Nothing Ear (Open) Review: Open-fit brilliance or just hype?

Nothing Ear (Open) Review: After a long wait, Nothing Ear (Open) is finally available for sale in India. This is the company's first open wearable stereo (OWS) buds, which boast a unique design and a host of features. While the Nothing Ear (Open) is officially priced at Rs 17,999, you can currently buy it for around Rs 9,999 on Flipkart, thanks to heavy discounts as part of the 2025 festive sale. But even at this discount price, is it worth buying in a crowded earbud market? And what makes the Nothing Ear (Open) so special? Let's find out in this review.

What makes the Nothing Ear (Open) different from other earbuds?

Most wireless earbuds have one major drawback—they're difficult to keep in your ears. Sometimes, they slip out of your ears, which is especially annoying when you're exercising, running, or just taking a walk. And there you have it, the Nothing Ear (open). It has hooks around the ear that keep the buds securely in place.

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Nothing Ear (Open) Review: Design

The Nothing Ear (Open), as their name suggests, are open-fit earbuds that remove the in-ear silicone tips and replace them with 14.2mm drivers. The main compartment for the drivers has Nothing's distinctive transparent look, along with pinch control sensors. These are attached to ear hooks made of soft-touch plastic.

Each earbud weighs approximately 8.1 grams, which is almost twice the weight of your average TWS earbud. However, the ergonomic swooping ear hook design and excellent weight distribution don't make them feel bulky.

Nothing Ear (Open) Review: Comfortability

At first, we didn't find the Nothing Ear (open) very comfortable, as it started hurting our ear bones after 2 hours of continuous use. However, we later discovered that if you don't press the main compartment of the buds towards the ears and just keep them near the ear bones, you can use it comfortably all day long. Sometimes, we forget we're even wearing them because these buds are so comfortable – thanks to their ergonomic design and the soft material on the ear hooks.

Nothing Ear (Open) Review: Charging Case

The charging case looks very elegant and premium and has a touch of Nothing's signature transparent design. But its width is 125.9mm, which might make it uncomfortable to carry. However, its thickness is only 19mm, so we found it easy to fit in a pocket or bag. It charges via a USB-C port and doesn't support wireless charging.

Nothing Ear (Open) Review: Battery life

Nothing claims the ear (open) will deliver up to 8 hours of listening time, while the case provides an additional 22 hours, taking the total playback time to 30 hours.

In our tests, the buds lasted one week of daily use in the office and at the gym before the red LED indicator on the case started flashing. Keep in mind that its talk time is low, as the buds run out in 6 hours when making calls.

When you eventually need to charge the Ear (open), a quick 10-minute top-up will give you 2 hours of use.

Nothing Ear (Open) Review: Performance

During our testing, we found that the Nothing Ear (Open) delivers a pleasant listening experience. The sound quality is clear, making music playback crystal clear and enjoyable. They are extremely comfortable to wear for long hours. However, the one noticeable thing is that it lacks bass.

We tested the calling quality by talking to a friend, and the conversation was crystal clear. My friend's voice was clear without any interruptions, and he confirmed that mine was equally clear on his end. Overall, call quality is nice, although the buds struggled to isolate my voice in busy environments. Bluetooth connectivity was top-notch in our testing, with no lag even when we left the room. Dual device pairing was working fine when switching between two devices, but pinch gesture controls were not working properly.

Nothing Ear (Open) Review: Things That We Feel Could Have Been Better

To sum up, here are a few things that we feel could have been better:

1. The open-fit design sacrifices bass performance, which may disappoint users.

2. The gesture controls (pinch sensors) were not consistently responsive during testing.

3. Although slim, the case is quite wide (125.9mm), making it awkward to carry in smaller pockets. 4. It also lacks wireless charging, which is a common feature in this price range.