Latest news with #Ear1
CNET
5 days ago
- Business
- CNET
Nothing Headphone 1 to Launch Alongside Nothing Phone 3
July is going to be a big month for British tech company Nothing, which is not only launching its "first true flagship," the Nothing Phone 3, but will also unveil a new audio product, the Nothing Headphone 1. Headphone 1 is due to launch on July 1, said Nothing Founder and CEO Carl Pei speaking on stage at SXSW London on Thursday. "It's our first over-the-head headphones," he said. "A lot of our users have been asking for it." Audio is hardly a new category for Nothing. In fact the company's first foray into the hardware world was with the Nothing Ear 1, earbuds that captured out attention with their striking transparent design. The company's focus on design is "a necessity," said Pei as the company was late to market and needed a way to differentiate itself. "We call it technical warmth," he said, describing Nothing's design language. "At first glance, these parts look really mechanical, [but] once you dig a little bit deeper, there's a lot of fun elements." Pei also gave a hint into what we can expect for the company in the next five years. "The smartphone is the most important product today, but that doesn't mean it's going to be the most important product forever," he said. He's interested in seeing what new form factors tech companies are bringing to market, but would ideally like Nothing to be the company that finds the killer next tech product.
Phone Arena
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Phone Arena
A new challenger is coming for Apple's most expensive headphones
Nothing has officially confirmed that it's working on its first pair of over-ear headphones, and they're expected to launch this summer. The reveal came via a behind-the-scenes YouTube video that offered a closer look at the design philosophy and development process behind the new audio the start, the team at Nothing emphasized that this isn't just about creating another set of headphones. Their goal is to design something that feels like a personal statement, more in line with wearing glasses or a hat, rather than just a tech accessory. The video suggests the design will be distinct and eye-catching, true to Nothing's design-first key focus of development has been usability. The team pointed out how most headphones make it difficult to distinguish between controls when you're wearing them. Nothing wants to fix this by designing buttons and interactions that feel different to the touch, so users don't have to fumble around to adjust the volume or change tracks. On the performance side, the company is confident these headphones will punch above their weight. Building on its experience from past audio products like the Ear (1), Ear (2), and Ear (Stick), Nothing says it's aiming to create a pair of headphones that will rival, and possibly surpass, more expensive options like Apple's AirPods Max. They made it clear that the goal isn't to compromise due to price, but to deliver the best possible audio and user experience regardless of cost. Nothing confirmed a summer launch, while keeping the pricing details under wraps. | Images credit — Nothing This also puts recent news into better context. Earlier this week, Nothing announced a partnership with KEF, the legendary British audio brand known for its high-end sound systems. At the time, it wasn't clear what the collaboration would lead to. Now, it seems likely that KEF's influence will be part of this over-ear headphone project. The product is still in development, but a summer launch is now on the table. If Nothing can deliver on its promise of high-quality sound, intuitive design, and bold styling, these could become a standout addition in a space that's often dominated by familiar names and safe designs. As always, we'll be keeping a close eye on what comes next.
Phone Arena
09-05-2025
- Phone Arena
I thought nothing could impress me nowadays. But Nothing did!
In about a month, it will be four years since Carl Pei's London-based startup — Nothing — released its very first product. The Nothing Ear (1).I'll come out and say that I was extremely skeptical, judgmental, and tongue-and-cheeky about the startup. In my defense, all we had to go on until this point was Nothing's mission statement, which was 'To remove barriers between people and technology, to bring back artistry, passion and trust to the field of consumer technology'.A pretty bold, long-winded statement that, through the lens of someone who has been jaded by a barrage of marketing materials in the past, doesn't mean much of didn't help that after releasing that mission statement and spending months to tease us, Nothing's first product looked like a copy of AirPods Pro. AirPods Pro: Electric Boogaloo, this time it's transparent! The kicker — they didn't sound very good, hey, OK, it was just a first product to get the name out there, gauge interest, get the websites talking. What's next? It took another year and, in July of 2022, the Nothing Phone (1) was launched. And it immediately became apparent that the transparent elements of the Ear (1) were not just a one-off gimmick — it was something that the company actively wanted to bake into its all honesty, the Nothing Phone (1) was rough around the edges. One wouldn't expect a perfect first launch, right? It had obscure bugs in the software (like the blue light filter not turning off, or some issues with the auto-brightness), and it wasn't a there was something oddly alluring about it. I do remember spending a couple of months with the Nothing Phone (1) as my phone after the review period was done. I wasn't on board with the Glyph interface just yet — it didn't make much sense. And I wasn't happy with the software yet, as a budget phone with modest hardware, it did have exactly the things that mattered — good display, snappy navigation, and a no-nonsense user experience that still had a distinct signature and style. Like the extra-large folders, which allowed you to fit more apps in a single homescreen, but still let you launch them with a single tap, with no need to open the folder first. I am a sucker for keeping my homescreen count down to a OK, Nothing. So, I wasn't super into the whole Glyph interface thing of the Nothing Phone (1), right? It was there to do two things. One — look cool. Two — deliver notifications to you with unique light patterns, so you'd know who's calling or what's happening when your phone is face-down.I found it pretty impossible that one may be able to memorize the light patterns and use that to figure out what type of call is coming through. To be fair — I still do, that's a weird way to try and sell the Glyph what sold the concept of the Nothing Phone to me as a whole was the iteration on the entire package. First, the Nothing Icon Pack, which turns all of your icons monochrome, was introduced with this phone. The reasoning behind the move is to allow you to 'remove branding' from different apps and services from your homescreen. That kind of makes sense in a world where 'nomophobia' is a word that we should be conscious of, right? Apparently, Apple agrees, as you can now have monochrome icons on iOS 18, too. Some use that feature to create abominations, other make nice, neat, tightly-packed homescreens. Then, the Glyph was upgraded with a timing bar. One of the LED strips can work as a Pomodoro timer, or a tracker for your Uber or food delivery (3rd party API is available, but admittedly — not taken up by a lot of developers). Which was a small improvement, but instantly got me to thinking about placing the phone face-down more often. And then it clicked for me. The Nothing Phone (2) was trying to be 'the best phone that you don't use'. With its many customizations and options, it's trying to help you push it to the back of your mind as 'that one device that I pick up when I need to communicate', not the smartphone that is always vying for and clawing at your attention. Again, I used the Nothing Phone (2) for a while. Want to know what got me to stop? It is so incredibly slippery! It will fall off my Anker rubber-covered wireless charging puck, it will slide off a desk, it just does not want to sit still. Thankfully, Nothing is aware of that design now we get to the budget era of Nothing — the reason why I felt compelled to write this up, actually. The Nothing Phone (3a) and currently-launching CMF Phone 2 Pro are… pretty excellent for their respective slapping the 'Pro' moniker on everything is a pet peeve of mine and feels like sandpaper on my prefrontal cortex. But OK, let's look beyond that. The CMF Phone 2 Pro costs $280. It is by no means excellent in anything it does — at that price, it can't be… right? But it's pretty darn good where it matters! One — the display. It's an AMOLED panel with a 120 Hz refresh rate with 388 pixels per inch. Yes, these are specs from a sheet, but in reality — the screen looks good. Very good. And it's HDR compatible with 3,000 nits peak brightness. Since the screen is basically the thing you look at 99% of the time when interacting with the device, it sure helps if it's good. And it sells the premium illusion better when it's 120 Hz, too! (on a $280 phone, looking at you, iPhone 16e). Then, the software experience. A Mediatek Dimensity 7300 Pro may not inspire much confidence — it shouldn't, if you want to play Warzone Mobile on your phone. But, if you just want the core smartphone experience, you will be hard-pressed to find a better performer in the $280 price bracket. No, it's not as fast as a $1,000 Galaxy S25+ or iPhone 16 Pro. But it doesn't lag, stutter, take ages to open your calendar like some other $300 phones I've tried. It works… just fine! And finally — the camera. No, it's not as good as on the $800, $1,000, $1,200 phones. In fact, its photos are only slightly better than those of other $300 phones, and that's arguable. However, what struck me with the CMF Phone 2 Pro was the overall camera experience. The viewfinder preview speed — it keeps up a high frame rate and doesn't have that 'cheap smartphone' choppy look when you are moving around. It responds pretty consistently when taking a photo, and even gives you a Portrait Mode preview with the faux bokeh cooked into the viewfinder (for example, the Pixel 9a does not do that).OK, so thus far, I've come to expect the following things from Nothing: Unique, signature design and user experience Good core performance Out-of-the-box takes on common features (Essential Space vs AI assistants) Competitive pricing It only makes sense that the community is eager and excited for the launch of a flagship Nothing Phone (3). It hasn't come yet… Hopefully soon?Let's take some points down, so this is not a puff piece. What still irks me about Nothing? The amount of puns that can be made with that company name — often times, not even intentional. The dreaded 'Pro' addendum on these new non-pro devices. The third generation of Nothing Ear earbuds doesn't have a number — so we went from (1) to (2) to . The vagueness surrounding a Nothing Phone (3) launch (the Phone (2) is now two years old) launch (the Phone (2) is now two years old) The limited and sometimes mysterious availability of the devices. Hey, at least it's not on an invite system! Have you tried a Nothing product yet?
Phone Arena
09-05-2025
- Phone Arena
I thought nothing can impress me nowadays. But Nothing did!
In about a month, it will be four years since Carl Pei's London-based startup — Nothing — released its very first product. The Nothing Ear (1).I'll come out and say that I was extremely skeptical, judgmental, and tongue-and-cheeky about the startup. In my defense, all we had to go on until this point was Nothing's mission statement, which was 'To remove barriers between people and technology, to bring back artistry, passion and trust to the field of consumer technology'.A pretty bold, long-winded statement that, through the lens of someone who has been jaded by a barrage of marketing materials in the past, doesn't mean much of didn't help that after releasing that mission statement and spending months to tease us, Nothing's first product looked like a copy of AirPods Pro. AirPods Pro: Electric Boogaloo, this time it's transparent! The kicker — they didn't sound very good, hey, OK, it was just a first product to get the name out there, gauge interest, get the websites talking. What's next? It took another year and, in July of 2022, the Nothing Phone (1) was launched. And it immediately became apparent that the transparent elements of the Ear (1) were not just a one-off gimmick — it was something that the company actively wanted to bake into its all honesty, the Nothing Phone (1) was rough around the edges. One wouldn't expect a perfect first launch, right? It had obscure bugs in the software (like the blue light filter not turning off, or some issues with the auto-brightness), and it wasn't a there was something oddly alluring about it. I do remember spending a couple of months with the Nothing Phone (1) as my phone after the review period was done. I wasn't on board with the Glyph interface just yet — it didn't make much sense. And I wasn't happy with the software yet, as a budget phone with modest hardware, it did have exactly the things that mattered — good display, snappy navigation, and a no-nonsense user experience that still had a distinct signature and style. Like the extra-large folders, which allowed you to fit more apps in a single homescreen, but still let you launch them with a single tap, with no need to open the folder first. I am a sucker for keeping my homescreen count down to a OK, Nothing. So, I wasn't super into the whole Glyph interface thing of the Nothing Phone (1), right? It was there to do two things. One — look cool. Two — deliver notifications to you with unique light patterns, so you'd know who's calling or what's happening when your phone is face-down.I found it pretty impossible that one may be able to memorize the light patterns and use that to figure out what type of call is coming through. To be fair — I still do, that's a weird way to try and sell the Glyph what sold the concept of the Nothing Phone to me as a whole was the iteration on the entire package. First, the Nothing Icon Pack, which turns all of your icons monochrome, was introduced with this phone. The reasoning behind the move is to allow you to 'remove branding' from different apps and services from your homescreen. That kind of makes sense in a world where 'nomophobia' is a word that we should be conscious of, right? Apparently, Apple agrees, as you can now have monochrome icons on iOS 18, too. Some use that feature to create abominations, other make nice, neat, tightly-packed homescreens. Then, the Glyph was upgraded with a timing bar. One of the LED strips can work as a Pomodoro timer, or a tracker for your Uber or food delivery (3rd party API is available, but admittedly — not taken up by a lot of developers). Which was a small improvement, but instantly got me to thinking about placing the phone face-down more often. And then it clicked for me. The Nothing Phone (2) was trying to be 'the best phone that you don't use'. With its many customizations and options, it's trying to help you push it to the back of your mind as 'that one device that I pick up when I need to communicate', not the smartphone that is always vying for and clawing at your attention. Again, I used the Nothing Phone (2) for a while. Want to know what got me to stop? It is so incredibly slippery! It will fall off my Anker rubber-covered wireless charging puck, it will slide off a desk, it just does not want to sit still. Thankfully, Nothing is aware of that design now we get to the budget era of Nothing — the reason why I felt compelled to write this up, actually. The Nothing Phone (3a) and currently-launching CMF Phone 2 Pro are… pretty excellent for their respective slapping the 'Pro' moniker on everything is a pet peeve of mine and feels like sandpaper on my prefrontal cortex. But OK, let's look beyond that. The CMF Phone 2 Pro costs $280. It is by no means excellent in anything it does — at that price, it can't be… right? But it's pretty darn good where it matters! One — the display. It's an AMOLED panel with a 120 Hz refresh rate with 388 pixels per inch. Yes, these are specs from a sheet, but in reality — the screen looks good. Very good. And it's HDR compatible with 3,000 nits peak brightness. Since the screen is basically the thing you look at 99% of the time when interacting with the device, it sure helps if it's good. And it sells the premium illusion better when it's 120 Hz, too! (on a $280 phone, looking at you, iPhone 16e). Then, the software experience. A Mediatek Dimensity 7300 Pro may not inspire much confidence — it shouldn't, if you want to play Warzone Mobile on your phone. But, if you just want the core smartphone experience, you will be hard-pressed to find a better performer in the $280 price bracket. No, it's not as fast as a $1,000 Galaxy S25+ or iPhone 16 Pro. But it doesn't lag, stutter, take ages to open your calendar like some other $300 phones I've tried. It works… just fine! And finally — the camera. No, it's not as good as on the $800, $1,000, $1,200 phones. In fact, its photos are only slightly better than those of other $300 phones, and that's arguable. However, what struck me with the CMF Phone 2 Pro was the overall camera experience. The viewfinder preview speed — it keeps up a high frame rate and doesn't have that 'cheap smartphone' choppy look when you are moving around. It responds pretty consistently when taking a photo, and even gives you a Portrait Mode preview with the faux bokeh cooked into the viewfinder (for example, the Pixel 9a does not do that).OK, so thus far, I've come to expect the following things from Nothing: Unique, signature design and user experience Good core performance Out-of-the-box takes on common features (Essential Space vs AI assistants) Competitive pricing It only makes sense that the community is eager and excited for the launch of a flagship Nothing Phone (3). It hasn't come yet… Hopefully soon?Let's take some points down, so this is not a puff piece. What still irks me about Nothing? The amount of puns that can be made with that company name — often times, not even intentional. The dreaded 'Pro' addendum on these new non-pro devices. The third generation of Nothing Ear earbuds doesn't have a number — so we went from (1) to (2) to . The vagueness surrounding a Nothing Phone (3) launch (the Phone (2) is now two years old) launch (the Phone (2) is now two years old) The limited and sometimes mysterious availability of the devices. Hey, at least it's not on an invite system! Have you tried a Nothing product yet?
