Nothing Ear (2) is priced at Rs 9,999 and will be available on Flipkart, Myntra, and select offline stores starting from March 28th at 12 PM IST.
* Nothing Ear 2 specs
•With Mic:Yes
•Connector type: No
•Bluetooth version: 5.3
•Wireless range: 15 m
• Battery life: 36 hrs capacity 485mAH
•Custom 11.6 mm driver. Hi-Res Audio Certified, compatible with LHDC 5.0 codec. Personal sound profile.
• Smart Active Noise Cancellation up to 40dB. With Adaptive Mode and Personalised ANC.
•Dual Connection.
• Ultra-light at 4.5 g.
•Price :Rs 9,999
Design
The design of the Nothing Ear 2 has seen some changes, mostly around the case. The new case is smaller in every dimension but you can only really tell the difference if you have it besides the old one.
The new case has more angled edges compared to the curves of its predecessor. The lid has a similar appearance but the large dimple in the middle that held the earbuds in place has been made smaller.
Comfort
The Nothing Ear 2 are a comfortable pair of earbuds. The bulk of the design sits inside your ears, leaving only a small bit hanging outside. The inner ear shape is unobtrusive and the silicone tips are soft and pleasant on the ear.
The issue is with the new pressure-sensitive gesture area on the earbuds. These work well when you are intentionally using them but are extremely easy to press even when you are just grabbing the stem to pull them out of your ears. This happened almost every time I removed them as it takes no effort at all to activate the gesture.
Software and features
The Ear 2 can be controlled using the Nothing X app for iOS and Android or through the Bluetooth settings on a Phone (1). From here, you can change the ANC settings, the touch gestures, the audio effects, as well as access features like low latency mode, personalized ANC and sound profile, and find my earbuds.
The Ear 2 also offers a custom EQ in the app, something the Ear 1 lacks to this day. It's not much; you get a 3-band adjustment laid out in a nonsensical circular pattern but it's better than just the four presets that the Ear 1 had.
The Ear 2 also lets you dial in a personalized sound profile. The test procedure to calibrate this differs a bit from what we have seen from other brands. You first have to set a level for a white noise sample, which will be played in the background. Once done, each earbud will play a test tone that gradually reduces in volume, and the point where you stop hearing it establishes the level for that frequency.
Performance
All observations in this review are with the firmware version 1.0.1.85, which was the latest available at the time of testing.
Audio quality
The Nothing Ear (2) uses updated drivers over the previous model. They have the same 11.6mm dynamic design but the diaphragm has been updated with a new material that uses graphene and polyurethane. The interior of the earbuds has also been updated with a new dual-chamber design. The earbuds also support LHDC 5.0 (also known as LHDC-V) in addition to SBC and AAC. Although still a lossy codec, LHDC 5.0 now supports up to 192kHz sampling rates and up to 1Mbps bitrate.
Microphone
The microphone performance was average. The voice sounds natural but the aggressive background noise cancellation algorithm cuts in too often even in quiet surroundings and causes dips in your voice while you are speaking. If they could just turn down the noise cancellation a bit then the voices could sound much clearer.
Noise cancellation
The Ear (2) has average noise canceling performance that unfortunately has a few issues.
For whatever reason, the ANC keeps fluctuating in effectiveness, which is extremely noticeable if you don't have anything playing. Even when manually set to the High setting, the ANC keeps adjusting its levels every few seconds in a very obvious manner. It doesn't even seem like it's adjusting to the surroundings but rather in a random pattern. One second it seems to be working fine, the next suddenly there's a lot more low-frequency noise being let in. This is more noticeable when outdoors but it also happens in quieter places. You just are less likely to notice it there, especially with music playing.
Connectivity
Nothing Ear 2 have a rated battery of 6.3 hours with ANC off and 4 hours with ANC on. I could not test ANC-on performance as the ANC is only active when the earbuds detect being placed in your ears, which means it cannot be activated as the earphones aren't worn during the battery test run.
So for the ANC off results, tested with LHDC and AAC. The AAC run provided a battery life of 5.7 hours, which is close enough to the 6.3 hours figure that Nothing provided to make it clear it was tested with either AAC or SBC. However, the LHDC test ran for just 4 hours, which is way off and just insufficient in general. And just to reiterate, this is with the ANC off.
The Ear (2) had a variety of connectivity issues during testing. For one, LHDC 5.0 simply does not work as intended. Setting it to the full 1Mbps bitrate on the Nothing Phone (1) causes it to start stuttering after a few seconds and become unusable. Even 900kbps is unusable. It's only when you go all the way down to 500kbps does it work somewhat stably. All of these observations are with the phone less than an arm's length away on a desk while sitting still. Things would be much worse if the phone was in a bag or pocket.
Battery
The Ear (2) have a rated battery of 6.3 hours with ANC off and 4 hours with ANC on. I could not test ANC-on performance as the ANC is only active when the earbuds detect being placed in your ears, which means it cannot be activated as the earphones aren't worn during the battery test run.
So for the ANC off results, I tested with LHDC and AAC. The AAC run provided a battery life of 5.7 hours, which is close enough to the 6.3 hours figure that Nothing provided to make it clear it was tested with either AAC or SBC. However, the LHDC test ran for just 4 hours, which is way off and just insufficient in general. And just to reiterate, this is with the ANC off.
Pros:
•Unique look
•Immersive audio experience
•Decent battery backup
•Touch controls work well
•Bluetooth Multipoint
•Better mics and call quality
•Custom sound and ANC
•Comfortable
Cons:
•ANC could be improved
•Case can scratch easily
•Mediocre battery life
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