Nothing Ear (1) Review: Budget True Wireless Buds That Punch Above Their Price

Introduction

Some true wireless earbuds try to be everything at once. Nothing Ear (1) takes a different approach: it delivers a comfortable, good-sounding pair of buds with competitive battery life at a price that undercuts the big names by a wide margin. Positioned as a more affordable alternative to the Apple AirPods Pro, these buds regularly come in under £100 / $100, which makes them one of the more interesting crossover options for runners who also want buds for daily use.

After testing them on the run, here is how they held up.

Fit and Comfort on the Run

Fit is where cheap buds usually fall apart, but Nothing Ear (1) performs solidly here. Each bud weighs just 4.7 grams, sitting at the lighter end of the true wireless scale, and the design combines a stem shape with classic ear gels. Three sizes are included in the box, small, medium, and large, which is standard for this category.

With the medium gels and a good seal, the buds stayed put with no issues, even on steep descents. Because there is very little bulk sitting outside the ear, there is none of the tugging you can get with heavier buds, and the good seal did not produce any thudding from footsteps. For a bud with no wingtips and no earhook design, that is a strong result.

Sound Quality

The sound is full-bodied and satisfying for the price. It is not on the level of a Jabra Elite 7 or Jaybird Vista 2, and the AirPods Pro deliver a better overall experience, but those buds often cost two to three times as much. For running and everyday listening, the experience is ample: full, loud when you want it, with decent bass and nothing tinny about it.

You can tweak the sound through custom EQ in the app, though it is more limited than what rivals offer. Rather than saving your own sound profiles, you get four basic presets: Balanced, one that adds treble, one that adds bass, and a voice mode. The differences are fairly subtle. It is not the deep customisation you get from more expensive buds, but it is a nice touch at this price.

Noise Cancellation and Transparency

Active noise cancellation is present but not the headline feature. Out on a busy road, with music playing, the difference between ANC on and off was hard to discern. Transparency mode does let in a lot more ambient sound and worked without major wind issues.

Where ANC showed some benefit was indoors. Drilling and voices from nearby building work were partially cancelled out, which suggests it is more useful in an office or home setting than on the road. It is not a feature that should drive your purchase.

Controls and App Features

Controls are handled through taps and swipes, with some customisation in the app. You can assign a triple tap on each bud to next track, previous track, or no action, and a tap and hold activates noise cancellation. Interestingly, tap and hold cannot be set to switch to transparency mode. Volume is adjusted by swiping up and down on the stem, which worked but with a slight lag.

The app also offers a latency mode for watching videos, designed to fix audio sync issues on your phone. It helped, though not completely.

Connectivity was a highlight. The buds connected instantly to an iPhone every time straight out of the case, and switching between iPhone and Mac worked smoothly, which is not always the case with true wireless. There were some occasional audio dropouts while running when paired to an iPhone, but when paired to a Coros Vertix watch, the connection stayed solid with no problems at all.

Battery Life and Charging

Battery life is where these buds genuinely compete with pricier rivals. The buds themselves deliver around five hours with ANC off, four to four and a half with ANC on, and the case adds a further 29 hours for a total of 34 hours, dropping to 24 with ANC on. That on-bud runtime actually beats the AirPods Pro.

In testing, the buds lived up to their billing and comfortably handled a four-and-a-half-hour marathon, so the five-hour claim seems accurate. A 10-minute charge in the case yields up to 50 minutes of listening with ANC on, or 1.2 hours with ANC off. Charging the case itself for 10 minutes gives six hours of power with ANC on, up to eight with ANC off.

Other practical touches include in-ear detection with auto-pause and power-down to save battery, the ability to use one bud independently of the other (handy for ultra running while the other charges), and wireless charging for the case with compatible charging stations.

Find My Buds: A Limited Feature

Find My Buds exists on Nothing Ear (1), but it works differently from what you get on the Jaybird Vista or the Jabra Elite Active models. Pressing a button in the app plays a high-pitched sound from the buds themselves, so you need to be physically near them to locate them by ear. There is no tracking of the case and no map showing the buds’ last known location, which is what those rival systems offer.

Things to Consider Before Buying

The case is well put together and the design is genuinely distinctive, but it is slightly less pocketable than some rivals. Sound customisation is shallower than what higher-priced buds offer. ANC is serviceable indoors but weak as a selling point outdoors. And if you like adjusting volume frequently on the move, the slight swipe lag is worth knowing about.

None of these are dealbreakers at the price, but they are the trade-offs you accept for paying roughly half or two-thirds of what the premium rivals cost.

Buying Advice

For under £100 / $100, Nothing Ear (1) delivers an impressive amount of value: solid fit, competitive battery life, satisfying sound, quick and reliable pairing, and a distinctive design that stands out in a crowded market. Among the buds tested at this price point, these rank among the very best. They make a strong choice as crossover running and daily-use buds, and they would make a great gift for a runner in your life.

Conclusion

Nothing Ear (1) does not beat the AirPods Pro or the best from Jabra and Jaybird on outright sound quality or ANC strength. What it does is deliver a genuinely comfortable, well-connected, long-lasting pair of buds at a price that makes those compromises easy to accept. If your ears get along with standard in-ear buds and you want serious value, these are well worth a look.