Top 10
Horizon
The best new tech heading your way
1. NOTHING EAR (2)
● £TBC, nothing.tech
Nothing’s style-first launch trajectory has, thus far, seen it safely land more often than not. The Phone (1) is a decent if not super-powerful mid-ranger, featuring some innovative but questionably useful new features and a look all its own. The initial Ear (1) buds were contenders, at least, again heavy on the style and making a good swipe at the ANC big boys. The Ear (stick) buds threw a big rock at Apple’s standard AirPods, which glanced hard enough to chip a little off.
Nothing has now passed its launch window, and the Ear (2) buds – its first second-gen product – are a chance for it to show what it has learned. It seems like the no-longer-upstart company has been something of a sponge. Outwardly these look almost identical to their predecessors, but tiny tweaks promise to make them more effective.
The microphones have been moved and their grilles slightly redesigned. The 11.6mm driver remains the same size, but its housing has been retooled to add clarity to highs and room for low frequencies to breathe, and it’s now equipped with a new diaphragm made of a mix of PU and Graphene to make it more expressive and the buds marginally lighter. They’re even more highly rated to resist sweaty ingress, sporting IP54 resistance on the buds and IP55 on the case.
Nothing may have finally got style out of its system. It knows what it makes, and now it’s comfortable making those things better. Roll on the Phone (2).
NOISE CEILING
ANC is still critical to the Ear (2). You get three levels of cancellation, an adaptive mode that ups the competing frequencies when you’re in a noisy place, and even personalised ANC control within Nothing’s X app.