When it Comes to Headphones, Nothing Matters

In July 2025, British design-centric tech company Nothing released its first pair of over-ear headphones, the literally titled Headphone (1). Their noise canceling was only OK, their sound was fine if unremarkable — though dramatically improved with a custom EQ — and they looked a bit funky. But many liked the look; they were relatively inexpensive, and they had the best control scheme of any modern Bluetooth headphones.Rather than fiddling with touch surfaces and multipurpose buttons, each function had its own control, widget, or button, with a roller to change volume and pause playback, a paddle to skip tracks, and a physical on-off switch.With its first premium headphones, the Headphone (1) Pro, Nothing has kept what worked with the originals — the funky design, literal name, and ugly but unbeatable control layout — and tried to upgrade the components that fell a little behind.To start: the sound quality. The headphones have three drivers per earcup — up from one on the originals — with a 1.6-inch dynamic driver for bass, a smaller dynamic driver for middle frequencies, and a solid-state driver from xMEMS for treble. The company says the three produce deeper bass and clearer vocals, and Metropolis Studios helped with the tuning.Interestingly, the headphones also have a new physical switch that lets you toggle between your usual EQ setting — which, once again, you can tweak — and Flat EQ, a more neutral profile tuned with Metropolis Studios. These are never going to be an audiophile’s first choice, but the switch could be helpful for audio or video editing. They also support the LDAC high-resolution Bluetooth codec — which you can use on compatible Android phones but not iPhones, thanks to Apple’s bizarre unwillingness to add it — and you can listen over a 3.5mm or USB-C cable.Courtesy of NothingAesthetically, Nothing has kept the same faux-transparent look of the original headphones but upgraded the materials, using machined aluminum, titanium alloy arms, and glass over parts of the earcups. Like the originals, they look extremely distinct in a market where everything else is pretty bland, and hopefully the material upgrades make them feel properly premium, which the originals didn’t quite manage.Nothing also says the new ear cushions are 50 percent softer than those on Headphone (1), and that the headband is wider and more heavily padded — though the originals were pretty comfortable in my testing anyway. The Pro retains the originals’ IP52 protection against dust and dripping water which is nice for peace of mind. But its water resistance trails the IPX4-rated Beats 360, which are built for the gym.Those new, more cushioned pads should help with noise cancellation, which supposedly gets a boost from ten microphones that also serve the transparency mode. The company claims about 30 hours of battery life with noise cancellation on over the standard AAC codec.That’s basically the same as every other premium Bluetooth headphone, and so is the price. Available in all black or the contrasting metal-and-black colorway, they cost $399, $100 more than the originals. Whether they are worth it comes down to how well they compete with the main players at this price, Bose, and Sony, on sound quality and noise cancellation.

When it Comes to Headphones, Nothing Matters

When it Comes to Headphones, Nothing Matters

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