Nothing launches a slick pair of $149 open-ear headphones | TechCrunch

Few hardware startups have ramped up to a full product line as quickly as Nothing. The London-based firm announced on Tuesday yet another take on earbuds with the Ear Open. As the name suggestions, these are open-ear devices, designed to maintain a sense of situational awareness, rather than the drown-out-the-world approach of active noise cancelation.

The new buds run $149, the same price as the company’s Ear 2 and $50 more than the budget Ear A. and $20 more than the new AirPods 4 (sans ANC). Also like the Ear 2, the new Open provide voice-based access to ChatGPT queries courtesy of the Nothing X app.

Like other open-ear headphones, the new pair are designed for instances when the wearer needs to hear what’s going on around them. That could be a bike ride or a stroll through the city streets. Some sound leakage is inevitable with headphones that don’t have cups or inserts to provide passive noise canceling.

Of that, Nothing claims, “This open design is engineered with a Sound Seal System and directional speakers to minimize sound leakage, ensuring privacy while delivering a perfectly balanced soundstage.”

The Open certainly maintain the focus on style that has defined Nothing’s products since the outset. They very much carry over the design language of the company’s Ear products. That’s nice, as open-ear headphones often tend to look like they were fished out of the bin at Dollar General.

Nothing says the buds are 30% lighter than “typical earbuds.” They’ll also get eight hours of playback on a charge and a total of 30 hours when the case is factored in.

Preorder opens Tuesday. They’ll start shipping to the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Europe on October 1.