Nothing Ear (1) vs. AirPods Pro: Which wireless earbuds win?

Zero Ear (1) vs. AirPods Pro: Which wireless earbuds win?

(Image credit: Future)

The Nothing Ear (one) is almost everything you could want from a pair of truthful wireless earbuds. Information technology's affordable, sounds great and fifty-fifty supports active noise cancellation (ANC). In fact, its feature ready makes it look an atrocious lot like it'due south targeting the AirPods Pro in item.

Apple's effort hardly needs an introduction. It's arguably the near recognizable pair of premium in-ear headphones in the earth, and deservedly a member of the best noise-cancelling earbuds social club. But if you're in the market for a new pair, should y'all stick with what works or dorsum the young upstart? That'southward what our Cipher Ear (i) vs. AirPods Pro analysis will find out.

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Nothing Ear (1) vs. AirPods Pro: Specs compared

	Nothing Ear (1)	AirPods Pro
Toll	$99	$249
Wireless charging	Yes	Yes
Chip	Not stated	H1
Bombardment Life (Rated)	4 hours ANC on), 27 hours (ANC on with charging example); 5.7 hours (ANC off), 38 hours (ANC off with charging example)	4.5 hours (ANC on), 5 hours (ANC off), 24 hours (with charging case)
Water Resistance	IPX4	IPX4
Case Size	2.3 10 2.3 ten 0.9 inches	1.viii 10 0.9 x 2.4 inches
Case Weight	2 ounces	i.half dozen ounces
Special features	Agile noise cancellation, transparency mode, EQ presets, IPX4 h2o resistance, Find My Earbuds, wireless charging	Active dissonance counterfoil, transparency way, adaptive EQ, spatial audio, automatic switching, customizable fit, sound sharing, Fast Fuel charging, announced messages with Siri, "Hey Siri" vox-activated assistance, wireless charging case

Null Ear (1) vs. AirPods Pro: Cost

The Ear (1) isn't just cheaper than the AirPods Pro, information technology's cheaper than the vast majority of noise-cancelling earbuds out in that location. At $99, Naught earbuds teeter on genuine entry-level quality, though thankfully the overall quality belies the low cost. The only downside is a lack of retailer choice, as Nothing itself sells the Ear (1) directly.

The AirPods Pro is more widely bachelor just unavoidably more expensive. Right now, the best price you tin expect for a new pair is $189: nearly double that Ear (ane)'s price. This does stand for a sizeable drop from the $249 MSRP, but this is still an easy win for the Cipher buds.

Winner: Nothing Ear (ane)

Goose egg Ear (one) vs. AirPods Pro: Design and comfort

There'due south not much about the AirPods Pro design that hasn't been said. Most tech-witting bystanders would recognise those gleaming white stems from anywhere, and the apply of replaceable in-ear tips both helps create a seal for the ANC and allows for a more secure, personalizable fit than the standard Apple AirPods.

The Nothing Ear (ane) likewise has stems, just looks drastically different cheers to its transparent plastic casing. This showcases the circuitry inside, which at least to my eyes gives it a more than interesting, industrial-tinged aesthetic.

Otherwise, though, these two pairs of buds have a lot in common on the design forepart. They both meet the IPX4 standard, for splash-proofing and sweat resistance, and their eartips take an almost identical oval shape. This ways they feel remarkably similar in the ear; both sets are comfortable plenty to wear for a few hours at a time, though neither proved item secure in my ears. Out on walks, I'd usually have to re-bending them properly after they shifted loose.

Winner: Tie

Zippo Ear (1) vs. AirPods Pro: Controls and digital assistant

The Ear (1)'southward touch sensors, which you can run across through the casing, work pretty well. There's a proficient range of inputs to use, a few of which tin can be customized, and unlike on the AirPods Pro you can adjust the volume with swipe gestures.

However, the can't shell the tactile feedback that the AirPods' Force Sensors provide. And although the AirPods Pro limits its "Hey Siri" vocalism-activated controls to iOS source devices, the fact that it has such extensive digital assistant back up is an advantage over the Ear (1). Nil'southward earbuds tin deliver commands and queries through its microphones, merely merely when you've already woken the banana on your phone. There's no fashion to summon it with the touch on gestures.

Winner: AirPods Pro

Nothing Ear (1) vs. AirPods Pro: Sound quality

Not just do the Ear (1) and AirPods Pro feel alike, they sound alike too. So while neither have the downright exquisite sound of models like the Bowers & Wilkins PI5, they're on broadly equal terms for delivering powerful yet balanced music and podcasts.

On both buds, the bass response is controlled without existence weedy or boomy, and vocal tracks showroom impressive clarity. Honestly, at that place really isn't much difference at all; spatial audio on the AirPods Pro gives it a big boost when watching movies in Dolby Atmos, just that's more of a feature advantage than a general audio benefit. For music, the Ear (1) holds its ain.

Winner: Tie

Zero Ear (1) vs. AirPods Pro: Active dissonance cancellation

Nothing Ear (1) review — (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Unfortunately for the Ear (1), it can't match up to the AirPods Pro on ANC effectiveness. Turning on ANC while the latter are in your ears makes ambient noise simply fall abroad; it'southward splendid at blocking out depression-frequency noise, and is more practiced at quieting higher-pitched sounds like speech as well. In fact, Apple'southward ANC tech remains one of the very all-time on any pair of earbuds, merely behind the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds and the PI5.

To exist off-white, the Ear (one) deserves praise for including ANC in spite of its low cost, and it doesn't piece of work badly: for droning sounds similar nearby traffic, fridges or air conditioners, Zilch'due south noise cancellation is effective. Merely the AirPods Pro just exercise it amend, particularly for especially loud environments like subway trains, where the Ear (1) ANC struggles to get the book downwards enough.

Winner: AirPods Pro

Nothing Ear (i) vs. AirPods Pro: App and features

The AirPods Pro doesn't have an app as such, instead relying on what's built straight into iOS. This naturally leaves Android users out in the common cold, but the wealth and diversity of goodies on offer is unbeatable: there's fast pairing, fast switching between multiple Apple devices, the same voice controls, audio personalization via Headphones Accommodations, full spatial audio support with head tracking and fifty-fifty the ability to take Siri read out notifications into your ear.

The Ear (one) actually has a respectable selection of tools, especially for $99. It can use Android Fast Pair, and through the Ear (1) app offers touch control customization and a handful of EQ presets (though the best of these is the default "Counterbalanced" profile). The Find My Earbuds feature is absurd, also — y'all can force both buds to emit a high-pitched beep that'south loud enough to help you discover a misplaced pair from dozens of anxiety abroad.

Nonetheless, the Ear (1)'s arsenal is considerable smaller than that of the AirPods Pro, and the latter'due south voice controls and spatial audio are the kinds of bonuses yous'd likely utilise much more than often.

Winner: AirPods Pro

Nothing Ear (1) vs. AirPods Pro: Battery life

On paper, this is a narrow victory for the AirPods Pro: it's rated for four.5 hours of ANC playback, and the Apple H1 scrap is effective plenty at ability management that y'all can actually await that much in real-life usage. The Ear (i), meanwhile is only rated for 4 hours with ANC.

And yet, when we tested the Ear (1), it actually got closer to 5 hours than the AirPods Pro can — iv hours 51 minutes, to exist exact. And since both pairs promise 24 hours of full noise-cancelled uptime with use of their respective charging cases, we'd say the Nothing buds tin can pulled a piddling upset.

Both charging cases also support wireless charging, so the AirPods Pro can't quite claim a consolation there, so its example is significantly more compact.

Winner: Nothing Ear (one)

Nil Ear (1) vs. AirPods Pro: Phone call quality and connectivity

Both sets of buds deserve credit for how well they can handle headset duties. I chosen up a friend using the AirPods Pro, and after testing a few different conditions chosen back on the Ear (one) to repeat the process. Both pairs, I'thou told, sounded perfectly clear both indoors and out.

A bear on more than background noise was reported with the Ear (1), at least when I stepped outdoors, and it patently picked up a piffling more reverb in echoey rooms than the AirPods Pro. However, I'm told the deviation was extremely minor, and that the Ear (ane) actually exhibited smoother transitions when moving between rooms or going from indoors to outside.

There were no incidents of dropped, patchy or otherwise unreliable Bluetooth connections either, on either pair.

Winner: Tie

Nothing Ear (1) vs. AirPods Pro: Verdict

In a strictly technical sense, the AirPods Pro is the superior pair of wireless earbuds. Its ANC is noticeably more effective, information technology's got a better range of useful and entertaining features, and its control scheme is far more advanced.

	Nothing Ear (ane)	AirPods Pro
Cost and value (5)	5	3
Design (15)	13	12
Controls (x)	seven	x
Sound quality (twenty)	17	17
Active noise cancellation(20)	xv	18
Special features and apps (fifteen)	11	13
Call quality (v)	v	v
Bombardment life (10)	seven	5
Total score (100)	80	83

However, I'm not certain I can say it'southward the outright better set of buds, at least not insofar as which ones you should buy. The Nothing Ear (1) is much more affordable, nonetheless manages to go toe-to-toe with Apple's try on crucial qualities like sound, condolement and battery life. And so in that location's the fact that a lot of what's great about the AirPods Pro vanishes when it'south continued to a non-Apple device.

Perhaps if you lot tin can afford it, and you have an iOS device similar the iPhone 12, the AirPods Pro is the i yous should buy. Simply the Ear (1) makes an incredibly ambitious effort to friction match it, and comes close enough that anyone on a tight upkeep should admittedly consider information technology.

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James is currently Hardware Editor at Rock Paper Shotgun, but before that was Audio Editor at Tom's Guide, where he covered headphones, speakers, soundbars and anything else that intentionally makes noise. A PC enthusiast, he also wrote computing and gaming news for TG, usually relating to how hard information technology is to observe graphics card stock.