Nothing Ear (Open) Review [Still WORTH IT in 2026?]

In this article, I’m going to share my HONEST Nothing Ear (Open) review for those who are wondering whether they are WORTH IT. I’ll be scoring the Nothing Ear (Open) open ear earbuds on comfort, fit stability, features, battery life, microphone quality, sound quality, and value.

I’m going to do my best to share whether these earbuds are worth it, and ideally who these earbuds are for. I bought these earbuds with my own money, and was NOT sponsored, paid, or received a free copy for review. All thoughts are my own.

I’ll be sharing my critical opinion with 10 years of experience as a professional music producer, audio engineer, and tech journalist. I also run the RecordingNow YouTube channel with over 30,000+ subscribers and over 8 million views.

Let’s dive right in!

Nothing Ear (Open) Earbuds Review in Short

Nothing Ear (Open) open ear wireless earbuds next to charging case and box

The Nothing Ear (Open) is a very comfortable and well-designed product with great sound quality and above average mic quality, especially for under $100. The slightly looser fit of its design isn’t the most stable, but you can almost forget you’re wearing them in terms of comfort. For more stability, considering clip-on earbuds (like the Soundcore AeroClip) or “headband-style” bone conduction headphones.

Pros and Cons

8.2

Nothing Ear (Open)

Check lowest prices

PROS

Incredibly comfortable
Great sound quality
Above average mic quality
Physical controls

CONS

Loose-fitting design lacks stability
Battery life is average
Could be more water resistant

Order HERE for the LOWEST PRICE AVAILABLE (Do NOT pay retail):

Nothing Ear (Open) Open Ear Headphones, Ultra-Light with Adjustable Earhooks, Multipoint Connection Bluetooth Earbuds, Clear Voice Technology for AI Calls, IP54, Fast Charging, ChatGPT Supported

$99.00

Buy Now

We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.

10/21/2026 04:13 am GMT

Disclosure: These affiliate links may provide a discount and in return, give us a commission in order to keep this website 100% independent to ensure honest unfiltered reviews 🙂

Comfort + Fit Stability

Holding Nothing Ear (Open) wireless open ear earbud in hand

The Nothing Ear (Open) is an open ear earbud design, but different from clip on earbuds like the Soundcore AeroClip series.

The way it works is that you wrap the hook around the top of your ear, with the back portion anchoring the earbud behind your ear, and the front portion delivering the sound.

This translates to strong spatial awareness of everything going on around you, but still delivering decently-audible music or audio to the ear canal.

The comfort of the Nothing Ear (Open) is excellent, especially compared to the traditional “in-ear” earbuds where you have to insert the eartips into the ear canal fairly deeply to get a proper physical seal.

Each earbud only weighs 8.1 grams, so it’s incredibly light as well.

My one major issue with the fit of the Nothing Ear (Open) is that it’s not the most stable design, especially if you plan to do more vigorous movements or tilt your head forward or backward.

Now compared to the similarly-designed Soundcore AeroFit 2, it’s actually slightly more secure and planted.

The Nothing Ear (Open) feels like it “sticks” to the ear better while the AeroFit 2 is looser.

In the open-ear category, there are clip-on earbuds that are more securely latched to the ear due to the “C-ring” design, and then the “headband” style of bone conduction headphones that are pretty securely wrapped onto the head.

Compared to both of those, I found the design of the Nothing Ear (Open) to be the loosest-fitting, which translates to incredible comfort but poor stability.

Also, due to being fairly loose, the audio quality has a tendency to be somewhat inconsistent depending on how the earbuds are positioned, which tends to move slightly here and there.

Comfort + Fit Stability Score: 8.0 out of 10

Features, IP Rating, Battery Life, and Mic Quality

Features

The Nothing Ear (Open) was originally released in October 2024, so it has many modern wireless earbud features:

IP54 dust and water resistance rating (dust, sweat, light splashes of water)
Built-in microphones for taking calls
Bluetooth 5.3
Multi-point connection
Physical pinch controls
Custom EQ
Native apps for both iOS and Android

Buttons and Controls

The Nothing Ear (Open) has physical pinch controls on each earbud.

This is similar to AirPods, where you pinch the stem to activate a button press, or hold down longer to activate another function.

This single button can control play/pause, skip forward, skip backward, and volume control.

I find the physical pinch control of the Ear (Open) to be quite intuitive, especially compared to capacitive touch controls.

I’m not a fan of touch controls in general, but especially for “active” earbuds that are prone to accidental touches and are less tactile-feeling during movement.

Overall, the physical pinch controls are well-designed, intuitive, and works well.

IP Rating (Dust and Water Resistance)

The Nothing Ear (Open) is IP54-rated for dust and water resistance, which is average for the class.

This translates to dust, sweat, and light splashes of water.

IP54 is slightly better than the typical “IPX4”, which has no dust resistance, hence the “X”.

That said, other competitors in the open-ear category have higher water-resistance.

One competitor is the Soundcore AeroFit 2 which is rated IP55. The “5” is rated for sweat, rain, and low-pressure water streams.

The Nothing Ear (Open)’s IP54 should be fine for most workouts, but if you train outside where conditions can contain rain or heavier water exposure, then you should consider IP55 and up.

Battery Life

On a single charge: 8 hours
With charging case: 30 hours total
Fast Charge: 10 minutes = 2 hours of playback

This battery life is average across the class that tends to be around 7 hours on a single charge and typically 30 hours with the charging case.

Some newer competitors like the Soundcore AeroFit 2 are up to 10 hours on a single charge, and 42 hours total with the case, which makes the Nothing Ear (Open) towards the lower end of average.

Microphone Quality

The microphone architecture of the Nothing Ear (Open) features 4 MEMS microphones (2 per earbud) and their processing algorithm called “Clear Voice Technology 3.0”.

There’s also a physical mesh built-in to help reduce wind noise.

I find the Nothing Ear (Open) to be above average in mic quality for the class, especially in quiet to moderate environments.

Where the Ear (Open) excels is in delivering clear and natural vocal quality.

It could improve in background noise suppression, especially in noisier or windier environments where there are more frequent mid to high frequency spikes.

There is still a level of mic quality above the Ear (Open), which would be products containing additional bone conduction sensors, like the Soundcore AeroClip 2.

If you need the absolute best-in-class mic quality, look for those products. Otherwise, the Nothing Ear (Open) should suffice in quiet to moderate day-to-day environments.

Features, IP Rating, Battery Life, and Mic Quality Score: 8.5 out of 10

Sound Quality

Nothing Ear (Open) and Anker Soundcore AeroFit 2 side by side comparison

The Nothing Ear (Open) features a custom 14.2mm titanium-coated dynamic driver per earbud.

This is quite large, especially compared to more compact clip-on earbuds, since the Ear (Open)’s design has more space.

In addition, the Ear (Open) also has custom EQ via the Nothing X app.

I’ve tested most of Nothing’s headphones and earbuds, and one thing I’ve noticed is a strong price to sound quality performance ratio.

This is true of the Nothing Ear (Open), which is definitely one of the better-sounding products in the entire open-ear category as a whole, and especially for the price.

The stock sound profile is slightly consumer-friendly, bright, and exciting, with an emphasis on the treble.

One thing that stands out with the Ear (Open) is being vocal-forward with a ton of treble detail and fairly decent separation and layering.

The mids are slightly recessed, but this translates to a sound that cuts through a noisy gym or similar environments better.

Due to the lack of physical seal like traditional in-ear earbuds, I do think the bass and sub-bass could be better, but it’s still somewhat present despite the physical limitations of the open-ear design.

Compared to similarly-priced products in the open-ear category, I slightly prefer the sound quality of the Nothing Ear (Open) versus something like the Soundcore AeroFit 2.

Sound Quality Score: 7.7 out of 10

Value

Holding Nothing Ear (Open) charging case in hand

The Nothing Ear (Open) retails for $99.00 USD, but can be found on sale for as low as $84.

At just under $100, the Nothing Ear (Open) is an excellent value in the open-ear category as a whole.

While it’s not a perfect product, there isn’t any glaring weaknesses. This is a well-designed and good-feeling product to use in daily life.

If there is one caveat to point out, the looser fit of the open-ear design is less stable than clip-on earbuds and headband bone conduction headphones, especially if you will be tilting your head at all.

Future iterations could improve on things like water-resistance, Bluetooth 6.0 connectivity, and battery life.

Value Score: 9.0 out of 10

Overall Scoring Breakdown

Comfort + Fit Stability (30% of score): 8.0 / 10

Features + IP Rating + Battery Life + Mic Quality (30% of score): 8.5 / 10

Sound Quality (30% of score): 7.7 / 10

Value (10% of score): 9.0 / 10

Total: 8.16 out of 10

8.2Expert Score

Excellent (for under $100)

The Nothing Ear (Open) is a very comfortable and well-designed product, with great sound quality and above average mic quality. The slightly looser fit of its design isn’t the most stable, but you can almost forget you’re wearing them.

Is the Nothing Ear (Open) Worth it?

Nothing Ear (Open) open ear earbuds and charging case next to original box packaging

The Nothing Ear (Open) really impressed me as one of the best open-ear products under $100.

Although it’s not a perfect product, it offers compelling performance in comfort, sound quality, and mic quality relative to its price.

The design leads to me forgetting I’m even wearing them, which is incredible for people who find the traditional in-ear earbuds to be uncomfortable.

That said, the design is a bit on the looser-fitting end, especially if you plan to workout and tilt your head either forwards or backwards. Like laying back on a bench, for example.

If you need more stability, I’d seriously consider either clip-on earbuds, ones with earhooks, or the headband-style bone conduction headphones.

Some very strong alternatives in this class of wireless earbuds are:

Order HERE for the LOWEST PRICE AVAILABLE (Do NOT pay retail):

Nothing Ear (Open) Open Ear Headphones, Ultra-Light with Adjustable Earhooks, Multipoint Connection Bluetooth Earbuds, Clear Voice Technology for AI Calls, IP54, Fast Charging, ChatGPT Supported

$99.00

Buy Now

We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.

10/21/2026 04:13 am GMT

Disclosure: These affiliate links may provide a discount and in return, give us a commission in order to keep this website 100% independent to ensure honest unfiltered reviews 🙂

How We Tested and Our Methodology

RecordingNOW.com is a 100% independent publisher with over 10 years of experience testing and reviewing consumer electronics and headphones.

We currently purchase the products we test with our own money, and are not paid by any company or manufacturer to influence our opinions or decisions.

After purchasing the product, we conduct up to hundreds of hours of detailed hands-on testing in a controlled, acoustically-treated environment.

ODi Productions is our resident expert and author of this article, with 10 years of experience as a professional music producer, tech journalist, and audiophile.