At £99, we already thought the Nothing Ear (a) earbuds were a five-star product. And now there's a deal that makes them even better value for money because they're 20% cheaper. Amazon UK is currently doing the Nothing buds for an even more reasonable £79.
That's the good news. The bad news is that at the time of writing, the most fun colour isn't included: while the Nothing Ear (a) buds are £79 in black or in white, the bright yellow ones are still full price. Not that those colours would stop them from ranking among the best wireless earbuds of all prices – you can read our full Nothing Ear (a) review for why.
If you're not familiar with the Ear (a), or just can't make sense of its overly confusing branding and naming, the Ear (a) are a more affordable version of the firm's impressive Nothing Ear wireless earbuds. Those buds are good, but we think the Ear (a) are the better buy: where the normal Ears are four-star headphones, we gave the Ear (a) buds the full five stars. You can read a full comparison in our Nothing Ear (a)
What's so great about the Nothing Ear (a) earbuds?
The Nothing Ear (a) buds deliver a very impressive specification for a very low price. Their active noise cancellation is much better than in previous generations, their price is lower than before (and lower still today thanks to the discounting) and while they don't have the wireless charging or ceramic drivers of their more expensive siblings, they deliver great sound and good battery life too.
The Nothing Ear (a) earbuds have 11mm custom drivers and three microphones per bud to deliver clear audio during calls and video calls. They're fairly light at just 4.8g per earbud, and you can expect up to 42.5 hours with ANC switched off, when you include the battery in the case. Even without the case to recharge you can expect a very decent 9.5 hours from the buds with ANC off, and a reasonable 5.5 hours with ANC on.
Bluetooth here is 5.3 with support for high-quality LDAC streaming, and you get Nothing's fun chatbot integration via the Nothing app.
According to the review by our Audio Editor Becky Scarrott, the sound here is "meaty and arresting". If you're looking for audiophile-spec clarity and separation these aren't quite the earbuds for you, but if you want something that's going to make Charli XCX's Brat suitably banging then you're going to have a lot of fun with these buds: according to Becky: "Nothing has tweaked its recipe to near -perfection here... and for noise-cancellation specifically, they're extremely hard to beat for the money."
