The Nothing Ear (stick) is essentially the half-in-ear version of the Nothing ear 1. There, however, is more about these wireless earbuds than meets the eye
Nothing’s rather impressive hype and marketing push has made a lot of people sit up and take notice of the brand, and it feels even more monumental when you realize that the company has launched just three major products so far. Subsequent to hopping into the cell phone business incredibly with the Nothing Telephone 1, the brand established via Carl Pei, has now sent off its second sets of genuine remote headphones. The Nothing Ear Stick is evaluated at Rs. 8,499 in India, and truly looks and feels very noteworthy for a couple of headphones in this cost portion.
That said, there is a lot more to a pair of truly wireless earphones than design, and the Nothing Ear Stick does have some considerable drawbacks as a result of this seemingly single-minded focus of making the earphones look and feel unique. How do these earphones fare on the whole? Find out in this review.
- Design
The new Nothing Ear Stick comes with an intriguing design. Rather, it is more precise to say that the earbuds case has something new to offer. The Ear Stick case is modeled on a typical tube of lipstick. The earbuds swing into view when you turn the tube’s base while holding up the top. The casing can be spun endlessly in either direction to open and close the case. However, one disadvantage is that the case can accumulate dust if not completely sealed.
A red plastic module that holds the USB-C charging connector is housed at the lower part of the case, which is moreover made of straightforward plastic. There is a silver button close to it that obviously juts from the case’s principal body. This permits the mini headphones to coordinate with your cell phone.
The case’s rounded plan allows it to stand upstanding. Simultaneously, there is a gamble of the case moving away when kept evenly.
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Despite having a smaller volume than, for instance, the Ear 1 case, it is bulkier and protrudes further from your pocket. We thought this would be a little uncomfortable for travelers.
- Earbuds
The new Ear Stick takes over from the previously launched Nothing Ear 1. The Ear Stick uses the older half-in-ear style similar to the AirPods, whilst the Ear 1 had a more typical in-ear design. This implies that they are outer to your ear trench instead of squeezing inside. In present times, this is odd – particularly while checking the opposition out. While evaluating the headphones we found that the half-in-ear style makes it badly designed to wear when you are running or working out, as they feel somewhat free.
Both the left and right earbuds come with a touch sensor that lets you skip tracks forward and backward, adjust the volume up and down, and activate the voice assistant on the phone.
- Connectivity
The new Nothing Ear Stick comes with SBC and AAC codecs over Bluetooth 5.2 and is easy to pair by switching on the Bluetooth mode on your phone. To make the earbuds visible, one needs to hold down the silver power button. For better connectivity and features, one can install the Nothing X app from the Play Store.
The company has improved the Nothing X app as it now comes with a slightly revised look and some extra functions. One can view the battery percentage for the case and the earbuds on the main screen. Moreover, one can get to the control settings or the adjuster mode. The Ear Stick’s equaliser option offers a three-band custom EQ in addition to four presets. There is no option to entirely turn off the EQ and one needs to select one of the presets available.
- Sound Quality
After using in-ear earbuds, switching to a half-in-ear design feels a little offbeat. The Ear Stick has a midrange frequency, and the sound quality feels overly bright and forceful. This causes the overall tone to occasionally seem rather shrill and reedy, along with the absence of a fleshed-out low-end. The bass level can be considered average as it does not impress us. Considering the price of the earbuds, we could say that the sound quality is lively and detailed.
While listening to music, there are constant disturbances from the outside environment. This is good when you are walking on the road but overall, it is very distracting.
- Call Quality
The voice quality is fairly good for phone calls as the new Nothing Ear Stick comes with a decent microphone. The headphones battle to keep up with voice clearness in loud areas, for example, close to a running fixture, and a lot of foundation sound holes through.
- Battery
The Nothing Ear Stick is reported to have seven hours of nonstop audio playback. During our review, we were able to use it for five to six hours on a single charge. The company also claims that a 10-minute charge will allow for two hours of playback. This claim turned out to be fairly accurate during our review period, as the earbuds played for almost two hours.
- Verdict
Despite the recent price hike, the Nothing Ear (1) white variant at Rs 7,299 is cheaper than the Nothing Ear (stick). The former offers in-ear design, ANC, and wireless charging. In direct comparison, therefore, the Nothing Ear (1) seems to be a better pick. Outside the Nothing ecosystem, both Nothing wireless earbuds pale in comparison with peers such as Samsung Galaxy Buds2 (Rs 6,999). That said, the unconventional but striking design of the Nothing Ear (stick) is the only factor to consider these earbuds.
Techno World 