Nothing Ear (3a) bring two incredibly useful recording features – are they the best bargain in earbuds?
Nothing Ear (3a) earbuds are still ¢99/£99. Still offer ANC. Still have stellar battery life. Now they're great for capturing phonecalls and snapshots of audio
Nothing has launched the new Nothing Ear (3a) earbuds with a pair of intriguing feature additions that are likely to bring in a new audience and add to an already significant value proposition.
The $99/£99 ANC eye-catching earbuds – the successor to the Nothing Ear (a) – now have a call recording feature, which gives users the opportunity to save the audio from calls up to two-hours in length. Recordings will be available in the Nothing app.
Nothing says the feature is ideal for replaying back moments from the call enabling them to be edited and shared. If this sounds a little dodgy from a privacy point of view, Nothing says that all participants will get a notification to let them know. There’s also two hours of free Pro transcription available, which will identify speakers and even make summaries of the call.
The company explains: “Keep forgetting what your therapist says? With Call Recording, you can save up to two-hours of conversations and online meetings – and re-listen to them on Nothing X. A prompt tone will let you both know you’re recording.”
There’s also a new Audio Snapshot feature which makes it possible to clip sounds “whether it’s an online lecture, or saving a voice note from a friend” and have it synced back to the Nothing app.
“With Audio Snapshot, you can pinch your buds to capture up to a minute of media straight onto Ear (3a),” Nothing says. “Or set Audio Snapshot to go back and keep the 30 seconds before you started recording. You can sort and share these moments on Nothing X.”
There’s not much new about the design, but the buds are available in four colours – white, black, a fetching and vivid yellow and a very bright pink. You’ll also benefit from a highly flexible EQ. There’s also a larger, 55mAh battery that promises 10-hours of playback and 42-hours in total thanks to the charge. A five-minute rest in the case will get you an extra hour. There’s 45db of Wideband Active Noise Cancellation with three filter modes and support for Spatial Audio too.
All in all it’s difficult to imagine better value in the earbuds sector than this pair. At the time, our reviewer gave the original Nothing Ear (a) a five-star review, concluding: “Takes the best bits of Nothing’s already affordable wireless earbuds and slashes the price even further. If you don’t need all the bells and whistles, Ear (a) is an absolute steal.”
Chris Smith
