Nothing Ear (stick) vs THE BEST! 😲 vs AirPods 3, Nothing Ear (1)

The Nothing ear (stick) is really what the AirPods is to the AirPods Pro. It’s a different fit without noise isolating eartips. This means no noise cancellation, or even noise blocking. Basically, you’ll be exposing your ears to ambient noise while listening to your favorite podcasts, playlists. But that’s okay! Not everyone likes or needs noise cancelling, maybe you just want some great sound, pristine call quality, something unique and rarely seen. In this review we’re going to test its sound and call quality, and compare it to the most popular open-fit style earbuds, the AirPods generation 3. Then I’m going to talk about whether the Nothing ear (stick) is a smash or pass.

The Nothing ear (stick) packs 12.6mm drivers. And what’s interesting is that Nothing has completely grilled over the driver cavity, such that it’s flush. It looks great, but it doesn’t look very acoustically transparent. They do have a very light fit. It’s not going to fall off easily in everyday use but they don’t seem to be snug enough not to fly out of my ears if I’m running, or doing pushups.

You can use both sides individually for calls and music. Now, it doesn’t have touch controls like the Nothing ear (1), instead, just like the AirPods, you pinch on the stem to control your music and calls. And they’ve also included volume controls and making controls customizable through the Nothing X app. The app also allows you to toggle the buds into a low latency mode specifically for gaming, and to customize its sound quality, which I’ll go into a lot more later.

On paper it’s got up to 7 hours of playtime, and up to 29 hours with its charging case. That is within current day averages, so it’s not considered too bad at all. The case is transparent on the outside so you can see inside for that quick check. Are my buds in there? Are they charging? I’m not going to lie, it can be smaller, and this is definitely not the most portable case. And if it’s in your pocket, it’s very noticeable.

What I’m not noticing here is wireless charging. This doesn’t have that which is a missed opportunity, but not a deal breaker.

What is a deal breaker for most people is bad call quality. Nothing says they’ve improved the ear (stick)’s mic pickup over the ear (1). But how does it also compare to the 3rd generation AirPods, widely regarded as one of the best open-fit earbuds in the market?

Call Quality

Testing its call quality in both quiet and noisy conditions, using some really loud cafe style background noise, and some wind noise coming from a fan, the ear (Stick) no doubt was outperforming the Ear (1) which is supposed to be the flagship Nothing product. Especially in noisy conditions, the filtering of that noise was cleaner on the Stick, and it didn’t make my voice sound as robotic as on the ear (1). In fact, it is actually closer to the AirPods in terms of voice quality, while it applies a more aggressive noise-gating filter. My voice on the AirPods sounded the cleanest but you could still hear the background hissing which can be a little distracting to the listener, but not so with the ear (stick). So if I were to rank them, the AirPods will still come in first, yes. But the ear (stick) is a close second. The ear (1)? Well, a little more work needs to be done. Listen to the mic samples here.

Sound Quality

Now let’s talk about its sound. To be honest, I was expecting to be impressed. It does look like the AirPods 3. Has bigger drivers than the AirPods 3, but it doesn’t sound anywhere like it. I wouldn’t say that it doesn’t have bass. You can still feel the gravity of bass drops, but it’s got a lot less punch, impact or weight than I’m used to on the AirPods 3. Instead its tuning seems to be very mid-range focused to the point of sounding a bit too bright and sibilant in the mids. You hear that a lot more with female vocalists. Listen to the sound quality comparison here.

So I’m not very impressed with its out of box sound signature. This frequency sweep shows that the ear (stick) has less gain in the bass than the AirPods 3. And what are these big spikes in the treble? I mean, that could explain why it sounds like it’s got so much more sizzle, so much more heat. Some people may dig that kind of sound signature, but I personally prefer a smoother, warmer sound.

App EQ?

However, we’ve got the Nothing X app which does let us customize its sound. It’s got a few EQ presets, and a graphic EQ. So you can tune its sound somewhat to your liking. But for me, none of the presets sounded fine. They all made the earbuds sound more sibilant. I could only get decent results with the 3-band graphic EQ by maxing the bass, and cutting the mids all the way. Still it’s nowhere near my ideal sound. So, big drivers, great, but I’m not impressed, to be honest. It just needs a better graphic EQ that’s capable of more granular tuning.

Smash or Pass?

Overall, I would describe the Nothing ear (stick) as an ambitious effort. Definitely something to look at if you were looking at the ear (1), maybe you liked that transparent design, that build quality, but you prefer a more open, less intrusive fit. A fit that keeps you aware of your surroundings at all times. Something light enough that you can wear all day without noticing that it’s even there.

Surely, the ear (stick) can be better. I want it to sound more dynamic, I want it to have wireless charging and yes, it would be nice if its case was smaller, considering the competition. But overall I won’t say it’s a hard pass. It’s a “maybe pass”, “maybe smash” because it is pretty different product from all the other typical cookie-cutter AirPods clones. It feels more like a collectible than something I will daily drive. But what do you think? Leave your comments below.

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