The big flagship buds. You know the ones. Nothing dropped those at $179 last year. They had that fancy mic inside the charging case to make your calls sound clearer. Super microphone, they called it. Sounds impressive, right?
It is not here.
The new budget siblings. The Nothing Ear 3As. They cost $99. No super mic. No high-fidelity call clarity gimmick from the case. So what did they do? Did they strip the audio drivers down to save pennies? No. They packed in 32MB of internal flash storage.
Inside the buds themselves.
You pinch the stems on both ears. Boom. You are recording. You can clip whatever is playing. A podcast. A lecture. Your friend rambling about crypto. Or a phone call. It saves right there on the hardware before syncing to the Nothing X app for transcription. You get two hours of raw audio capacity. Why? I guess we need a way to hoard sound bytes now.
The Sound and The Silence
Nothing has never been the cheap brand. They are the “stylish affordable” brand. Glass phones. Wires outside ear cups. Aesthetic first. Performance second. Or third. But this time the specs actually matter.
New 12mm dynamic drivers. They claim deeper bass. Better detail. The noise canceling improved too. Nothing says 17.1% better than the last gen. That specific decimal feels manufactured. But the frequency range matters more. Between 400Hz and 2,000Hz. That is where life happens. AC hums. Car engines. People chewing.
Codecs? You get SBC. AAC. LDAC. Yes, LDAC is still there at this price point. That is unusual. Static spatial audio exists, though no head tracking. It’s a novelty. Barely worth toggling on.
Calls? Three mics per bud. AI noise reduction. Standard fare. If you have used their gear before you know how they talk on the phone. Clear enough. Not crystal, not muddy.
“Static” spatial audio is included, but do not expect head tracking at this price tier.
The Case (And What Is Missing)
The case changed shape. Rounder. Friendlier. Whatever that means. Probably softer edges so they do not gouge your thigh. Wireless charging is gone. Obviously. This is the sub-$100 model. But you do get four colors. Including pink. Always the pink option.
Battery life is where the marketing gets lazy.
Nothing says 10 hours playback. With ANC off. 42 hours total with the case. Good numbers. Then they hit the kill shot. ANC on? No number. They give you a total system time of 25 hours. You have to do the math. Six hours. Maybe seven. On a single charge. It is not great for a flight.
I want to test it. The recording feature specifically. It seems useless on paper but essential in practice. We will see how the drivers handle the new tuning against the pricier siblings. The price tag is fair. The feature set is strange.
Will you use the recorder? I doubt it.
