Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Nothing Ear vs Nothing Ear (a) | Which buds are best for YOU?”.
Nothing is back with two pairs of earbuds, the nothing ear and the ear a and since I’m a huge fan of the previous nothing buds, I was curious to see how these two new ones compare. So here’s everything you need to know about these two new Buds and whether you should upgrade to one of them or not. Let’S talk names. First, it’s weird to go from the nothing ear, one and ear 2 to just ear and ear a but nothing says it wanted to simplify its naming and let people decide what they need without being pressured to upgrade every single year. Think of Amazon’s Kindle, for example, you just go on Amazon and you buy a Kindle or a Kindle paper white without worrying about the series number. But if you’re buying a secondhand unit – or you want to upgrade your Kindle – you really need to dig into the different generations to know exactly what you’re getting so this new nothing naming convention is better in a way but worse than others. The real difference now, though, is between the main, nothing ear series and the ear a series like Google and Samsung and, like it did for its own phone 2 and phone 2.
A nothing is using the a letter to indicate a slightly lower-end proposition. So the ear is the flagship earbud, while the ear a is the more affordable option, but to be fair, the two models are very, very much alike. They both have the same butt, shape and design that we know which means they’re as comfortable to wear longterm. As the ear one and ear two were, nothing has found a winning formula here and it keeps on improving it without messing with what works I’ve written about it before, but personally I have trouble with most earbuds.
They create a lot of pressure in my ears, specifically around my tragus, so I can barely wear other buds for half an hour before it’s just too much. Nothing’S earbuds fit perfectly in my ear and they don’t exert any pressure. So I can wear them for several hours without paint, that’s huge for me. For the past 3 years, I’ve recommended the nothing ear series to many people who found other true wireless earbuds uncomfortable and they all loved them. Honestly, this is my personal endorsement and I stand by it with the new ear and the ear a these are just as good the pinch controls are still here to and they’re customizable pinching is more deliberate than tapping on other earbuds.
So you avoid a lot of accidental touches. Also, if you have long hair like I do, you’ll enjoy pinching more than tapping both buds have some improved active noise cancellation with a new adaptive mode that adjusts based on your environment. I’Ve been using it since I got the buds and I think it adapted well when I moved from listening at home to walking outside and taking the subway.
There’S. Also, a transparency mode, of course, and nothing has moved to 11 mm driver, which sounds a smidge better than the nothing ear 2 to me, both the nothing ear and the ear a also have three microphones in each bud and nothing claims its voice. Technology has improved. I noticed this on calls in noisy environments. The ear 2 is sharper, but also pitchy, while the ear and ear a are more comfortable to listen to you’ll be the judge. This is a voice sample recorded with a nothing ear to with thunderstorm noises playing nearby. This is a voice sample recorded with the new nothing ear with thunderstorm noises playing nearby. This is a voice sample recorded with the new nothing ear. A with thunderstorm noises playing nearby.
Both buds have very similar settings in the nothing X app. You can turn on the enhanced Bas, enable a low latency mode for gaming. Do an ear tips, fit test, locate your lost buds by playing loud music on them and turn on the Dual connection.
Setting this last one is perfect. If you have different phones, tablets and computers that you want to use the buds with, you can save many devices without pairing and unpairing and connect to two of them at the same time like your phone and tablet, or phone and computer now, you’re thinking these are Just the same buds, uh and yeah they’re quite similar honestly, but there are a few noteworthy differences. So let’s talk about that.
First, the ear comes in white or black, while the ear a comes in white black and this vibrant, yellow you’re. Seeing here I haven’t seen this black and yellow bumblebee look on other earbuds, and I really like it. The most visible difference is in the case the ear basically have the same square case as the ear 2, but the ear a has a rectangular case.
I find it more finicky to open, probably because the edges are thin, so my fingers always end up holding it shut, while I’m still trying to push it open on the ear. The case supports wireless charging at 2.5 wats, but the ra doesn’t get any wireless charging. Just USBC the ear case also has a better ip55 rating, so it can handle decent amount of dust and some water jets. While the ear a case is only ipx2 rated B. Basically, it can survive some dust and that’s it. Oh and the buds themselves are ip54 rated, so there’s no difference there.
The second made difference between the two is in their audio abilities. Nothing is offering a fully customizable equalizer on the ear, with a profile sharing feature that lets. You send your exact configuration to another ear user, that’s not available on the ear. A and honestly it sounds like an arbitrary difference to me, because the two buds have the same driver and the same capabilities. It’S annoying to see the ra snubbed here. Also, the nothing ear supports both the ldac and L HDC Bluetooth codex. While the ear a only supports ldac. I won’t get into the details, but you should know that ldac is more widely adopted and offers high quality audio with little compression, while lhdc is all about reducing the latency and isn’t available on many phones.
The Aira also has a minor battery life advantage over the year. You get 15 extra minutes, withc on 1 hour with ANC off and with the full battery. In the case that goes up to an extra half hour with ANC on and 2 hours withc off, but in terms of battery both of them are vastly improved over the year to which only lasted about 4 hours. Withc on I noticed this when I was doing my testing.
I grew tired of listening to music before the battery died. That never happened with the ear 2 and obviously the big difference is in price, the nothing ear, a costs $ 99, while the nothing ear is1 149, which begs the question which one should you buy. Both earbuds are made for extreme audio files, but they’re perfect. For someone like me, who enjoys music and podcasts, wants good noise cancellation and privileges, comfort and long-term wearability. If you want the absolute best within those criteria, then the high-end nothing ear obviously has all the features, including wireless charging, better case durability and some extra audio tricks, including lhdc support, but is it worth 50 % price increase, not really at least not for most people? You can get a lot of the same value from the cheaper, nothing ear, especially the most important features: Comfort, active noise, cancellation, ease of use and ldac support. The other question, you’re, probably asking yourself, is if you should upgrade from the nothing ear one or the ear? 2 to these yes to the first one, no to the second, the difference between the ear, 2 and ear is minimal and probably not worth an upgrade right now.
The difference with the ear 1, however, is huge and either the ear or E A would be a good upgrade for you. I hope that’s enough to help you make up your mind and don’t forget to follow Android Authority for all the latest news tests, reviews and more .