The $179 Nothing Ear (3) noise-cancelling earbuds feel more premium than the $149 Nothing Ear (2) they replace, thanks primarily to changes made to the charging case. They're capable buds with deep bass response, and fans of Nothing's bold design language will enjoy their appearance. However, their battery life is a bit short, their noise cancellation doesn't match that of competitors, and achieving the best sound requires fine-tuning the audio settings. For less money, you're better off with the $129.99 Anker Soundcore Liberty 5, which earns our Editors' Choice award thanks to crisp audio, more effective noise cancellation, and longer battery life.

Design: The Biggest Upgrade

Most of the updates to the Nothing Ear (3) concern the charging case. Both the new case and earbuds pack more metal under the transparent plastic than before, which makes them look and feel better. This is particularly pronounced in the case where a significant portion of the bottom is clad in metal. I really like it.

Nothing was more subtle in its treatment of the actual earbuds. They're still available in black and white, and the signature red dot remains on the right earbud for easy identification. Like their predecessors, the earbuds are comfortable to wear, but otherwise they are largely unchanged from the previous generation.

(Credit: Christian de Looper)

You pinch the buds' stems to control them, rather than press buttons. A single pinch on either bud plays and pauses audio or answers and hangs up a phone call. You can't change this behavior, but you do have control over some other functions. By default, they're mirrored across both earbuds: a double pinch will skip forward to the next track, while a triple pinch will skip back. A pinch-and-hold cycles between the transparency and noise cancellation modes. You need to dive into the app to add a third option: off. You enable a custom double-pinch-and-hold gesture, which isn't programmed out of the box.

Each earbud has a 12mm dynamic driver with a frequency response of 20Hz to 40kHz. They connect via Bluetooth 5.4 and support multipoint as well as Google Fast Pair. They include the AAC, SBC, and high-resolution LDCA codecs, which is good news for Android phone users. The Liberty 5 buds have the same frequency range, Bluetooth 5.4, and the same three codecs.

(Credit: Christian de Looper)

If you're using a Nothing phone, upon first pairing, you are prompted to choose whether to use Voice AI, a voice-based version of ChatGPT. If you choose to, a pinch-and-hold on the left earbud activates this feature.

The earpieces are rated IP54, which makes them watertight enough to withstand sweat and light rain. You should avoid torrential downpours or submerging them in water. The charging case shares the same IP54 rating, which is unusual. Comparatively, the Liberty 5 buds have a similar IP55 rating, which means they are equally protected against dust and more resistant to water.

(Credit: Christian de Looper)

The case features a new Talk button on the front, accompanied by a microphone and an LED status indicator on the right edge (adjacent to the USB-C port). Pressing the Talk button activates Nothing's new Super Mic system, which allows you to use the case's microphone for calls instead of those in the buds. Press and hold the Talk button to make quick recordings or issue commands, or double-press it to lock it into record mode. Oddly, you must wear the earbuds for this functionality to work. If they're in the case and the lid is closed, the Bluetooth connection to your device is severed.

Nothing supplies a short USB-C cable and three extra pairs of eartips.

Battery Life: It Still Comes Up Short

Nothing's tweaks and improvements haven't done much to boost the Ear (3)'s battery life compared with the Ear (2), which wasn't the greatest to begin with. Nothing says you can expect 5.5 hours of continuous playback with active noise cancellation (ANC) turned on, and up to 22 hours when combined with the charging case, up from four hours and 18.5 hours, respectively. The case supports fast wireless charging and can provide 10 hours of playback from just 10 minutes of charging via USB-C.

By comparison, Soundcore Liberty 5 has a battery life of up to 8 hours with ANC on, with an additional 32 hours in the case.

App Experience: An Intuitive Layout

The Ear (3) buds are compatible with the Nothing X app (available for Android and iOS). The app's main screen shows battery levels and allows you to adjust various settings, including noise modes, spatial audio, and more. There are toggles for features like bass enhancement and low-latency modes, so you don't have to dive into menus to access them. You can also adjust the EQ and set custom controls. It’s a simple, intuitive user interface, which I like.

(Credit: Nothing/PCMag)

The EQ is one of my favorite features. There are actually two EQ modes. There's a simple EQ that lets you select a preset or customize using three basic sliders for bass, mid, and treble. It's perfect if you want to tweak the sound a little. More interesting to me is the Advanced EQ, which provides eight adjustable and individually customizable bands. You can set the frequency and the width of the band (the Q), or how far below and above that frequency you want the adjustment to impact. You can adjust them between 20Hz and 20kHz, which is the total range of human hearing.

Noise Cancellation: Average at Best

The Ear (3)'s noise cancellation is satisfactory, but it falls short of what top competitors provide. They do an acceptable job of cutting out the low-end rumble from a plane, but they leave too much of the mids and highs behind. This is also true on a bus, where most of the engine's rumble is pared back, but many of the higher-pitched sounds from the suspension and doors remain. In a busy café, the earbuds do a fine job of reducing some of the background noise, but it is still relatively easy to hear nearby conversations. Anker is more effective at cancelling noise overall, if only by a little bit.

(Credit: Christian de Looper)

Nothing's transparency mode isn't particularly impressive. It has an unnatural sound and struggles to produce higher frequencies, making it sound as though your ears are blocked. It's sufficient for brief conversations, but that's about it.

Sound: Requires Finessing

The audio here is more sculpted than the previous model. This means the mids are reduced, while the bass and treble are emphasized with the default tuning, which Nothing calls Balanced. In this mode, the buds can produce deep and powerful bass.

On a track like The Knife's “Silent Shout,” this means they do a commendable job at producing the deep sub-bass of the kick drum and the bass synth. At times, the bass is slightly overpowering, but not excessively so. The mids are missing, though, and it's easy to notice.

(Credit: Christian de Looper)

The overly boosted bass is plainly audible on Kendrick Lamar's “Loyalty.," which has a sub-bass line through much of the track. With the default tuning, the earbuds excel at reproducing the bass line, playing even the lowest notes, something many other pairs fail to do. Lamar and Rihanna’s vocals sound rich, and the percussion, while somewhat overshadowed by the bass, is crisp enough.

Bill Callahan's "Drover" would benefit from a more neutral tuning. The kick drum, which drives much of the track, is emphasized slightly, but not excessively. While it conflicts with Callahan’s deep vocals, I still found them rich and present. The midrange acoustic guitar gets a little lost in the mix, and while it's crisp, it could use more depth. The higher-frequency percussion, such as cymbals, sounds crisp and bright, which helps round things out.

On orchestral tracks, like the opening scene of John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary, the earbuds produce a decent response, but overemphasize the lower-frequency instruments, like the bass and cello, at the expense of midrange instruments, like violins and brass. I was able to pick out each section well enough, and the vocalist cut through the mix fine; however, a more balanced curve would help a lot here.

The earbuds feature a personalized tuning option designed to compensate for any hearing gaps. I found that this tool makes the sound worse, overemphasizing bass even more at the expense of other frequencies. They also have spatial audio, which doesn't sound as good as that of competitors. It's too echoey, so I kept it off most of the time.

(Credit: Christian de Looper)

The good news is that the app-based EQ lets you fine-tune the sound enough to tone down the bass and highs while restoring the mids, thereby imparting a more neutral audio response. After some tweaking, I created an EQ curve that dramatically improved the audio. The drivers are capable of producing well-rounded audio, but only when tuned properly. You may need to spend some time refining the EQ.

The microphones are acceptable. My voice sounds full and natural enough for calls. The Super Mic built into the charging case, meanwhile, is slightly better and delivers a more rounded sound with improved bass. It's not enough of an improvement, however, that I want to take the case out of my pocket to use it during a call.

Although the Super Mic itself is excellent for calls, I found it gimmicky rather than useful. Since you have to wear the earbuds for it to work, you might as well take calls directly through them.