The $299.99 Nothing Headphone (1) noise-cancelling headphones carry forward the company's mantra of making unique, high-quality products. In addition to their undeniably original design, the headphones deliver solid audio response, respectable noise cancellation, and competitive battery life for far less than the class leaders from Apple, Bose, and Sony—all of which cost more than $400. If you have a Nothing phone, the Headphone (1) is a particularly compelling option that will match the design of your device and provide a good overall experience. If you prefer a bit more subtlety, you should consider the $349.99 Marshall Monitor III ANC headphones, which offer outstanding audio and incredible battery life for a slightly higher price.

Design: Meant to Stand Out

The Nothing headphones measure 6.84 by 3.07 by 7.45 inches and weigh 11.61 ounces. Like Nothing's other earbuds and its phones, the headphones feature translucent elements designed to get your attention. But it's the shape of the earcups that's most unusual—and most likely to alienate some people. While the outer portion of the earcups has an oval shape, a rectangular plate with rounded corners defines their outline. At first, I thought the design looked silly, but I got used to it over time, and the headphones do so many other things well that I'm willing to look past this choice. Thankfully, the padded earcups themselves are oval and not rectangular.

I found the headphones comfortable enough, but not quite as comfortable as the Bose QuietComfort Ultra ($429) or the Sony WH-1000XM6 ($449.99). That’s partly because the Nothing headphones are a fair bit heavier (both the Bose and Sony headphones weigh 8.96 ounces), which really makes a difference, especially during lengthy listening sessions. The clamp force is also a little tight for my preference.

(Credit: Christian de Looper)

The headphones have an IP52 dust and water resistance rating, which means you should avoid getting them wet. They can handle light splashing, but the rating is low enough that I would be nervous about using them in light rain. 

Internally, they have 40mm dynamic drivers with a rated frequency response of 20Hz to 40kHz. The headphones support Bluetooth 5.3 and connectivity features like Google Fast Pair and Microsoft Swift Pair. They work with the AAC, SBC, and high-res LDAC Bluetooth codecs. You can also listen via wire with either the included 3.5mm or USB-C cables. Connecting them to a USB-C source enables lossless audio (if the source offers it).

One of my favorite aspects of the headphones is the physical controls. Nothing takes a unique approach, favoring tactility in a way that makes it far easier to find the controls you want, when you want them. At the top of the back edge of the right earcup is what Nothing calls the Roller, a scroll wheel that rotates left and right to control volume with a satisfying click. Pushing the roller in briefly plays and pauses audio, while a long press cycles through noise modes. The Roller is similar in function to the Digital Crown of the AirPods Max ($549).

Directly underneath the Roller is the Paddle, which can be pushed to the right to skip forward a track or left to skip back. Depending on your platform and media player, holding the Paddle left or right will scrub through audio, but I couldn't get this to work on Android, iOS, or macOS with any of the music apps I sampled. There’s also the Button on the front corner of the right ear cup, which triggers your voice assistant, unless you have the forthcoming Nothing Phone (3), in which case it cycles between recent audio apps and favorites. Finally, there's a small Bluetooth pairing button on the inside corner of the right ear cup.

It’s a lot of controls, but because they each feel so distinctive, it's easy to find the right one and hard to confuse them once you get used to which of them does what. Moreover, you can customize them. The Button can be set to cycle through noise modes or EQ presets, and you can choose which noise modes are cycled through when you hold down the Roller.

(Credit: Christian de Looper)

The headphones offer up to 35 hours of playback with active noise cancellation (ANC) on, assuming you're using the AAC codec. Battery life drops to 30 hours if you use the LDAC codec with ANC on, but you can get up to 80 hours when using AAC with ANC off. If you’re like me and don't use ANC all the time, you might get 50 to 60 hours on a charge. Five minutes of charging gets you 2.4 hours of playback with ANC on, or 5 hours with it off. A full charge takes 2 hours. The Monitor III ANC delivers up to 80 hours of playback with ANC on.

In addition to the headphones themselves, you get a slim but durable carry case, a USB-C cable, and a 3.5mm cable.

App: Customizable Controls and an Advanced EQ

The headphones work with the Nothing X app (available for Android and iOS), which is well-designed and easy to use. With the headphones connected, the app's main screen allows you to switch noise modes, control spatial audio, turn on a bass enhancement feature, and access other settings, like the controls and EQ. You can manage Bluetooth connections and turn on features like on-head detection (which automatically pauses your media if you remove the headphones).

(Credit: Nothing/PCMag)

The EQ is especially impressive. It's one of the most comprehensive EQs I've ever tested, and it's divided into two sections. There's a simple EQ, which offers a handful of presets and lets you customize the bass, mid, and treble frequencies, and an advanced EQ, which lets you get really granular with your adjustments. It includes eight bands, and while that's not unusual, you can not only set the frequency of each band, but also the Q of each band (its width).

I was an audio engineer in another life, so I was delighted to see this. Many users may never want to customize the EQ to this extent, but I appreciate the option.

Noise Cancellation: Good for the Price

The noise cancellation is mostly effective. It's competitive with the Marshall Monitor III ANC, but it's not quite up to par with that of Apple, Bose, or Sony.

The headphones are decent at reducing consistent noises, like an airplane engine. They eliminate many of the lower and higher frequencies, while allowing some of the mids to come through at a quieter level. They struggle more with inconsistent or random sounds, like the noises from a city bus. While the headphones are good at neutralizing the sounds from the engine, they don't effectively cancel noise from sudden sounds, like the doors opening and closing. The same was true in a busy cafe where they tamped down the background din of distant conversations, but weren't as effective at cancelling out closer voices.

(Credit: Christian de Looper)

The transparency mode works well and sounds relatively natural, but the headphones have a hard time reproducing some higher frequencies and introduce some background hiss. I wouldn't want to use transparency mode for extended periods, but it was sufficient for quick conversations. Apple, Bose, and Sony all have better transparency modes.

Sound: Requires Some Tweaking

The headphones lack clarity and sound dull out of the box. While that's easily remedied by adjusting the EQ, we test headphones using the default tuning, because that's how most people will use them. Nothing calls this default Balanced.

The headphones are able to reproduce the deeper sub-bass frequencies on a track like The Knife's “Silent Shout," but lack bass extension in the very low frequencies. The bass is strong enough for kick drums to have some weight, but the high frequencies are tucked away and also lack extension. This ultimately makes the track sound a little sleepy.

Listening to Kendrick Lamar's “Loyalty” generates a similar experience. The track relies on sub-bass for the intro bass line, and the headphones handle most of the frequencies decently, though they aren’t able to reproduce the deepest notes, which leaves the bass line feeling slightly disjointed. Other aspects of the track sound good. Lamar and Rihanna’s vocals are relatively present and clear, and the percussion sounds crisp, partly because it's rather lo-fi.

(Credit: Christian de Looper)

“Drover” by Bill Callahan sounds good, but imperfect. The kick drum is deep and round, and Callahan’s baritone vocal sounds full and rich. The acoustic guitar is a little subdued, the cymbals lack sizzle, and the soundstage feels narrow, making things come through as cluttered.

The narrow soundstage is even more apparent on orchestral tracks, like the opening scene to John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary. On this track, the higher strings, brass, and vocals compete for space, and the percussion lacks clarity. Everything sounds crowded and lacks excitement.

While I resolved these audio issues by using the EQ, it required some tinkering and trial and error, and didn't address another issue: the lack of volume. I tested the headphones with the volume set around 80%, and it didn't feel like there was much headroom if I found a track that I really wanted to turn up. Marshall's headphones, meanwhile, are tuned much better out of the box and only require slight adjustments for individual tastes.

The microphones built into the headphones sounded fine in testing. When recording through the Voice Memos app on an iPhone, I could easily hear each word, and had a similar experience in a phone call. However, my voice wasn't especially natural-sounding, and it lacked body and depth.