Nothing Headphone (1) Review: Subjective Sound, Comprehensive Control

Nothing is a company that has hung its hat on excellent and thoughtful design. Its portfolio has expanded greatly since the launch of the Nothing Ear (1), including a whole sub brand called CMF, which makes really nice hardware for really good prices. It originally started with an audio product, so the Headphone (1) is in a way the company coming full circle.

The Headphone (1) is the company's first over-ear headphone. There are some parts of these headphones that I really adore, and others that are...subjective. You may love the design or not love it, but it commands attention which is a win from a design standpoint. Nothing also sets an ideal for how headphone controls should be, which is another huge win. But there is something of an Achilles heel to these that is correctable but shouldn't be there in the first place.

I've been using the Nothing Headphone (1) review sample provided by Nothing for just over a week and this is my full review.

Right off the bat, there is no doubt that these are a Nothing product. When I first unboxed the headphones, I called them "a vibe" and that's really the best way to refer to them. They have a sort of retro 80's theme to them with the squared circle earcups, and the transparent elements that don't show off internals, per se, but have a sort of cassette tape look to them.

The earcups flex to hit your head, but not enough for some. I have something of a larger head, so they fit me okay, but I wonder if they'll work as well on skinnier melons. Meanwhile the earcups are made of PU leather and are comfortable, as is the padding on the headband. Speaking of which, the overall build is largely plastic with some aluminum internals.

I'm not opposed to that, and the headphones are light overall and breathe well. We've been experiencing something of a heat dome here in Chicago, and I was still able to wear these outside listening to music for an hour with no problem.

Rounding out the hardware is the case the headphones come in which is rather thin and covered in a fabric that feels nice. One side of the case has a small dimple which is reminiscent of the dimple on the Nothing Ear earbuds. It's fun, and it holds the cables for charging and the 3.5mm cable you can use if you prefer wired sound.

The controls on the headphones are delightful, but there is one frustrating limitation. There are four main controls — the on/off switch, the button, the "roller" and the "paddle." Each of them are distinct and each of them have their own function. They're all located in the most intuitive place and they're all very different from each other which is why I dig them so much. Some headphones will have two similar buttons next to each other that makes it hard to determine which is which by feel. That is certainly not the case here.

The roller is what you'll probably use the most. The roller is a rollable button that you can press, long press, or roll from side to side. Pressing the button, pauses and plays music. Long pressing activates or deactivates ANC, and rolling the button forward or back increases or decreases volume.

Below that is the paddle which is a long skinny button you can push to the front or back which fast forwards or rewinds what you're listening to. Both of these buttons are on the back side of the headphones which is where your thumb will rest when you put your hand on the ear cup. It's very natural positioning which is great.

On the bottom is a physical on/off switch which is a nice change of pace. It's not a button you have to long press; it's a switch.

Finally on the side of the ear cup is the button. The button can, with a press, switch you between media sources, but it only works with a limited selection of apps, notably Spotify and Apple music, neither or which I use. I got it to work with YouTube music, but I couldn't get it to switch to anything else. I opened Netflix, YouTube, and Hulu, but none of them worked. This seems to be a function that requires certain hooks, and Nothing seems to have not set up hooks for anything but Spotify and Apple Music, so perhaps more will come, but for now, it's not terribly helpful.

If you long press the button, you activate your phone's AI assistant which in my case is Google's AI system Gemini. That's fine, but you can also use ChatGPT if you have it installed, and that gives you a nice conversational AI assistant, akin to Gemini Live. You can't set Gemini Live to launch with the button — only Gemini. I wouldn't hate Gemini Live, and I like that ChatGPT gives you that capability. But at the end of the day, it's AI and that's not a super important part of my workflow, and likely won't be for a long time, if ever.

The really nice thing is, with the Nothing X app, you can customize all of the controls to do basically anything you want, and I will always be a fan of that. But the setting that are in place out of the box are already close to ideal.

Before we dig into how the headphones sound, I want to talk about the noise cancellation. Both the passive isolation (the sound blocked when you wear the headphones with ANC off) and the ANC are good, but not great. As a test, I use my central AC unit since it's in my office space. The ANC blocks a good portion of it, but there's still a hiss and a bit of the high frequencies leftover. I'm probably spoiled because my normal headphones of late are the Sony WH-1000 XM6 and the ANC (and sound) on those are just exquisite.

Nothing's Headphone (1), tuned by British sound company Kef, do not provide a great sound fresh out of the box. Podcasts (which comprise the bulk of my listening) sound fine, but music sound is filled with too much midrange and sounds hollow. I listened to a number of songs from different artists like "Roundtable Rival" by Lindsey Stirling, "Alien Nation" by Scorpions, "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC, and "The Last in Line" by Dio. None of them sounded good, but again that was with the setting out of the box.

Once I dove into the equalizer, I was able to find a nice spot where eliminated much of the excessive midrange and made my music sound like I like it. But most of the time, for most of the headphones and earbuds I review, I find I don't have to mess around with the EQ much if at all. 

By contrast, I tested the same songs with the Nothing Ear earbuds and my goodness the sound was so much better with the buds. Granted, over ear headphones and earbuds will have different sound because of their relative builds, but the Nothing Headphone (1)'s default sound experience is such a departure (in a bad direction) that it's shocking.

Default settings with the Beta version of the Nothing X app might not appeal to all new listeners, and — unlike rival headphones — may require a bit of tweaking before sound quality is fully acceptable to all ears. While default sound tuning could potentially be improved by a non-Beta version of the Nothing X app, the out-of-box experience is currently less-than-ideal.

Headphone (1) will be available in black and white for $299 (or £299 in England, €299 elsewhere). For what it's worth, I very much prefer the white colorway of my review sample. Preorders open on July 4 and they should ship around July 15. You can buy them at the Nothing store online and "select partners."

At $299, I can think of better ways to spend your money. If you are in the Nothing ecosystem, then it's a lot easier to swallow. The headphones work well with Nothing's software on its phones, so there is something to be said there. I also love the button placement and functionality and especially the customization.

The ANC and passive isolation are both good but not great. Give me a choice, and I'll take the Nothing (ear) earbuds over these. I'm glad I was easily able to adjust the sound levels to deliver my ideal sound, while at the same time I'm disappointed that I had to.

As for the design, that's entirely up to you. What I love about the design is that there is zero doubt that these are Nothing headphones. In a world of headphones that all look very much like each other, Nothing's headphones certainly don't. Much like some of the most well-known headphone brands' most famous designs, you will be a walking billboard for the company and they certainly are a conversation starter. Ultimately, whether you like the design or not is up to you.