Nothing Headphone (1) review: Unlike anything else I’ve ever seen

The Nothing Headphone (1) sees the trendy smartphone brand take a first stab at the extremely competitive wireless noise-cancelling headphone market. With their £244/$299 price tag, they sit right in the middle of a sector that’s long been dominated by Sony, Bose and others. We’ve also seen some other excellent options including the Cambridge Audio Melomania P100 attempt to break the trend, with varying levels of success.

Nothing has a bit of a reputation for doing things its own way, and the Headphone (1) is arguably the finest example of that. I’ve been testing them for the last couple of months to see if they impress.

Right off the bat, I know that some folks haven’t been too fond of the way these cans look, but I’ll admit that I love them to pieces. It’s a lovely look, and is typical of Nothing’s clever blend of a modern yet industrial feel.

The build quality is strong too, with a pleasant blend of aluminium on the earcups, plus the large, domed plastic pieces on the earcups and some rubberised portions for good measure. I’ve never had a pair of headphones attract so much attention and so many questions from passers-by, not least when I was with a tech-focused crowd at Gamescom with them. If Nothing’s aim was to get people talking, then they definitely have.

The clamping force on the Nothing Headphone (1) is pleasant, with it being tight enough to secure a good fit and seal for the ANC but not too heavy to feel fatiguing for extended periods. The earcups here are deep enough and padded for comfort.

They do lie flat in their quite slender and minimalistic carry case, although I did worry about wearing them around my neck and flat for longer periods, as the corners of the earcups had a tendency to rub against each other.

There is a small annoyance I have with the fact that they lie flat in their case, though. The Headphone (1) actually sit in their case the wrong way – taking them out reveals the right of the headphones to be on the left, and vice versa, meaning you have to turn them around every time you wish to use them. Maybe I’m being a little nitpicky, but it seems like a simple thing to miss.

Another oddity is the position of the pairing button inside the right earcup, which just feels a tad finicky against the plethora of otherwise lovely tactile controls. The right earcup has a proper volume roller (although side to side), plus a rocker switch for skipping tracks or scruibbing through them if you hold down.

The outside of the right earcup has a button that’s customisable in the Nothing X app for things such as voice assistant triggering, cycling through ANC modes or enabling spatial audio. You can also map two functions to the button by having them set to a tap or a hold, respectively.

The Nothing X app is decent for the most part, offering typical means for adjusting ANC levels, fiddling with an EQ and spatial audio handling. The EQ offers both simple modes such as ‘More Bass’ or ‘Vocals’, or you can go into an 8-band custom EQ for more granular control. There are options for enhancing elements such as bass separately, plus you’ll finda low-latency gaming mode for mobile use, too.The spatial audio is based on head tracking, although it felt a little forced and synthetic with the music I listened to. I can see it working better for movies and for games, though. It’s a shame that the app doesn’t have the ear-tuning feature for a custom sound signature for your ears, as it does with Nothing’s in-ear models.

The Headphone (1) offers active noise cancellation, and for the most part, it deals with things such as voices and other ambient noise rather well. There are just some higher-pitched noises that can come through when you don’t have any music playing. I always use my old Bose NC700s as the benchmark for noise cancellation, as they envelop you in silence, which the Headphone (1) doesn’t necessarily do; the ANC is good, but not class-leading. I found the transparency mode to feel a tad synthetic in its approach to relaying noise around me, too.

Connectivity is handled with up-to-date Bluetooth 5.3, and these cans have a decent array of codecs supported. There are the usual suspects of SBC and AAC, plus the more advanced LDAC for wireless hi-res audio on supported devices. Pairing over Bluetooth to either my Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra for some basic Spotify consumption or my FiiO M11S DAP for more critical listening was a doddle. The Headphone (1) can also connect via its bundled USB-C cable and to 3.5mm for wired use, too.

The Headphone (1) impresses with its strong battery life, too. Nothing rates these cans to last for up to 35 hours with ANC on, and up to 80 hours without. My testing was actually ahead of their claims, with general use putting their endurance with ANC on at around 40 hours – so a charge once every working week, which isn’t wholly unreasonable.

And now the important bit – audio. With the name of fellow British brand KEF on the side of the earcup, who helped with the tuning of the 40mm drivers inside, I had high hopes, even if KEF themselves is better known for its speakers than headphones. It has been said elsewhere that KEF’s involvement was purely for tuning’s sake, and all of the hardware and design work for these headphones is all Nothing’s own.

Out of the box, the Headphone (1) has a bit of a darker sound, with the low-end having plenty of extension and depth, as well as some prominence. It works especially well for my usual suite of rock testing tracks, such as Steven Wilson’s Meanwhile. I noticed there was a pleasant weight and depth to his gritty vocal, while the song’s strong bassline felt tight and had a good amount of power behind it.

If you want a little more oomph, you can also dial up the Bass Enhancement a couple of levels in the Nothing X app, which I did when listening to Daryl Hall & John Oates’ One on One, which added a tad more presence where required, but it didn’t fel too overbearing.

The Headphone (1) also excels with its width and accurate directionality that I found to work immensely well in live recordings, such as on a cut of Hotel Hobbies by Fish from a 1999 live album; there is a lot of ambient noise in the recording, be it crowd noise or applause, and the reverb on the song’s intro cymbal work,

In addition, the bongos in Earth, Wind & Fire’s September felt suitably far off to the right, where they should be, while for mobile gaming use, the prominent low end and lovely width helped immersion when playing some COD Mobile on the Honor Magic V5 or streaming some Forza Horizon 5 and such when barreling around Mexico.

I felt the mid-range to be pleasantly smooth and given enough room to breathe above the punchy low end, with a good feel to September Grass from James Taylor with his lovely vocal and warm acoustic guitar work. It’s an easy listen in this range.

The top end felt quite crisp, too, although there was a bit of a darker finish to the usually bright and vibrant percussion on the intro to Steely Dan’s Do It Again. In a similar vein, the cymbal hits in On The Other Side from The Strokes felt a tad pushed back in the mix against the song’s low-end and mid-range elements.

The Nothing Headphone (1) is a curious customer, as you might expect. Its design and feel is top-notch, offering something that’s far-removed from other headphones I’ve tested in and around its price point; they’re comfortable, stylish and look the business. For that price, I might have expected slightly better noise cancelling and a potentially more well-rounded sound, although if you’re a fan of punchy bass and a generally energetic default signature, then I’m sure you’ll like these. I know I’ve definitely enjoyed using them for the last few weeks, and if you can still pick them up at the discounted rate I spotted them at recently, then they’re well worth a go.