Nothing’s New Wireless Earbuds May Dial Down the One Thing That Made Them Cool

Nothing’s Ear wireless earbuds are on their way back for a new iteration. According to Nothing, the Ear 3 (which is actually its sixth pair of wireless earbuds if we’re counting) will officially launch on Sept. 18, and we even have our first real look. Based on this official image, the Ear 3 doesn’t seem to break the mold of Nothing’s previous wireless earbuds entirely, but it does come with some interesting design shifts.

First, there’s the cylindrical piece of opaque plastic on the outside of the stem, which is notable for a few reasons—some potentially good and some bad, in my opinion. On the potentially good side: this looks like it could be an interface for some kind of fine-tuned touch/swipe controls, which I prefer over the traditional squeeze and pinch functionality on Nothing’s current Ear A and Ear buds. My pleasure (or displeasure) with that shift will depend entirely on how well it’s implemented. I generally like swipe and tap controls like on AirPods Pro 2 more in theory, but sometimes, if the sensitivity is off in either direction, they can be a real pain in the ass.

Ear (3).18 September. pic.twitter.com/GxrBXvxtE1

— Nothing (@nothing) September 8, 2025

On the potentially bad side of things, it does kind of feel like Nothing is slowly making its wireless earbuds less transparent. I know the look of gadgets should shift over time, but I still appreciate the core of Nothing’s aesthetic, which is a transparent shell that allows you to get a look at the internal components. Previous iterations weren’t completely transparent by any means, but this definitely feels like Nothing might be cranking the volume down on its calling card look.

Most of this is conjecture, to be clear. I don’t know what the rest of the wireless earbud looks like yet (Nothing will definitely slowly tease it out until Sept. 18 like it does every new product), and I’m not sure if touch controls are coming, but based on what I can see in this picture, I assume it will be a departure. And as long as we’re hypothesizing, the Ear 3 also looks notably a little more squat in this picture, which sounds like a bad thing but may equate to better sound. Maybe (hopefully) we’re getting better drivers that require more room or a new earbud design to allow for better airflow and less distortion. I’ve been feeling recently (as someone who uses the Nothing Ear frequently) that active noise cancellation (ANC) and general fidelity are in need of an update, especially when compared to recent competitors like the OnePlus Buds 4. Whether the Ear 3 are the update that I’ve been waiting for remains to be seen, but it looks like we’ll know soon enough.