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

I’ve been a headphone guy for as long as I can remember. The convenience of being able to pull a case out of my pocket, pop in the headphones, and go has always been too tempting for an adventure-loving distance runner. Unfortunately, there are times when headphones just won’t cut it. They’re difficult to use when I’m sweating at the gym (unless placed 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 and durable over-ear headphones. They have always seemed like a better solution to me, but I never wanted to leave room for it. Then, Nada announced the new. Headphones Aand I decided it was time to try something new. I bought a pair with a clean white finish and have been wearing them ever since.

Here’s why I’m now a headphone guy, at least a Nothing Headphone guy, and why I have no interest in using anything else.

I’m not going to lie: I almost bought headphones at Nothing about a month ago. They were on good deals and I was looking for something I could wear all day. 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 came out. But when I finally got the chance to crack open my pair, it was love at first sight.

Look, there’s something about the A headphones that’s an industrial design nerd’s dream. Unlike Nothing Phones, which actually only pretend to have a industrial lookA headphones are all about manual controls. You’re not tapping or swiping, making it virtually impossible to accidentally turn up the volume or skip a song. Instead, you do everything, or almost everything, with the two controls you see above.

At first, I wasn’t sure how I would feel about it. 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 control (top) or the playback paddle (bottom). But as I became more familiar with the adjustment, 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 a problem with either, unlike literally every touch-based control I’ve used.

But wait, there’s more. The Nothing Headphone A also uses a physical switch to power on and has an additional multi-function button on the same earcup as the other controls. Right now mine is set to activate my voice assistant by default, but you can also use it as a remote camera shutter if you like. 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.

Combine four colorful finishes (well, three colored headphones on a white frame or an all-rear version) and the Nothing Headphone A is one of the company’s brightest products to date. I like my white pair as it shows off all the industrial-inspired details, but I think I slightly prefer the sleek look of the black as it goes really 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 boring, opaque ends.

As much as I want to be picky about how my headphones look, let’s be honest: I’m not actually going to look at them. They’ll be in my head, so aesthetics are probably more important to everyone else. So, it turns out that the icing on the cake is that I like the look of Earbud A. It’s not every day you get a pair of headphones this different.

Still, the most important factor in falling in love with a new set of cans is how they sound. And once again, I think Nada blocked the landing. I’m not an audiophile, so I couldn’t tell you how the headphones actually sound compared to most others on the market, but I would say I’m pretty satisfied.

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

The Nothing’s active noise cancellation is also pretty good, at least much better than what I’m used to with headphones. You can toggle between three levels of blocking on Earbud A, but I stuck with the default setting in the Nothing Don’t get me wrong, it sometimes 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 earbuds have about five days of charge, and I don’t think I can 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 of use for me, so I won’t complain about charging my headphones as often as I charge my Garmin watch.

Of course, I’m sure part of my immediate love for Nothing Headphone A comes from a pair of thick rose-colored glasses. True audiophiles will probably want something a little more premium, but for everyday use, I don’t think I’ll give up this battery life and controls any time soon.