Not AirPods Max In the Best Way Possible

What do you want out of a pair of over-ear headphones? No, really. Like, what do you want? I don’t mean that as a challenge; I mean that as a threat. Personal audio is a serious thing, and you need to make a sound choice when you’re picking a device that protects you from the horrors of other people’s talking, other people’s music, or other people, generally speaking. But it’s not that simple. If choosing over-ear headphones were based solely on sound, then we’d be walking around with ugly-ass blocks on our ears like we just stepped out of a replica Apple Store constructed inside some dweeb’s Minecraft server.

The fact is, we want it all when it comes to headphones. We want something that sounds good, that looks cool, and that feels nice on our heads—and we don’t want to pay too much for it. That’s a high bar, to be sure. Not unattainable, but high, and a rare one on top of that. It’s the bar that I judge almost every wearable audio device by, but especially the bar that I judge Nothing’s first pair of over-ear headphones by. I say “especially” here not because I have a bone to pick or an axe to grind or some other analogy that doesn’t involve bones or axes or pointy objects, but because Nothing, as usual, is talking a big talk, and it’s my job to say whether or not that talk has any merit. And to do that, we have to start from the most superficial place we can.

They Definitely Look… Different

When I first saw leaks of Nothing’s $299 Headphone 1, I thought to myself… uh-oh. It’s not that I hated the look off the bat, but more that—as the leaks suggested—I saw that these headphones have a distinct vibe. As is the case with any gadget that has “A Look,” that vibe is not going to be for everyone. Personally, I was on the fence. I could tell exactly what Nothing was going for with the Headphone 1: an almost-retro pair of over-ear headphones that evoke a cassette player or one of the many devices of yore that Nothing is clearly (pun intended) inspired by. It’s a swing, and not one that I was sure would connect.

But after actually getting the Headphone 1 in my hand and wearing them on my head, I’m happy to report that I love how they look and how they feel. They’re different, and that’s exactly what a pair of Nothing headphones should be. The sides still evoke Nothing’s signature transparency with two cassette-like ovals made of plastic sitting on top of an aluminum casing that houses the internal components (drivers and all that good stuff). Some people might be turned off by the rectangular aluminum design simply because it’s not oval-shaped like every other pair of headphones, but that’s the whole point—to be eye-catching. If you saw the leaked pictures and thought to yourself, “Those look way too big,” then you should think again. My head is small, which makes it hard to buy hats and think good (not enough brain cells), but also makes me prone to looking like some Dickensian orphan in earmuffs when I wear over-ear headphones.

Whether I look silly or not when I wear the Headphone 1 is subjective, but what matters is that I don’t feel silly when they’re on my noggin. They’re a good size, and they fit snugly on my head. They also stand out, which is great because that’s kind of Nothing’s whole thing. Nothing and its designers could fill a George Carlin-sized swear jar with the amount of words they’ve exhausted talking shit about Apple for being boring, and if they launched a pair of headphones that just duped AirPods Max, I’d be the first person to cast a proverbial iPhone-shaped stone. That is not what happened here, however.

The look won’t be for everyone, but if you want a pair of over-ear headphones that aren’t desperate to try and vanish from your head like Homer Simpson sliding into a leafy hedge, then these should do the trick. Who knows, they might even elicit some questions when you wear them, which is great if you’re that kind of person who wants to feel drippy when they’re wearing a gadget. If that’s not your thing, AirPods Max or Sony’s excellent WH-1000XM6 are still around and will not offend you or anyone else who passively takes the headphones into their eyeballs. If there’s one complaint about the design, it’s that the “white” pair that I tested is actually low-key gray. I love the gray, to be honest—it’s giving PlayStation 1—but if you wanted these things to be 2001: A Space Odyssey white, then you will be disappointed.

But enough about looks. Let’s get to how they sound.

Great Sound and Strong ANC

If you’re buying a pair of over-ear headphones, what you’re saying tacitly is, “I need more.” More bass, more volume, and higher fidelity. As great and convenient as wireless earbuds are, they just can’t offer the same level of clarity of active noise cancellation (ANC) as a chunky pair of headphones. Nothing’s Headphone 1 are definitely more. To help bring Nothing into the over-ear headphone age, it tapped hi-fi audio company KEF, which did the audio tuning part of these headphones—enough to earn a “Sound by KEF” shoutout printed on the right earcup.

KEF also had a say in choosing the actual hardware, according to Nothing, which consists of a 40mm dynamic driver, a nickel-plated diaphragm with a rim and dome that adds rigidity, and in Nothing’s words, is designed to “enhance clarity in the highs and power in the bass.” Whatever KEF and Nothing cooked up is working for me personally, and I’ve actually enjoyed the tuning more than I thought. Like Nothing’s other audio products, the Headphone 1 are compatible with the Nothing X app so you can adjust the sound manually. I mostly listened on “balanced” mode, which is what the headphones default to out of the box. Even without adjusting the sound manually, I found the tuning to work well with lots of different genres.

Even when cranking songs like “Only Shallow” by My Bloody Valentine on the subway to drown out ambient noise, I didn’t notice much distortion. For a bassier, more electronic test, I chose TV Girl and George Clanton’s “Fauxllennium” and was also pleased with the results. Headphone 1 performs especially well in the lows and mids, but may come up a little less crisp and clear with vocals and high ends, which both get a little lost in the sauce on balanced mode. I still think Apple’s AirPods Max have a slight edge in the sound department—mid-to-highs just have slightly more texture and room, which makes vocals feel more organic and clear. That being said, Nothing holds its own against a competitor that charges a very hefty premium.

On top of that, you also have to factor in the Nothing X app, which allows both preset and granular EQ. This route isn’t for everyone—some people just want a pair of headphones that sound good for most things out of the box, no screwing around. But if you are willing to get in there and start tweaking frequencies, you can adjust the EQ of your Headphone 1 to your liking. This isn’t guaranteed to get your headphones to the same clarity as AirPods Max for everything you listen to, but it’s a major perk for Nothing audio products that I think is undervalued by Apple audio fans.

In the ANC department, I used the Headphone 1 on the subway and felt sufficiently insulated from people and train noises. These headphones don’t have the most ANC (42 decibels of cancellation), but they still do a solid job, especially because the vegan leather earcups (which are hella comfortable, by the way) fit snugly around my ears. The ANC is adaptive, too, so it can auto-adjust based on the noise levels around you, and as usual, you can choose the level manually in the Nothing X app if you don’t want adaptive cancellation.

My verdict in the sound department is that Nothing’s Headphone 1—especially as a new entrant into the over-ear audio space—holds its own against the power players in the space, and if you’re willing to give the Nothing X app a shot, you might even find that the sound is comparable to AirPods Max. KEF and Nothing’s partnership is a new thing, but if the Headphone 1 is any indication, they’re already setting the bar high enough.

There Are So Many Buttons

There are a few things here that may not have been on your bingo card but are also worth touching on. Literally. Buttons. I’m talking about buttons. On the right side of the Headphone 1, there is a Holy Trinity of buttons—a roller, a paddle, and a regular-old button. I’m not counting the pairing button on the inside of the ear or the on/off switch on the bottom here, either. Altogether, that’s a lot of physical things you can push with your real hands, and I love buttons… in theory.

First, there’s a volume roller—a little pill-shaped button on the side of the right ear that does a few things. Primarily, it controls volume; roll it to the right and the volume goes up, roll it to the left and the volume goes down. It also doubles as ANC on and off, which can be toggled by pressing and holding the roller down.

Then, there’s the paddle. The paddle also has a dual purpose. A single press to the right moves the song forward, while a single press to the left sends the song back to the beginning. Pressing the left paddle two times sequentially will go back to the previous track. On top of track selection, the paddle also acts as a fast-forward or rewind button when you press and hold it to the right or left, respectively.

Finally, there’s a circular button in the top-right of the left ear for activating a voice assistant on your phone. That’s it. That’s all there is to say about that.

All of this functionality and the inclusion of buttons, as you may have gathered from the ominous opening of this section, are great in theory, but I actually have some major gripes with how both of them work—or kind of don’t work, to be honest. The volume pill, while functional, isn’t super responsive, so there’s a bit of a delay at times when you’re adjusting volume with it. That may compel you to give it a hard roll, but be careful with this method, my friend, because you might end up jacking the volume up unexpectedly on yourself.

The paddle, though it works just fine response time-wise, is also a little finicky. As I mentioned, you can use it to skip a track or go back to the beginning of a song, but going back to a previous track is where things get tricky. Technically, a consecutive press to the left goes back, but you can’t rapid-press (think: click, click); instead, you have to click left, wait a beat, and then click left again. It’s kind of a stilted gesture for going back to a previous song and, unless I’m crazy, a departure from how most buttons of that style work. It’s a small thing, to be sure, but annoying under the right circumstances. I like that Nothing included buttons on this thing, but I would have liked to have seen them executed with a little more finesse, even if you don’t technically ever need to use them.

Outside of the buttons, it’s also worth talking about battery life—not because there’s a lot to unpack, but because there isn’t. Nothing advertises about 35 hours of battery with ANC on (streaming AAC, not LDAC, which is a beefier codec) and 80 hours with ANC off. That’s 15 more hours of listening time with ANC on compared to the 20 hours you get with AirPods Max. I’ve used the Headphone 1 for several hours of listening over the past few days, and they’re still going strong with almost no charging out of the box—I’ve barely put a dent in the battery, which is now at 50 percent as of time of writing.

Oh, there’s also one more thing: the headphones have a 3.5mm headphone jack for wired listening. This is useful if you’re on a plane or simply just a wired connection to your audio source.

Nothing Is Onto Something

I didn’t know what to expect from Nothing’s first over-ear headphones, but whatever I’ve experienced over the past few days feels like a more-than-solid start. With the help of KEF, Nothing has delivered a formidable AirPods Max competitor at a much lower price point (Apple’s cans cost $550 retail) and managed to succeed in its oft-stated goal of “being different” at the same time. The look of the Headphone 1 won’t appeal to everyone, but that’s the point of taking a swing. If you wanted headphones that look like everything else and, as a result, kind of like nothing (no capital “N” here), then you’d buy AirPods Max (or Sony or Bose whatevers).

If you don’t want that, then Nothing is giving you something to skate to—and not just a gimmick that relies on looks alone to lure you in. The best part is that, at $299, Nothing’s Headphone 1 is giving you its most expensive audio proposition to date, but also maybe one of its most compelling. If you’re in the market for over-ear headphones and feeling bored by your options, the Headphone 1 is extending a retro cassette-inspired arm and saying, “come on, son… we’ve got some weird shit to listen to” and for that alone it’s worth considering.