Nothing Ear 3 (a) review: Cheaper ear buds still have that brilliant music magic

The Nothing Ear 3 (a) is £50 cheaper than the Ear 3 and there’s very little difference to the overall sound quality you’re getting here but there are cutbacks to the case design

British phones and audio firm Nothing has released a cut-price version of its popular Ear 3 earbuds.

And for £50 less than the main headset, you get mostly the same tech.

So superb quality audio, a near weightless feel in the ears and a cool design, all with lengthy battery life and a snappy carry case.

The Nothing Ear 3 (a) costs £99 and comes in a bolder colour palette than the past, with a new striking Pink finish alongside Black, White, and an updated Yellow.

The buds are designed for immersive listening while looking playful and come with 32 MB of built-in flash storage, allowing users to capture audio moments directly through their earbuds.

Powered by something called Audio Snapshot, Ear (3a) lets you instantly clip media you’re listening to, whether listening back to an online lecture, or saving a voice note from a friend.

By simply pinching both earbuds at the same time, they can capture both before and after the trigger, creating an audio “screenshot” of the moment.

Recordings are automatically synced to the Nothing X app in your phone, where they can be replayed, edited, shared and transcribed.

You can also transform key transcript moments into shareable quote cards, making it easier to revisit and share what stands out.

It’s a clever little gimmick and really makes these on-the-go buds feel like they’re a part of your everyday life.

Ear (3a) also enables direct call and meeting recording from the earbuds.

With a simple gesture, you can start recording conversations for up to approximately 2 hours without reaching for your phone, helping ensure important moments never get missed.

Recordings are again automatically synced to the Nothing X app and a privacy notification alerts participants whenever recording is active so no one is unaware a recording is taking place.

At the heart of Ear (3a) is a new 12mm dynamic driver designed to deliver deeper bass and greater detail.

For me, they didn’t sound quite as crisp as their £150 elder statesman model.

But that said these buds still absolutely kick and are more than enough for this price point thanks to a deep bass and smooth transition up the audio layers.

The larger driver moves more air, producing bass frequencies up to 5 dB stronger than the previous generation, while a lightweight aerospace-inspired PMI diaphragm reproduces clear, detailed highs.

The Ear 3 (a)’s feel like a lovely mix in the ears and deliver well on bass-heavy tracks.

And that only sounds better on the move when you kick in Nothing’s brilliant noise cancellation tech.

Ear (3a) delivers up to 45 dB of Wideband Active Noise Cancellation, helping users stay focused even when the outside world is noisy.

I tried them on London’s busy Tube and didn’t realise at the bottom of my escalator that a busker was whacking out a guitar tune, such was the quality of the noise cancellation.

Impressive stuff.

For situations where awareness is important, Transparency Mode allows outside sounds back in naturally. So you won’t be getting run over on that commute.

One cutback in the design to help reduce price is the loss of the Ear 3’s “Super Mic” built right into the charging case for ultra-clear voice calls.

Instead you get a much more oval and plastic feeling case.

It looks nice enough, albeit not amazing, but does give you a handing little three-level charging light monitor to see how much juice is left inside.

The buds have up to 10 hours of playback in the batteries from the buds and up to 42 hours with the charging case when noise cancelling is switched off.

With ANC enabled, it delivers up to 6 hours on the earbuds and up to 25 hours in total with the charging case.

When power runs low, a quick five-minute charge provides approximately one hour of playback.

Overall, these sub-£100 ear buds are excellent value for money and give you almost all the key components you’d expect from the top level technology Nothing offers across its audio range.

VERDICT 4.5/5