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Nothing just dropped their first over-ear headphones, and boy do they look different. The Headphone (1) costs $299 and looks like someone took regular headphones and made them see-through. Classic Nothing move to make everything transparent, so people stare at you while you have the gadgets on.
The obvious thing is how they look. Nothing’s whole deal is making tech that doesn’t look boring, and these definitely aren’t boring. The drivers are 40mm and developed with KEF, which sounds fancy and probably is. You can see all the internal bits through the clear plastic, which either looks super cool or like a toy depending on your taste.
They’ve got active noise cancellation with six microphones and claim 42dB of noise reduction. That’s pretty solid on paper. Battery life is amazing too – up to 35 hours with ANC on, which means you can basically forget to charge them for weeks.
The build quality feels surprisingly good for $299. They’re not flimsy despite all that transparent plastic. They even have IP52 water resistance, which is rare for over-ear headphones and actually useful if you sweat a lot or get caught in the rain.
The Sound Problem
Here’s where the problem lies. The sound isn’t what you’d expect, and not in a good way. Out of the box, these sound bass-heavy and muddy. Like, way too much bass for most music. The frequency response boosts low frequencies way above what sounds natural, so everything sounds like it’s coming through a subwoofer.
The good news is you can fix this with the EQ in Nothing’s app. Bumping up the mids and highs makes for a much more balanced listening experience. But seriously, why ship headphones that need immediate EQ tweaking to sound decent? That’s like selling a car that needs tuning before you can drive it properly.
The drivers themselves are actually pretty good – very low distortion thanks to ceramic diaphragms. So the hardware can handle good sound, they just tuned it weird from the factory.
Features That Actually Work
The noise cancellation is genuinely impressive for this price range. It doesn’t match Sony or Bose top models, but it’s close enough that you’ll notice the difference on planes and trains. The transparency mode works well too when you need to hear what’s going on around you.
All the usual modern features are here – spatial audio with head tracking, dual device connection, wear detection, and low-lag mode for gaming. The Nothing X app has tons of customization options, though it can be overwhelming if you just want to listen to music.
One cool thing is the physical controls. There’s this touch-sensitive area that responds pretty well, plus some physical buttons. Takes a bit to learn where everything is, but it beats hunting for tiny buttons on other headphones.
Who Should Buy The Nothing Headphone 1
If you want headphones that start conversations, these are perfect. They’re definitely going to get looks and questions from people. At $299, they’re competitive with premium options from Sony and Apple, especially considering all the features you get.
But here’s the catch; the sound quality requires some tinkering with the custom EQ. If you don’t want to mess around with settings and just want great sound out of the box, look elsewhere. Sony’s WH-1000XM5 or Bose QuietComfort Ultra will sound better immediately, even if they cost more.
These work best for people who like tweaking their audio setup and don’t mind spending time in the EQ settings. Once you dial them in, they sound quite good. But that’s a big “once.”
Should you buy the Nothing Headphone 1?
Nothing Headphone (1) feels like a solid first attempt at over-ear headphones that’s held back by some questionable tuning decisions. Every brand is making premium wireless headphones these days, and only a few actually stand out.
The transparent design will either love it or hate it; there’s no middle ground. The features and build quality justify the price, but the out-of-box sound doesn’t. If Nothing had just tuned these differently from the start, they’d be easy to recommend.
Worth buying if you love the look and don’t mind EQ tweaking. Skip if you want great sound without too much work.