Nothing Headphone 1 Review – Rivaling the Elites With Its Own Style

While quality can vary considerably, the world of over-ear headphones can start to seem pretty same-y visually. The Nothing Headphone 1 aim to shake that up with a unique design, pulling from the same playbook as the rest of Nothing’s products. But with this new pair of headphones coming in at $299, it has to compete with audio heavyweights like Sony and even Sonos. Luckily, Nothing has some practice breaking into new product categories with a bang.

Nothing Headphone 1 Review – Design and Features

Nothing has gone heavy on style for its first foray into over-ear headphones. Its style won’t be for everyone, but for folks into a sort of retro-futurist aesthetic, they have their appeal. The Headphone 1 combine rather plain, aluminum rectangles with rounded corners to form the main body of each earcup. It’s reminiscent of the AirPods Max, but Nothing quickly covers up that likeness with its signature transparencies. Two pill-shapes plateaus jut out of the aluminum casing with thick transparent plastic to show through to some of the internal hardware, or what might be the hardware — it’s hard to say as I don’t see any actual indication of the 40m dynamic driver nestled into each headphone. A pair of Razer Tiamat headphones I had ages ago was more intentional in its transparency, showing through directly to the backs of the numerous drivers they had in each earcup.

On the inside of the earcups, Nothing has two thick, oval-shaped ear cushions with an almost rubbery, leatherette finish. These create a tight seal around my ear and help spread out the strong clamping force of the headband. The earcups attach to the headband with small metal brackets that conveniently provide both swivel and a slight angle adjustment, both of which help the headphones sit comfortably on the sides of the head. They also let the headphones fold flat to wear them around your neck or tuck them into the included case.

The headband offers smooth sliders to adjust the size of the headphones for bigger and smaller heads. It’s all plastic, but feels sturdy and like a decent quality. There’s not much padding up top though, with just a modest pad at the center section of the headband. It’s comfortable for a little while, but can build up pressure after a few hours. It's also made of the same rubbery material as the earcups, which isn’t very breathable. That unfortunately just the reality for a lot of headphones like this.

One thing impressive about Nothing's design is the way its yokes help it maintain a low profile. Even if it’s stretched around a larger head like mine, the headband still ends up sitting very close to the skull. Some headphones with yokes that attach further out on the earcups can end up stretching far away from the head as they get closer to the ears, making for awkward looking gaps. So, if you’re one to mind your style and like the aesthetics of the Headphones 1, this is another point in their favor. Low profile doesn’t mean light, though. They sit at a modest 329 grams — a bit lighter than the AirPods Max but much heavier than the Sony WH-1000XM6 and a touch above the Sonos Ace.

The controls on the Nothing Headphone 1 are a curious mix. In a few cases, they’re very simple and easy to understand. For instance, they have a straightforward power switch that you can flip on or off — little uncertainty there and no need to hold a button for several seconds to turn them off and on (or back off if you thought they were on but they were already off — you catch my meaning). But then Nothing hides some of its buttons. There’s a Bluetooth pairing button so hidden on the inner rim of the right earcup that I didn’t notice it until I read the instructions.

There’s another set of controls on the back edge of the right earcup. One of these looks like a little rubber dome, and briefly holding it toggles ANC and transparency while a single tap pauses and resumes playback. Swiping along it actually scrolls it like a scroll wheel, and this motion manages volume. Below this, a little vertical paddle provides playback control with clicks jumping forward or backward and holds fast-forwarding or rewinding. But we’re not done there. One final button is discretely placed at the top corner of the right ear cup, ready for a quick tap. This one is geared for customization in the Nothing X app. It’s meant as a shortcut to launch a specific audio app or to quickly switch between a few different audio apps using Nothing’s Channel Hop feature, which is exclusive to Nothing phones. By default (on Android at least), it will just pull up your phone’s voice assistant.

Along the bottom edge of the right earcup, you’ll get both a USB-C port and a 3.5mm jack. And both support audio input, a nice move on Nothing’s part. You don’t need to rely on them for quality audio, though. The headphones support AAC for decent audio quality of Bluetooth but also can tap into LDAC when paired with devices that support it for higher bitrate audio.

The Headphone 1 support some handy features for everyday use. They work with Bluetooth Multipoint, letting you keep two active connections — a laptop and phone, for example — and quickly switch back and forth between them. They also can continue to use LDAC with Multipoint enabled, which isn’t always the case for headphones and earbuds. The headphones also offer wear detection, so they can pause audio playback if you remove them and resume when you put them back on.

The hard case that comes with the Nothing Headphone 1 is a nice extra, but not a great one. The outer material is magnet for lint and hair, so if you have pets, get ready for it to appear nowhere near as aesthetically pleasing as the headphones themselves. The zipper is also a bit stiff. Inside, the case has space for the headphones only if their sliders are fully retracted. And a little pocket for cables may be handy, but it doesn’t hold them in very well. While the case is handy for protecting the headphones on the go, Nothing has also made them dust and water resistant to an IP52 level. You won’t want to run them under the sink or drop them in a puddle, but getting caught in a light drizzle shouldn’t be an issue.

Nothing Headphone 1 Review – Software

The Nothing X app provides additional control over the Headphone 1. You’ll get access to the low-latency mode, LDAC, wear detection, and Bluetooth Multipoint, all of which can be enabled with the app. You also get additional ambient noise settings, like the ability to adjust ANC levels or turn off ANC and transparency altogether. The on-device controls can be tweaked, and the app provides a nuanced equalizer for advanced audio tuning. There’s also an option to enable spatial audio with or without head-tracking; it’s a neat enough gimmick, but not a real improvement on the sound coming from the headphones.

Nothing Headphone 1 Review – Performance

The Nothing Headphone 1 are impressively capable. Audio from the Headphones 1 is well balanced. Bass gets an impactful delivery, but isn’t overwhelming, and the drivers happily dip down into the sub-bass range with ease. The sound is somewhat on the mellow side, holding back on brilliance and presence a bit. Combined with a fairly tight soundstage, they don’t present the most engrossing sound. Instruments in the higher registers and the bite of cymbals just aren’t quite as poignant as they can be. You always have the option to tweak the EQ to your preferences, but stock, their sound is fairly neutral.

The headphones offer both powerful active noise cancellation and a very lifelike transparency mode. In a noisy cafe with a powerful air conditioning system makes a very low droning and plenty of machinery noise, the headphones didn’t struggle to block out most of it and reduce everything else to hushed levels that are easily overcome by the headphones’ own audio without needing to push the drivers to uncomfortably high volumes. Even without ANC, the rubber ear cushions offer a good seal for strong passive isolation in case you’re in relatively quiet spaces and don’t like the pressure-shifted feeling ANC can create — though these headphones are quite light on the sensation.

For a first foray into over-ear headphones ANC and transparency, Nothing has done an excellent job. That said, they perform just shy of the Sonos Ace in both areas. And Sonos, in turn, lags Sony’s and Bose’s best, but all of them should be quite close overall.

While the Headphone 1 may not be ideal for gaming, they have a low-latency mode that cuts down the audio latency enough for most mobile gaming outside of precise rhythm games. And if latency is crucial, the option to run them over a wired connection could help. The fact that the headphones don’t embellish anything won’t make for the most explosive sound in games, but it also means that you won’t have every explosion and gunshot in a shooting game drowning out everything else there is to hear.

The mics on the Headphone 1 work fairly well, though sound slightly distant. They capture my voice clearly even in somewhat noisy environments. For instance, they eliminated the sound of a loud air conditioner and fan while recording my voice clearly. For the more chaotic sound of a busy cafe, they don’t do as good a job, struggling to pick out just my voice.

The battery runtime is competitive. The headphones will run for 30 hours with ANC and LDAC both enabled, and they can run for up to 80 hours with ANC off and using AAC. In my testing, they’ve held up to this standard, only losing about 20% charge after a long day of use with both ANC and LDAC. They can recharge fully in just two hours, which isn’t bad, and their five-minute fast charge provides over 2 hours of playback, which is also fairly competitive with the Sonos Ace or Sony WH-1000M6.