Nothing isn’t just a phone and earbuds company anymore.
On the same day that the UK-based tech startup debuted its Phone (3) flagship handset, Nothing also showed off its first pair of over-ear headphones. Nothing Headphone (1) brings a similar sort of iconoclastic design language from Nothing’s other products to the realm of over-ear cans. They’ve got big, blocky, rectangular frames around the ear cups and a number of physical buttons and controls on the headphones themselves for every function you could imagine.
Nothing Headphone (1) launches on July 15, just like Phone (3), and will cost a fairly hefty $299.99.
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These headphones support what Nothing is calling “AI-adaptive active noise cancelation” with 40MM drivers and support for spatial audio. The hardware was made in partnership with KEF, a first for Nothing. One thing that might make Headphone (1) appealing to some users is the preponderance of physical controls on the unit itself. There’s a dedicated voice assistant button that can be customized to do other things, as well as a roller button that can control volume, playback, and ANC modes on its own depending on what you do with it. Another roller button is used for skipping tracks or answering phone calls, and as a boon to people like me, there’s a dedicated on/off switch.
As is usually the case with headphones, it’s hard to tell how comfortable they are or how good they sound from marketing materials alone. But if you’re already bought into the Nothing ecosystem, this seems like a perfectly adequate continuation of that philosophy, if nothing else.
