why we’re talking about the first headphones with active sound attention.
Their design and objective make them slightly heavier than the usual in-ear ones (barely a difference of 4 grams): we are faced with a device of about 8 grams. The support resides in a question mark design, so to speak, composed of a silicone band that surrounds the ear pinna and the helmet itself that falls right in the hearing area.
To arrive at this design, thousands of ears and ears were analyzed, seeking comfort in all anatomies. This is the first thing that makes them suitable headphones for those who do outdoor activities: it is almost impossible to remove them without an intentional movement.
The second element is its IP54 certification, which guarantees its resistance to sweat, for example, or light rain. And finally there is its “active sound attention”: we can continue listening to what is happening around us, its microphones capture our voice and isolate it to improve calls (for this they use an AI trained with 28 million noise scenarios). Its design means that the sound waves from the front and rear compensate for each other so that you hear the outside sound, but no one else hears what you hear.
Regarding the battery, we have up to eight hours per charge and about 30 more thanks to the case (it is less than 2 centimeters thick). If we charge them for 10 minutes we have two hours of playback.
Regarding sound quality, we are going to base ourselves on previous experiences with Nothing and say that they are very good, waiting to try them, but we will have to see the volume, privacy, comfort and audio quality. All the specifications, such as the driver or the use of titanium, make us expect excellent quality, but (again) we need to evaluate them in depth.
The Nothing Ear Open are available in one color (for now) and for €149.