Description
An ambitious earbud with three conditional headline features
The Nothing Ear (a), model B162, is a sealed in-ear true wireless earbud with an 11mm driver, adaptive hybrid noise cancellation, six microphones and a transparent stem housing that is the brand’s signature. Amazon first listed it in April 2024 and it has gathered roughly 3,036 ratings at a 4.3 star average, ranking 791st in Electronics and 130th among earbud and in-ear headphones.
The product title advertises three things prominently: 45dB hybrid noise cancellation, Hi-Res Audio and ChatGPT integration. All three are real features, and all three come with conditions the title does not mention. This review works through what the listing actually establishes for each one, because the gap between the headline and the specification is unusually wide here.
The Hi-Res label, and the codec that is never named
The title says Hi-Res Audio. No Bluetooth audio codec is named anywhere in the title, the bullets or the specification table.
That combination is the single most misleading pattern in wireless audio, and it needs stating plainly. High resolution audio over Bluetooth is entirely a codec question. SBC, the baseline every Bluetooth device supports, does not carry it. AAC, which is what Apple devices use, does not carry it. The codecs marketed for high resolution transmission are LDAC and the aptX family, and every one of them requires the source phone to support the same codec before it does anything at all. Most iPhones support neither aptX nor LDAC.
Because no codec is named, the Hi-Res claim on this listing is unsupported by the published specification, and this review will not repeat it as fact. If high resolution playback is your reason for buying, confirm which codec the Ear (a) supports and confirm that your specific phone and software version support the same one. The listing does not establish either.
The audio specification that is published is thin. The driver is 11mm with two vents and, according to Nothing, double the power of the Ear (2). The frequency range field contains the single value “5000 Hz,” which is not a frequency response, and the sensitivity field contains “45 dB,” which is the noise cancellation figure pasted into the wrong row rather than a sensitivity measurement.
The 45dB cancellation claim, and the sentence that goes too far
Nothing publishes up to 45dB of hybrid active noise cancellation with three selectable levels plus an adaptive mode.
No test standard is named for the 45dB figure. As with every decibel claim in this category, a maximum reduction number typically describes the peak of the cancellation curve at a single frequency rather than an average across the audible range. Attribute it to Nothing and do not treat it as broadband.
The second bullet then says you can “go from quiet rooms to busy streets without hearing a thing (other than what’s playing).” No earbud does that. Active cancellation works well against constant low frequency sound such as engine drone, cabin rumble and ventilation, and poorly against speech, sirens, horns and sudden noises, which is precisely what a busy street is made of. Read that sentence as marketing and not as a description of behavior.
ChatGPT, Low Lag and Dual Connect: what each one needs
The ChatGPT integration is real and it is conditional. The bullet states it works “only on Nothing earbuds when connected to Nothing” phones, with setup through the Nothing X app. If you own an iPhone or a Samsung, this headline feature does not apply to you. The title does not say so.
Low Lag mode is conditional in the same way: Nothing says it triggers automatically in Game Mode on a Nothing phone. The latency figures also disagree. The bullet quotes end to end latency of less than 120 milliseconds, while the specification table records audio latency as 11 milliseconds. Those differ by a factor of ten and cannot both describe the same measurement. Eleven milliseconds is not achievable over a standard Bluetooth audio link, so treat the 120 millisecond figure as the credible one and the specification field as an error.
Dual Connect is the feature with no strings attached. Nothing publishes simultaneous connection to two devices, so music on a laptop can give way to a call on a phone without unpairing anything. That is multipoint, it is stated clearly, and it works regardless of which phone you own. The Nothing X app also provides an advanced equalizer, which is real published control rather than an implied feature.
Battery: both cancellation states, but no bud figure
Nothing does something most competitors do not, publishing the total both ways: over 42.5 hours with the case with cancellation off, and up to 24.5 hours with the case with cancellation on. Stating the difference is the right thing to do, and the gap between the two numbers is a useful illustration of what cancellation costs.
What the listing never publishes is the bud runtime. There is no figure anywhere for how long the earbuds themselves last on a single charge, with or without cancellation, and that is the number that decides whether they clear a flight or a workday.
The fast charge claim is also ambiguous. Nothing says 10 minutes of charging delivers 10 hours of music playback with cancellation off, without stating whether that 10 hours is from the earbuds alone or from the earbuds and case together. Given that the specification table lists the same 42.5 hour figure for both the battery life and the carrying case life, the page is not internally consistent on battery at all.
Fit, the missing water rating and the alternatives
Three ear tip sizes are included, small, medium and large. On a cancelling earbud the tips matter twice over, because seal decides both perceived bass and how well the cancellation performs, and Nothing’s adaptive system is explicitly compensating for leaks rather than eliminating the need for a good fit.
No IP code appears anywhere on this listing. The specification table records the water resistance level as the bare word “Waterproof,” which is not a rating, and no bullet mentions sweat, rain or moisture. Nothing recommends the Ear (a) for running and exercising in the recommended uses field, which makes the omission harder to overlook. Treat the protection as unstated until a code is published, and note that even where one exists it never covers seawater or high pressure water and degrades as seals age. The specification table also claims the product requires “3 C batteries” and lists compatibility as “devices with Bluetooth 5.3 or higher,” which would exclude most phones in use and is not how Bluetooth backward compatibility works.
Because these seal the canal and actively suppress ambient sound, they are the wrong choice for cycling or road running. Keep the volume moderate with cancellation engaged, because removing the background noise also removes the cue that tells you the music has crept too loud. Within the brand, the Nothing Ear is the step up and the CMF by Nothing Buds the step down. For cancellation from brands with fuller published data, the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC and the Sony WF-1000XM5 are the comparisons. The wider set sits in our earbud headphone reviews and our true wireless earbud reviews.
Buy it, or skip it
Buy the Ear (a) if you want adaptive cancellation with three levels, genuine multipoint, a real equalizer app and a battery total published both with and without cancellation. Buy it especially if you own a Nothing phone, because two of the three headline features are conditional on one. Skip it if you were buying for the Hi-Res label, because no codec is named to support it, or if you need a water rating and a bud runtime figure before committing, because neither appears on this page.
