Nothing Headphone (1) review — a style and sound statement

Tech innovator Nothing has just announced its latest line-up of tech products. On paper, it’s the same story: a new pair of headphones and a new phone. But these two products are a huge statement from Nothing and they see the company enter uncharted waters.

Its latest phone, the Nothing Phone (3), is the first premium flagship it has released. While the Nothing Headphone (1) are the very first over ears — a market that is notoriously difficult to win in. Even the likes of Apple have had mixed success here.

Nothing knows this and that is why it has enlisted the help of Kef to make sure the audio engineering beneath the unique-looking design is the best it can be.

Shortlist was lucky enough to be among the first in the world to try out the Nothing Headphone (1). Here are 5 things to know about the cool-looking cans.

1. Design is unique — and distinctly Nothing

Nothing’s mantra has always been to make products that stand out from the crowd and that’s certainly what they have created with the Nothing Headphone (1).

These headphones come packing Nothing’s see-through style, with each ear cup designed like the back of a Nothing phone.

I really like the transparent look, showing off the design architecture that you don’t normally see on a pair of headphones. Looking closely, you can see acoustic chambers and internal components — I bet the engineers had a headache making sure it all looked neat and tidy, knowing that the world’s eyes would be on tech that’s usually hidden.

This transparent lozenge gives way to a padded memory foam ear cup and an aluminium chassis. I would say that initially these headphones looked like they would be heavy but they aren’t — 329g — and are incredibly comfortable to wear.

2. Connectivity was simple — and there’s a lot of personalisation

Connectivity was incredibly easy — there’s a small Bluetooth button hidden on the right side of the earcup. Press this for two seconds and the headphones are in pairing mode.

There’s a manual on off switch at the bottom of the right ear cup and here the is the USB-C charger post and a 3.5mm jack for those who want to plug into a device the old-school way.

There is also a button on the top right of the left ear cup. This is said to be central to the experience of the headphones. Press this and it acts like a quick switch between your recently opened audio apps.

So, if you want to go from a Spotify playlist to something on Audible, then you can click this and ‘channel hop’ to the right app. All you have to do is connect these platforms up within the Nothing app. Nothing has noted that this feature will be available initially through the Nothing phone (3), so worth noting. It will be rolled out to other devices after this, though,

A long press on this button summons whichever AI assistant you are using.

The app is also where you can change the EQ, choose whether you want to use spatial audio, fixed or have this feature off. You can also enhance the bass here and toggle with the ANC. If you don’t like your ANC to be too overbearing there are three levels or you can put it onto adaptive.

3. Controls are malleable — no touch controls here

Nothing has tried to simplify the controls on its over ears so everything can be done by feel and touch, without the fear that you will accidentally skip a track or turn something off.

Other than the aforementioned button on the left ear cup there is a brilliant volume button that acts as a roller.

Roll it under your finger one way and it increases the volume, the other decreases. This is a fantastic way to offer volume control on a headphone and I can’t believe I haven’t used a volume controller on a headphone like this before.

Next to this is a ‘paddle’ button. Now I didn’t get on with this one quite as much. It’s quite stiff and while it does its job, I occasionally pressed the button instead of moving it left or right.

Ideally you move it left and right to toggle between tracks and press it to scrub through a track. Weirdly the pause button is on the volume roller, hard press this and it pauses the music. Or you can just use your phone.

4. Sound uses the power of Kef

Kef is a British audio brand that’s been going for 60-something years and feels like a great partnership for Nothing to be part of. It has its own wireless headphones — the Mu7 range — which are decently designed, too, and sound fantastic.

The sound of the Nothing Headphone (1) is all encompassing. The ANC works well when cranked up to High. We tried adaptive and while that worked for going inside to outside, it couldn’t quite cope with the rattling of the London Tube so sticking to High was the best option here.

Inspired by Glastonbury, both CMAT’s Take A Sexy Picture Of Me and Pulp’s Spike Island soared, the strings on Spike Island sounding particularly impressive throughout.

The bass on the headphones was given a workout, with Overmono’s Good Lies and The Prodigy’s Omen (yep, I am pretending that Glasto is still going on) was a miasma of crunching bass and high-hitting synthesisers.

For a calmer listen Big Thief’s Incomprehensible wrapped us up in a warm blanket of sound, sounding beautiful through the Headphone (1).

Believer by Annahstasia was a similar experience, with its soothing synths and their Tracy Chapman esque vocals.

5. Battery life is excellent — as is quick charging

The Nothing Headphone (1) clock in at around 30 hours’ playback with ANC on.

There certainly wasn’t any worry about them running out of battery as you can juice them up in five minutes’ to get 2.5 hours’ playback out of them with the ANC on.

Nothing (1) Headphones: final verdict

The definition of style and substance, the Nothing (1) Headphone range will be embraced by those who love Nothing and have enough going for them to turn the heads of other audio enthusiasts.

These are some of the most comfortable headphones we have used in a long time, with decent ANC and the sound quality is superb.

The Nothing Headphone (1) comes in both Black and White and cost £299. You can pre-order now from Nothing.

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