The Nothing Ear 3 puts a smart new twist on the charging case, and my calls have never been clearer

Introduction

It turns out last year’s ‘definitive article’ Nothing Ear wasn’t quite so definitive. Company co-founder Carl Pei admitted ditching the number from its flagship wireless earbuds wasn’t the smartest move, and has brought it back for the new generation – but shouldn’t these then be Ear 4?

Semantics aside, the Nothing Ear 3 brings larger dynamic drivers, spatial sound and a new-found love of metal to the table. It also one-ups the Nothing Ear with an uprated microphone built into the charging case, promising higher quality calls and voice recordings. Oh, and yet another way to integrate Nothing’s AI-infused Essential Space into your life.

The price has taken a big jump up as a result. Ear 3 will set you back $179/£179/€179, up from the Nothing Ear’s $149/£119. That puts them on par with the similarly transparent Beats Studio Buds+, and not far off some very accomplished alternatives. Do some new duds and clearer calls let it compete?

Design & build: family values

Don’t worry, Nothing fans: the firm’s penchant for transparent tech hasn’t gone anywhere. Only now there are metal elements everywhere you look, bringing the in-ear range more in line with the Headphone 1 over-ears. The buds themselves don’t feel any different, as the aluminium accents sit beneath the polycarbonate outer shell, but the case now feels cool to the touch – and generally more high-end than any previous Nothing Ear.

The overall design hasn’t changed, so you’re still looking at a flat square with a flip-up lid. Only now there’s a big TALK button on one side, and a microphone grill and activity LED on the over next to the USB-C port. A lanyard loop is a handy new addition, too, and the whole thing is IP54 resistant so will shrug off a light rain shower.

I do still think the rectangular Ear (a) case is more pocket-friendly, but this is far from bulky, and the design makes it impossible to pop the buds back in backwards. Sensibly placed pogo pins ensure they’ll always charge correctly, and the magnet holding the lid shut does a great job, refusing to pop loose even when I gave it a vigorous shake.

Metal trim aside, the stem-style buds aren’t radically different from the old ones, although Nothing has tweaked the angle slightly for extra comfort. I can’t fault the fit, which stayed secure in my ears even while jogging. As usual there are a bunch of different sized silicone ear tips provided in the box, including an extra small pair to ensure almost anyone should be able to get a secure and comfortable fit.

Features & battery: listen clearly

The Ear 3’s case is a different kind of smart to JBL’s display-toting Tour Pro 3; Nothing’s Super Mic adds a pair of microphones significantly larger than the ones found in the buds themselves (or any true wireless in-ears, for that matter). Hold down the Talk button and it’ll override the earbuds, letting you chat away in better clarity.

It really works: everyone I spoke to over Whatsapp video call and Zoom virtual meeting said I sounded better defined when using the case, with clearer pronunciation and a more natural amount of sibilance – often the first thing to go when using a basic Bluetooth mic.

It’s not like the buds don’t have a decent set of mics themselves. You get three per side, plus a bone conduction pickup, which helps to filter out unwanted background noise and just focus on your voice – but the Super Mic wins every time for overall clarity. I did feel a bit like I was cosplaying a social media influencer every time I used it in public, though.

Press-and-holding the talk button when not in a call can wake your phone’s voice assistant, or start recording a voice note if you’re also rocking a Nothing smartphone. The recording will be synced to Nothing’s Essential Space and transcribed automatically.

Compatibility is the biggest issue right now. Only certain third-party apps recognise it; my Samsung phone just defaulted to the earphone mics when using the voice recorder. Whether anyone will be able to tell the difference over a traditional phone call (ie not Wi-Fi calling) is unlikely, too.

Elsewhere, the Ear 3’s pinch controls are just as easy to use as ever, preventing accidental track skips and pauses when adjusting the position in your ear that would trip up earbuds with touch-sensitive surfaces. Nothing has also managed to add larger but still super-skinny new antannae to each stem, resulting in fewer Bluetooth dropouts in heavily populated areas like train stations – even when using the higher quality LDAC codec.

Battery life has improved from last year, but not by a huge margin. Five and a half hours of ANC-on listening is only twenty minutes more than I got from the old Nothing Ear, and still a few hours short of the class best. The case does bring that total up to a useful 22 hours, and a 10-min USB-C top-up is good for as much as 10 hours of playback. Wireless charging is on board, too, as it should be at this price.

Interface: X fresh yourself

Nothing’s X companion app has been given a lick of fresh paint for 2025, ditching the firm’s early dot matrix fonts and adopting a stark black-on-white style. It’s all still a breeze to navigate, with battery status for the buds and case sat front and centre. Scroll down and the home screen gets divided into different sections housing the biggest features.

Most will feel familiar to returning Nothing Ear owners, including the fully customisable pinch controls, a choice of noise cancelling modes and strengths, a low latency mode for gaming, find my earbuds audio alerts, and a fit test that checks you’re using the correct size of ear tips. You can also toggle in-ear detection here, but it’s arguably as good as it’s ever been on a pair of Nothing in-ears, so I was happy to leave it enabled throughout my testing.

Not every feature plays nicely with each other: turning on Spatial audio disables the Bass Enhancer and switches back to the default EQ preset. Dual connectivity also restricts a lot of the Super Mic’s abilities when paired to a second device, so is turned off as standard.

Personally I’m not a fan of the way these modes artificially widen the soundstage, often boosting low-end frequencies and straying too far from the artists’ intention. The Ear 3’s mode is fun to use for movies, but I always turned it off when listening to music. I also switched from the basic equaliser to the 8-band custom EQ, which gives you far more control over the tonal balance. Being able to import profiles found online is a neat touch that I wish more headphone brands supported.

Arguably the most useful feature is the personalised hearing test, which has been simplified from previous efforts. Now you just press one button if you can hear a tone, and another if you can’t – after a few minutes of trying different frequencies, it’ll spit out a customised curve that should account for any gaps in your hearing.

Sound quality and noise cancelling: bass jump

Nothing has found room inside each Ear 3 bud for a 12mm dynamic driver, up from the 11mm ones found in the last-gen model. The result is a more precise high-end (which was already pretty crisp before) and a slightly wider soundstage, even before you bring Spatial audio into the mix.

The tuning favours a little more bass than previous efforts, and that’s without the bass enhancement switched on. I’d honestly avoid it for the unwanted boominess it adds to the low-end. Sticking to the defaults, Pendulum’s Cartagena is raucous and energetic, with punchy and well-defined sub-bass that doesn’t detract from the vocals. The highs are particularly pronounced, but on the right side of sharp.

I thought the mid-range on Nothing But Thieves’ Welcome to the DCC could be a little swamped by the extreme ends of the frequency range, while the hi-hats on Ghost’s Absolution had a little more bite than I’m used to. This crispness just edges into harsh territory on Burial’s Phoneglow, which sent me to the advanced EQ settings to dial it back a bit.

These are still a very good listen for the price, but there are more nuanced alternatives around for similar cash, like the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4 and Technics EAH-AZ80E.

Nothing does get props for continually improving its earphones’ noise cancelling ability. I would put the Ear 3 up there with the best in-ears around the £150-£200 mark, coping very well with the low drones of public transport and general background chatter in shops and offices. They’re still caught out by sudden loud noises in a way top-tier wireless in-ears like the Bose Quietcomfort Ultra Earbuds Gen 2 have managed to dial out, but those cost considerably more.

Nothing Ear 3 verdict

If the last-gen Ear was a half-step upgrade from its predecessor, this new iteration feels like the real deal. The Nothing Ear 3 is a more mature, more capable pair of wireless earphones that really do deliver a higher quality microphone than any immediate rival – as long as you don’t mind chatting into a charging case, and the apps you use are fully supported. A Nothing Phone is needed to really get the best from it, too.

The Super Mic is likely the biggest reason for a price hike that has pushed the Ear 3 into direct competition with some seriously capable rivals, though. If you value nuanced sound or a longer-lasting battery over clearer call quality, you have plenty of alternatives to pick from.

Nothing Ear 3 technical specifications