I finally tried Nothing Headphones for the first time, and I don’t want to go back

I’ve been an earbuds guy for as long as I can remember. The convenience of being able to pop a case out of my pocket, stick in earbuds, and go has always been too tempting for an adventure-loving distance runner. Unfortunately, there are times when earbuds just won’t do. They’re hard to wear when sweating in the gym (unless they loop over my ears), and the limited battery life means they’re not always great for long trips away from home.

In those cases, I’ve always been jealous of my friends with powerful, long-lasting over-ear headphones. They’ve just always seemed like a better solution, but one that I never wanted to make space for. Then, Nothing announced the new Headphone A, and I decided it was time to try something new. I picked up a pair in the clean white finish, and I’ve been wearing them ever since.

Here’s why I’m a headphones guy now — at least a Nothing Headphone guy — and why I have no interest in wearing anything else.

I’m not going to lie — I almost bought headphones from Nothing like a month ago. They were on a good sale, and I was looking for something I could wear all day long. I didn’t, though, partly because I wasn’t sure I could pull off the squircle design, and I regretted it every day until the Nothing Headphone A showed up. But when I finally got my chance to unbox my pair, it was love at first sight.

See, there’s just something about the Headphone A that’s an industrial design nerd’s dream. Unlike the Nothing Phones, which only really cosplay as having an industrial look, the Headphone A are all about manual controls. You’re not tapping or swiping, which makes it pretty much impossible to accidentally crank the volume or skip a song. Instead, you do everything — or almost everything — on the two controls you see above.

At first, I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about that. I have longer hair, which tends to get in the way of my headphones, and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to find the volume roller (above) or the playback paddle (below). But as I got acquainted with the fit, the controls became second nature. The roller is smooth and responsive, with audible — but not haptic — feedback to let you know it’s rolling, and the paddle is nice and clicky. I’ve never once had an issue with either one, unlike literally every tap-based control I’ve ever used.

But wait, there’s more. The Nothing Headphone A also use a physical toggle for power, and they have an additional multifunction button on the same earcup as the other controls. Right now, mine is set to trigger my voice assistant by default, but you can also use it as a remote camera shutter if you’re into that. Personally, I’m not sure that I want to tap my ear every time I need a camera, but I guess it makes you feel like James Bond.

Mix in four colorful finishes — well, three colored earcups on a white frame or an all-back version — and the Nothing Headphone A are one of the company’s brightest products to date. I do like my white pair, as it shows off all of the industrial-inspired details, but I think I might slightly prefer the sleek look of the black, as it works so well with the glossy finish. Either way, don’t expect the same transparent love from Nothing’s included cables — both the USB-C and 3.5mm cord come with boring, opaque ends.

As much as I want to be picky about how my headphones look, let’s be honest — I’m not really going to see them. They’ll be on my head, so the aesthetics are probably more important to everyone else. So, it just happens to be the cherry on top that I like how the Headphone A look. It’s not every day that you get a pair of headphones quite so distinct.

Anyway, the much more important factor when falling in love with a new set of cans is how they sound. And, once again, I think Nothing stuck the landing. I’m not an audiophile, so I couldn’t tell you how the headphones actually sound as compared to most others on the market, but I’d say I’m pretty pleased.

The 40mm titanium-coated diaphragm does its job nicely, and the wireless LDAC technology delivers 24-bit audio, which is always nice to have. I’m sure you can get better audio quality out of a pair of headphones that cost twice as much, but when 95% of my usage is streaming music from YouTube or Spotify, I’m not that worried. Besides, if I want to further bump the fidelity, I can always use the included aux cord with… whatever I still have that has a 3.5mm jack.

Nothing’s active noise canceling is pretty good, too — at least, much better than what I’m used to with earbuds. You can toggle between three levels of blocking on Headphone A, but I’ve stuck with the default setting in the Nothing X app, as it was good enough to mute some nearby roadwork as I walked for coffee the other morning. Don’t get me wrong, it occasionally borders on being too effective, but it’s easy enough to activate transparency mode with the press of a button.

Best of all, though, is the battery life — these cans could run a marathon. Well, you probably wouldn’t want to, with all the jostling and such, but the battery life would hold up, no doubt. Nothing boasts that its mid-range headphones pack about five days of charge, and I don’t think I can disagree. Technically, the claim is 135 hours without noise canceling and closer to 75 hours with it, but that’s still three straight days of usage. Really, that many hours is more like a month of usage for me, so I won’t complain about charging my headphones as often as I charge my Garmin watch.

Granted, I’m sure some of my immediate love for the Nothing Headphone A comes from a thick pair of rose-colored glasses. True audiophiles will probably want something a bit more premium, but for everyday wear, I don’t think I’ll be moving on from this battery life and these controls any time soon.