The Nothing Ear(Stick) is a gorgeously designed hardware. It was very easy to set up and use out of the box. The shape of the molded tip made up for the lack of needing multiple ear tips. The design really is very aesthetically pleasing. I just spent some time trying to figure out the opening and closing mechanism. Although I really enjoyed the mechanism it was much bulkier than some other name brands like Samsung’s Galaxy buds 2 line or Jabra’s elite line. The connection was fairly simple, I did use the app but it might not even be necessary, the sound was pretty much tuned the way I expect from it. The force A big negative of the earphone would be it’s lack of ANC(Active Noise Cancellation) and and Bass. Bass is not at all close to how much I enjoy it, and for a 99$ product I’d expect more bass and hopefully ANC. The Half in ear design is a bit dated but it does help with not feeling like your ears are suffocating. The squeeze button is amazing as it stops from any misclicks. I had the opportunity of using these on a plane and would not recommend them compared to something like the Jabra elite 7 pro or Galaxy buds 2 pro. While on the plane The Galaxy was able to block out the whirring noises the best and the Nothing Ear(stick) did not make any significant changes. Though this is not the ideal scenario for its use I would say the best place for this would be in office, home and specially on the road where you need to be aware of your surrounding. It does lack in bass it makes up for in clarity. This had the best mic for conversations out of all the headphones I have tried.
Overall I’d give it a ⅘. It does have its issues but it does also excel in the clarity. For long conversations this is my go to headphone now. If It was sub 70$ there would be nothing that is competitive to it in that range.
