Nothing Headphone (A) Review: For This Price, The Best Headphones You Can Buy

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Nothing is no stranger to audio products. In fact, Nothing's first product was a set of earbuds. That provided a bit of optimism in July 2025 when Nothing launched its first over-ear headphones — the Nothing Headphone (1). Along with Nothing's signature transparent look, Headphone (1) even came with a collaboration with KEF — a premier London-based sound company. All that added up to a premium $299 price.

Now, just under a year later, Nothing launched a new set of devices — the Nothing Phone (4a), the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro, and the Nothing Headphone (a). The Nothing Headphone (a) might very well be the least interesting-looking but the best value of the three. Not only do they undercut their predecessor (headphones) in price, but they're arguably better in many ways. I have been using a Nothing Headphone (a) review sample provided by Nothing for just over a week, and this is my full review.

The Nothing Headphone (a) takes a lot of the features and design elements from Headphone (1) and delivers a simpler piece of hardware. The headphones have similar elements as last year's, but rather than the design on the earcups, Nothing went with solid colors. If you were excited about the transparent materials and the industrial design of Headphone (1), this might feel like a downgrade. It's an aesthetic choice, to be sure — and if anything it feels like an improvement (to me) since the headphones come in four different colors now. You can choose Black, White, Yellow or Pink.

Nothing's Headphone (1) turned you into a walking billboard for Nothing. These headphones also do that but in a much more understated way, which is appealing for those who don't want their headphones to be conversation pieces.

Adam Doud/SlashGear

These headphones also come with a pretty massive battery that will last for almost 135 hours with ANC off or 75 hours with ANC on. On my end, I only needed to charge them up once during my 10 days of testing. These headphones are built to last. The square earcups also make it easy to stand them up on a desk, which is a nice bonus.

One of my favorite parts about the Headphone (1) were the controls, and all of those are carried over to this new device. You have the roller, the paddle and the button. There's also a "hidden" Bluetooth button (which isn't really hidden — it's just hard to find if you don't know where it is) and a physical power switch. The latter two are great to have. I'm constantly frustrated with over-ear headphones that combine the power and Bluetooth buttons into one.

Adam Doud/SlashGear

As for the rest of the buttons, their function and placement are both extremely intentional. When you put your right hand up to the ear cup, the roller and the paddle are both where your thumb would naturally land and the button is where your middle finger would land. It's that type of design that really makes Nothing hardware a joy to use.

As for the functionality, the roller is a wheel you can roll to turn volume up or down. You can also press the roller in to start and stop playback, and you can press and hold the roller to turn ANC one and off. The Paddle allows you to flip forward and backward in tracks. 

The button is programmable, and you can use it to switch between audio sources, or invoke your phone's assistant, and so forth. These are my favorite set of controls on a set of headphones, and it's not even close.

For Headphone (a), Nothing is no longer working with KEF and, at least for my part, thank goodness. As I reported in my review of the Headphone (1), the sound out of the box was what we in the industry would call, "not good." The sound lacked any bass, but beyond that it just didn't have a lot of definition to it.

That is not the case here — in fact it's far from it. I was delighted when I first donned Nothing Headphone (a) and fired up "Alien Nation" by Scorpions. That was followed by "Roundtable Rival" by Lindsey Stirling, and from there I let the YouTube Music algorithm take over, cranking out hits from Def Leppard, Metallica, Evanescence, and Halestorm. I was rocking these headphones hard; they are such a joy to listen to.

Having compared the sound to that from some of the best Bluetooth headphones around, including the Bose QuietComfort Ultra 2 and the Sony WH1000-XM6, Nothing Headphone (a) stands toe to toe with those much-more-expensive competitors. That is, by the way, using the sound right out of the box. The Nothing X app also gives you control over a 3-band simple equalizer and an 8-band advanced EQ. You can also "explore" some presets that Nothing will curate for you or even download community-built presets if you want.

At the price point that Nothing caters to, Active Noise Cancellation is basically table stakes. You can buy over-ear headphones for less than $100 with ANC, so Nothing basically had to include it here. But the ANC for these headphones is quite good. It's on par with both the Sony headphones and the Bose headphones mentioned above, though the real test for me is usually on an airplane, which I didn't have the pleasure of riding in during my review period. That being said, all my tests at home which included fans, HVAC systems, and even traffic on a road, all gave good marks to the Headphone (a).

Transparency mode is equally good. You can hear things going on around you as if you're not wearing headphones at all, which is always the goal. Further, side tone — when you hear your own voice reverberate inside your head when speaking with transparency mode on — is basically non-existent. It's fair to say that these headphones absolutely nail ANC on all levels, which is simply delightful.

The other parts of the user experience are also nicely refined. You can turn on dual mode so the headphones will connect to multiple devices if you need them to. In my case, I had them connected to an Oppo Find N5 and Asus Zenbook A16 at the same time. The connectivity between them was just ok — I often had to trick the headphones into switching to the audio source I wanted.

The headphones still emit the same signature chirp that all Nothing headphones emit when you power them on, and I hate it. It's a high-pitched shrill chirp that is not comfortable to listen to. Similarly, the ANC on and off noises are a little on the creepy side with a loud thump sound when you turn ANC on and someone breathing into your ear when you turn it off. There's just no need for that if I'm being totally honest.

Nothing Headphone (a) can be used when plugged in with USB-C, which is another "table stakes" feature that most high-end headphones are getting, so it's nice to see that on a set of midrange cans. You can also plug in a 3.5mm headphone cable, believe it or not — you have options!

Finally, the Headphone (a) comes with a carrying bag, rather than a case, which is not amazing, but fine at this price point. Generally, you'd like to keep your headphones as protected as possible, but considering I generally don't use an included case either, I'm willing to let that slide.

Nothing Headphone (a) retails for $199 from Nothing's website and Amazon, which is a bit more than you'd expect for a midrange set of headphones — if they performed like you'd expect from a "midrange" set of headphones. But this isn't that. For that price, these are an easy recommendation, even above higher-end headphones that I've tested in the past. These are simply great headphones.

The combination of sound quality, wonderful controls, excellent ANC and transparency is frankly hard to beat at the $199 price. They are a steal. If you can find them on sale somewhere, that's even better, but honestly I would have no hesitation to slap down the money for these cans. They are the new standard for what headphones should be, and to be perfectly frank they are what the Headphone (1) should have been. Don't buy the Headphone (1); buy these. They are as close to perfect a set of headphones as I've ever placed over my ears.