Curious name, no? Nothing has its own distinct design language that differs itself from the competition. Stripped-down and often transparent so that it can show off the guts of its devices, Nothing has developed a cult following since they released their first smartphone in 2022.

They’ve only been in the headphone game since 2021, but they’re already on their third iteration of their increasingly popular noise-canceling earbuds. The Nothing Ear (3a) are on sale as of today, July 7, 2026 for $399.

a lot of something for nothing

Like any earbuds that cost $399, they have the basically-mandatory-at-this-price active noise cancellation (ANC) that you can toggle on to block your noisy surroundings, whether it’s a whirring jet engine on your cross-country flight or your noisy roommate who talks as loud as a jet engine.

The Nothing Ear (3a) have some interesting features. Take the 32 MB of built-in flash storage, for example, that lets you record and save audio. Nothing calls it Audio Snapshot. You work it by pinching both earbuds at the same time. From Nothing’s press release it’s clear they mean Audio Snapshot for brief voice notes overheard in a conversation or a lecture, but you can record up to two hours of calls directly through the Ear (3a).

Everybody on the call will receive a privacy notification when the recording is active, and once the call wraps up or you stop the recording, it’ll sync to the Nothing X app, where you can replay it, edit it, or generate a transcript.

With ANC disabled, you get 10 hours of playback on the earbuds and 42 hours
with the charging case. With ANC enabled, the battery life drops to six hours and up to 25 hours with the charging case.

The Nothing Ear (3a) are available in white, black, pink, and yellow. And best of all, when someone notices that you don’t have a typical pair of Apple AirPods or Google Pixel Buds in your ears and asks what’s in there, and you go “Nothing,” you’ll get an amusing little back-and-forth like your own mini Vaudeville routine.

other earbuds to consider

You can still get a deal on the JBL Live Buds 3, which we featured yesterday in a sale for $100 off. The Live Buds 3s’ standout feature is the integrated screen on the charging case that shows battery life for each pod and the case itself, select notifications from your phone, the time, and music streaming information.

The Apple AirPods Pro 3 are every wireless, noise-canceling earbuds’ competition. Their ANC is excellent, and although they work with any device, they’re especially slick when it comes to seamlessly connecting with and syncing with Apple devices.

Bet you weren’t aware that Bose doesn’t just make surround sound systems and headphones, but also earbuds, huh? The Bose QuietComfort Earbuds are still on sale for $50 off, but only if you choose the color Twilight Blue.