After telling the whole world what it was working on, Nothing has now properly unveiled its latest earbuds – the entry-level Ear (3a), with perhaps the biggest news being some absolutely wild colour options.
There will be four variants of the Ear (3a), including standard white and black options, but also a bright yellow one and a neon pink variant, the latter two of which are undeniably different looking compared to your averages set of 'buds.
Of course, this being Nothing, these aren't just a tiny update to the Ear (a). Nothing is also making another bold play when it comes to audio recording tech. The pricier Ear (3) changed things up by having a microphone built into the case for better audio when recording content. Now, the Ear (3a) has actual built-in storage in the earbuds themselves, to let you make recordings without needing your phone.
As Nothing explained to me in a briefing, the Ear (3a) comes with 32 MB of built-in flash storage, powering a new feature it's calling Audio Snapshot. This will let you clip whatever audio you're listening to through the earbuds, whether it's a phone call with a friend or a video you're watching.
The feature is activated by pinching both earbuds at the same time and captures a little audio before and after the trigger to make sure it doesn't miss the moment. When you connect to your phone, these recordings will port over to the Nothing X app for you to review and share as you like.
Similarly, you can also record entire calls (up to that 32MB limit) right on the earbuds, so you could get around two hours of recorded audio on the go. Thankfully, there will be a privacy announcement when you activate the setting, so the other party always knows you're recording.
In terms of the actual audio quality of the earbuds themselves, Nothing says the Ear (3a) have new 12mm dynamic drivers that allow them to boast Hi-Res Audio Wireless certification, which is a nice metric for wireless quality. Noise cancelling has also been improved, along with quite big steps in the transparency mode, apparently.
Finally, the earbuds get 10 hours of use on a charge, and the case has just over three more charges in it, giving you about 42 hours without needing a power cable, which is very decent.
All of this comes at a price of just $99 / £99 / €99, so Nothing's entry-level tech remains very impressive from a value point of view. You should be able to order them today from Nothing's own store, and they'll doubtless spread to other retailers soon, too.
