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

I’ve been into headphones for as long as I can remember. The convenience of pulling a case out of my pocket, putting on headphones, and going has always been very appealing to the adventurous distance runner. Unfortunately, there are times when headphones just won’t work. They’re hard to wear when sweating at the gym (unless they’re over my ears), and limited battery life means they’re not always great for long trips away from home.

In such cases, I’ve always been jealous of my friends with powerful, long-lasting headphones. They always seemed like a better solution, but one I never wanted to make room for. Then, Nothing new announced Headphone Aand decided it was time to try something new. I picked up a pair in pure white and have been wearing them ever since.

Here’s why I’m a headphone guy now — at least not a “Nothing” headphone — and why I have no interest in wearing anything else.

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

Behold, Headphone A has something of an industrial design enthusiast’s dream. Unlike Nothing Phones which is only really cosplay industrial lookHeadset A is connected to manual control. You don’t touch or slide, making it impossible to accidentally turn up the volume or skip a song. Instead, you do everything, or almost everything, in the two controls you see above.

At first I wasn’t sure how to feel about it. I have longer hair, which gets in the way of my headphones, and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to find the volume (top) or playback wheel (bottom). But once you got familiar with the fit, the controls became second nature. The roller is smooth and responsive, with audible but not tactile feedback to let you know it’s rolling, and the paddle is nice and clicky. I’ve never had any issues unlike every tap based control I’ve ever used.

But wait, there’s more. The Nothing Headphone A also uses a physical switch for power, and they have an additional multifunction button on the same earcup as the other controls. Currently, it’s set to launch my voice assistant by default, but you can also use it as a remote camera shutter. Personally, I’m not sure I want to touch my ear every time I need a camera, but I guess it makes you feel like James Bond.

Mix in four colorful colors — three-color headphones on a white frame, or an all-back version — and the Nothing Headphone A is one of the company’s brightest products to date. I like my white pair because it shows off all the industrial-inspired detailing, but I think I might slightly prefer the sleek look of black because 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 cables come with dull, opaque tips.

As much as I want to be picky about what my headphones look like, I’m not going to see them, to be honest. They’ll be on my head, so aesthetics are probably more important to everyone else. So the cherry on top is that I like the look of the headphones. It’s not every day you can buy a pair of headphones.

Anyway, the more important factor in falling in love with a new box set is how they sound. And once again I think that nothing stopped on the descent. I’m not an audiophile, so I couldn’t say how the headphones actually sound compared to most others on the market, but I’d say I’m very pleased.

The 40mm titanium-coated diaphragm does its job nicely, and the wireless LDAC technology delivers 24-bit audio, which is always nice. I’m sure you can get better sound quality from a pair of headphones costing twice as much, but 95% of my usage is when I’m using YouTube or streaming music. SpotifyI’m not that worried. Plus, if I want to increase the fidelity even further, I can always use the included auxiliary cable… 3.5 mm jack.

None of the active noise cancellation is very good either – at least, better than what I’m used to with headphones. You can switch between three levels of blocking on the Headphone A, but I stuck with the default setting of Nothing X, as it was good enough to drown out some nearby road activity when I went for coffee this morning. Don’t get me wrong, it’s sometimes very effective, but it’s easy enough to activate transparency mode with the click of a button.

Best of all is the battery life – these cases can run a marathon. Well, you probably wouldn’t want to, all the fuss and such, but the battery life will certainly last. Nothing boasts nearly five days of charging on its mid-range headphones, and I don’t think I could disagree. Technically, the claim is 135 hours without noise cancellation and closer to 75 hours with it, but that’s still three straight days of use. Really, that many hours is more like a month’s worth of use for me, so I won’t complain about charging my earbuds while charging my Garmin watch.

Granted, I’m sure part of my immediate love for the Nothing Headphone A comes from the thick rose-tinted glasses. True audiophiles will probably want something a little more premium, but for everyday use, I don’t think I’ll be getting past this battery life and these controls any time soon.