This is great if you don’t like sticking things in the ears

It launched a little over a year after its debut Nothing Ear 1, Carl Pei’s company is back with another audio product, this time dedicated to people who want to hear their tunes but dislike the feeling of having something lodged in their ears. The Nothing Ear Stick is another option. true wireless budsThe Ear 1 has an open design that rests outside your ear canal. And although it may seem that this is the only distinction between the Stick and the Ear 1, that isn’t the case. This new pair has many refinements, but is that enough to justify the $99 price? Let’s find out in Android Authority‘s Nothing Ear Stick review.

• Nothing Ear (Stick). $99 / £99 / €119

The first thing that’ll catch your attention with the Nothing Ear Stick is the tubular case. Nothing wants you to look at it as a fashion accessory first and a tech object second — it succeeded. It’s reminiscent of lipsticks. You twist the bottom to open it and then twist it to close it. It’s an excellent fidget too — I’ve often found myself opening it and closing it for no reason other than it was at arm’s reach.

Nothing’s design ethosThe case and the buds inside will be the main focus of the case. Transparency, black and white with red accents and a dot matrix font to represent every branding element. You can’t confuse this style with any other company’s.

The buds are almost identical to the Nothing Ear 1 inside, except that there is no silicone tip. Instead, the entire bud is made out of plastic with three visible grills to hide the speaker or new microphones.

A new custom-built 12.6mm driver sits inside each bud, and it’s supposedly large enough to compensate for all the sound leakage from the open design. There are three microphones to cancel any background noise that’s louder than three decibels and make sure you sound very clear during calls. Obviously, those microphones don’t play any role in active noise cancellation (ANC) while you’re listening to audio — the design simply makes any isolation impossible.

However, Nothing is sticking with AAC and SBC; there’s no support for aptX or any other high-resolution Bluetooth audio codecs. But at least there’s a new Ear Stick-only low-latency setting that should reduce lag while playing games, even on the AAC and SBC codecs. This setting was enabled on my Pixel 7 Pro and I noticed a very slight reduction in latency.

Nothing has chosen to use a new pressure mechanism as a control instead of using swipe gestures. To trigger any actions, hold the stem of each earbud between two fingers. It’s a more deliberate action that should reduce, if not remove, any accidental swipes.

The Ear Stick also benefit from a slightly prolonged battery life — seven hours without the case. This can be extended to up to 29 hours if the case is used. These numbers were consistent in our tests. The battery lasts for around two weeks with a 70% volume listening session. It can also be charged with just a few hours of daily use. Both of these are solid stats, though keep in mind that ANC is typically a huge drain for true wireless earbuds — something the Ear Stick do not have.

The Ear Stick is natively displayed in the Quick Settings area. Nothing Phone 1They can connect to any Bluetooth device. It supports Google’s Fast Pair, which simplifies connections to any subsequent device after you’ve paired them with the first one under your Google account. Plus, Nothing’s new appYou can adjust the controls and choose between four preset equalizers. You can also use a custom EQ for setting the base, middles, and treble to suit your needs.

The Nothing Ear Stick is now available in white for $99, which is the same price as that of the Ear 1’s launch price (which has now been increased to $149).

Each time you take the Nothing Ear Stick out of your pocket in public, you’ll get a glance or two because these aren’t your typical earbuds. The case’s design is unique and it’s incredibly fun — and a bit addictive — to twist it open and closed all the time.

Nothing says it tested the Ear Stick’s shape on 200 different ear models to make sure it’s comfortable and secure. For my specific ears, the fit is almost as pleasant as the Ear 1, which I’ve lauded repeatedly as the most comfortable buds I’ve ever worn. The Ear Stick just don’t exert pressure anywhere in my ears, which is a very weird feeling to get used to. And even during long listening sessions, there’s not a moment where I felt that rising clogged-ear sensation that pushes me to remove some in-ear earbuds every hour or two.

This is a great pair of true wireless buds for anyone who just doesn’t like any in-ear annoyance. I do find the lack of a tip that stabilizes them a bit annoying, but more about that in the next section.

As someone with medium-length loose hair that often triggers earbuds’ gestures inadvertently, I welcome Nothing’s move to pressure-based controls. All of the pausing, volume changing, and track skipping I’ve done on the Ear Stick so far has been intentional.

The Ear Stick sounds surprisingly loud and clear. Volume-wise, it seems to go as loud as the Ear 1, despite the more open design, though I couldn’t tolerate it that high for long. At around 70%, there’s still enough volume to enjoy your music, podcasts, or audiobooks.

The Ear 1’s mids and highs sound clearer than the Ear 1. The bass is only slightly improved; the open design tends to bring down the thumping feeling of bass with it, but Nothing’s “bass lock” algorithm balances that out. And if you don’t like the default sound signature, there are three different presets and a custom equalizer to tailor it in 12-step increments (-6 to +6 for bass, mids, and treble).

Compared to the Ear 1, there’s a marked improvement in the built-in microphones’ audio quality too. Voices come out clearer (though with some odd artifacts in calmer environments) and background noise is reduced, even when it’s erratic and inconsistent. I tested this by recording a sample right next to a Nest Hub, which was playing wind and nature sounds, fan sounds, and thunderstruck sounds. The Ear Stick cancelled out all noise but the Ear 1 allowed some louder thunders and sounds to be heard.

Nothing Ear 1 sample recording featuring nearby thunderstorm sounds

Sample recording of Nothing Ear Stick with nearby thunderstorm sounds

Because of the buds’ design, transparency and awareness are default features. You don’t have to enable any setting to hear your surroundings, so you can — more or less — safely wear these on the street and at home without fear of missing out on a honk, bell, alarm, crying child, or barking dog.

One side effect of the Nothing Ear Stick’s tubular case design is the lack of wireless charging. I’m used to plopping my Ear 1 case on a Qi pad at my desk, and I can’t do that with the Ear Stick. It is important to make sure that the USB-C cable is connected to the Ear Stick when charging it.

Another side effect is the case’s propensity to pick up dust and lint. The case’s grainy, white plastic attracts small particles. The transparent plastic allows you to see every tiny speck. I’ve already used a small air blaster — the same one you use on camera lenses — to remove some of the dust. I don’t know what the case will look like in a few weeks or months.

The buds are the second problem. The open design makes it difficult to control the direction. One is the absence of a stabilizing anchor for the buds inside the ears. They just sit there unattached to anything. It always feels like they’re one minor nudge away from falling out. I’ve bopped and shaken my head many times without dislodging them, but that doesn’t mean they’re firmly stable. They can be easily removed by a flick of my finger on their stem. I’m sure a bit of sweat will also cause them to slide right out (I’ve been sick and unable to exercise so I couldn’t test this). This isn’t the pair of buds you go on a run withWear it on a jam-packed subway.

Speaking of subways, the one time I dared wear them there, I couldn’t last longer than 10 minutes. There’s no isolation with this open-bud design. Zero. You can hear everything, every little hum, drum and whir around. I could still hear every noise coming from the Parisian metro, even at the highest volume. In fact, the loud volume made it more painful. It was annoying to try to distinguish between the music from the rest of the metro.

One last weakness to keep in mind is the lack of Bluetooth Multipoint, a feature that’s making its way to several other true wireless buds like the Pixel Buds Pro. You can’t connect the Nothing Ear Stick to two devices simultaneously, and you can’t easily switch them from one to another. You’ll have to choose whether these are paired to your phone or computer (or tablet, smartwatch, TV, etc.) You can be content with one choice.

The Ear Stick are in a very unique position in the wireless earbuds market. Competition in the semi-open and open-ear segment isn’t as fierce as the fully in-ear segment, despite some users’ demand for a pair of earbuds that don’t clog their ears or cause any discomfort while wearing them.

There is no way to know what the answer is, but a pair of earbuds can be worn for hours without any pain or pressure and with excellent sound quality. It loses important features such as wireless charging and passive isolation because it puts aesthetics above function.

The Ear Stick proposition boils down to one simple question: Do silicone or foam tips appeal to you? If so, then you’ll probably dislike the hard plastic feeling of the Ear Stick’s buds, and you’ll miss the extra stabilization and passive isolation provided by a pair of in-ear buds. The lack of ANC, even if you don’t always use it, is another big loss to contend with.

If the answer is yes and you absolutely must have a pair without in-ear tips, the Ear Stick are a great value at $99. The Apple AirPods (3rd generation) ($19.99 at Amazon) cost $80 more and aren’t the best choice for Android users, while the Sony Linkbuds WF-L900 ($128 at AmazonThese are $80 more costly and have a strange design that may not suit all ears. The Bose Sport Open ($229 at Amazon), are frequently discounted, and an interesting alternative with a more stable design, but they require a proprietary cradle for charging and don’t automatically turn on/off when you take them out of the case or put them back in. In comparison, Nothing’s proposition with the Ear Stick seems very reasonable.