Few hardware startups have launched a full product line as quickly as Nothing, and the London-based company on Tuesday announced its latest take on earbuds, Ear Open. As the name suggests, it’s an open-ear device designed to maintain a sense of situational awareness rather than the drowning-out approach of active noise cancellation.
Image credit: Nothing
The new earbuds are priced at $149, the same price as the company’s Ear 2, but $50 more than the lower-priced Ear A and $20 more than the new AirPods 4 (without ANC). And like the Ear 2, the new Open offers voice-based access to ChatGPT queries through the Nothing X app.
Like other open-ear headphones, the new headphones are designed for situations where the wearer needs to hear their surroundings, like when riding a bike or walking around town. With headphones that don’t have cups or inserts that offer passive noise cancellation, some sound leakage is inevitable.
About this, Nothing claims that “This open design is engineered with a sound seal system and directional speakers to minimise sound leakage and deliver a perfectly balanced soundstage whilst ensuring privacy.”
The Open certainly maintains the commitment to style that has characterized Nothing’s products since the beginning, borrowing heavily from the design language of the company’s Ear products, which is great, as open-ear headphones tend to look like they’ve been pulled from a Dollar General box.
I can’t help but say that these earbuds are 30% lighter than “regular earbuds”, and they offer 8 hours of playback on a single charge, for a total of 30 hours including the case.
Preorders begin on Tuesday, with shipping to the US, Canada, UK and Europe starting October 1st.
