With the new Ear Sticks from Nothing you get earphones in a stylish cylinder with clear cool sound. The battery of the earplugs and charging cylinder also have sufficient capacity for long listening pleasure. Read the review of the Nothing Ear Sticks earplugs model B157 here.
Adam Munsterman
The second version of the Nothing earplugs (we’ll just call them earplugs for convenience) are in a cylindrical charging box, which has a stylish appearance and handy storage mechanism. It is a rotatable round cylinder with a bright red USB-C connection on one side and a silver-colored pin for Bluetooth activation. By twisting, the super light (4.4 grams) earplugs are released and are then easy to remove. The earplugs look compact with an oval white body with a transparent stem for the push button. This second variant is simplified and therefore cannot be compared with the first version.
Installation and Open ear
The English-language “Nothing X” app gives you guidelines for installation, which is no more than pressing the bluetooth button once and activating the Ear (stick) connection via Settings on the phone. A second Bluetooth connection is not possible. The earplugs lie in front of the ear canal and therefore have no protrusion that goes into the ear canal. That is the so-called “open-ear” design. The ambient noise therefore remains audible and that is why there is no noise reduction. This model is a bit less tight in the ear and is therefore, depending on the fit of the ear, a bit more sensitive to loss. In themselves they sit well without pressure on the ear canal, so that they can be used for a long time and comfortably. The classification is IP54, which means dustproof and can withstand a downpour.
App NothingX
The app is simple and offers an equalizer and an option to customize the functional push buttons on the stems. It is useful that you get an audible feedback when you operate the buttons, via clicks. There is also a search function for the earbuds in the app and the delay in combination with games can be improved.
Battery life
The battery of the Ear Sticks lasts approximately 7 hours and the charging cylinder adds another 22 hours. Loading is fast: in 10 minutes you have about ~2 hours of listening pleasure. The standard codecs SBC and AAC are available and the sound is reproduced by 12.6mm dynamic drivers. The reproduced sound is clear, but sounds a bit cool. Due to the construction, some layer is lost. This is measured and partly corrected with the smart “Bass Lock” function. The sound can be further adjusted to taste via the equalizer. The three microphones per earbud with “Clear Voice Technology” filter everything but the voice sound and ensure a clear voice at the other end of the line.
Conclusion
A stylish set with clear but somewhat cool sound. The battery of the earplugs and charging cylinder have sufficient capacity for long listening pleasure. High-end features such as ANC, multiple bluetooth links, connection with voice assistant and hi-res codecs are missing.
Nothing Ear Stick, model B157
MSRP: € 119,-
Advantages
+ good and stylish build quality
+ long battery life
Cons
– cool sound
– does not fit in/on every ear
