Bli plusmedlem
Logga in

Over-ear headset for 2000 kronor

Review: Nothing Headphone A - Cheaper and charming headphones

Nothing Headphone A takes most of the features from their more expensive headphones to a lower price segment.

Elias Nordling
Published

British Nothing has carved out a niche with smart marketing and different design. They are best known for their phones, but their first product was a headset, and there have been many headsets since then. This summer, the first over-ear headset, Nothing Headphone 1, a premium model for 3500 kronor, was released.

Nothing Headphone A, which I am testing now, costs just under 2000 kronor, yet I recognise most of it. The materials might be cheaper, with less metal and glass and more plastic, but they are still square ear cups that are transparent so you can see some of the electronics inside.

I also recognise the controls. The headset has no fewer than five buttons (I have to search for a long time for the pairing button on the inside of the ear cup), all distinctly different and easy to distinguish by touch. In addition to the pairing button and the on/off button, there is a scroll wheel. It adjusts the volume, but you can also press it to play or pause the music or answer calls. There is also a toggle button that you can press in either direction. Short presses skip tracks, long presses fast forward in the track. Finally, there is a regular button that you can program yourself. By default, it activates the voice assistant, but in the app, you can choose from a number of functions, such as switching noise cancellation or switching between different equaliser modes. In the app, there are preset modes for more bass (standard), more treble, voice, and balanced. I would like to use the button to switch between the standard mode and the voice mode when I listen to podcasts, but it prevents me from choosing which modes I can switch between, so I have to rotate between these four modes, and I don't get an audio signal when I switch modes, so it's easy to lose track of which equaliser mode I'm in. Anyway, there is surprisingly little difference between the preset modes, and I can't tell in a blind test which mode the headset is set to. Of course, there is also a manual equaliser in the app, and you can also enable high-resolution audio with Sony's LDAC technology if you have an Android phone.

Lasts long

Nothing Headphone A are large and they cannot be folded much, so they take up some space in the bag. But the memory foam in the ear cups and on the band makes them comfortable even when I wear them for a long time.

I can wear them for a really long time too because they have a really long battery life. Nothing states up to 135 hours. Of course, this is not at maximum volume (which is not needed either, the maximum volume is quite ample), and not with noise cancellation, but even with noise cancellation and high-resolution LDAC sound, it manages 62 hours of music playback. In fact, I never charge the headphones during the time I test them. Otherwise, you can get up to 5 hours of playback time with 5 minutes of charging.

The music sound is really good, with a slightly exaggerated bass but that is the standard equaliser setting which you can change. The details in the music come through properly and the headset sounds good enough to make a difference when I improve the transmission with LDAC.

The headset has active noise cancellation (ANC) but it is quite weak. It is best at removing dull noise like the engines on a bus, while more high-frequency noise is barely filtered out at all.

Related articles

The call sound when I speak through the headphones is really not impressive. At best, in a quiet environment, it is still very clear that I am speaking through a headset, I sound tinny and with sharp s's. If I add a bit of background noise, like a kitchen fan or a passing car, it becomes immediately impossible for the person I'm speaking with to hear what I'm saying.

So, not a headset for taking calls on the go, but if you want a pair of comfortable over-ear headphones for music and podcasts, it feels like you get quite a lot for 2000 kronor with the Nothing Headphone A.

product tests headphones headset nothing headphone a product reviews nothing

Latest reviews

Top How-tos

100 latest articles

Annonsinnehåll: