Ahead of the company’s July 1st launch event, Nothing’s first over-the-ear headphones have leaked thanks to several early hands-ons, and so far, they’re looking as stylish and unique as you might expect.
Although we’ve known of Nothing’s plans for its first pair of true headphones since last month, we had yet to see their actual design until now. Thanks to a handful of leaks — including from user nothing_fan_blog on Instagram and a pair of videos from @MysteryLupin on Twitter — we’re finally seeing what the Headphone (1) look like in action. Surprise: they’re translucent.
This first group of images gives us an up-close look at Nothing’s new design, which, to my eyes, combines the brand’s usual transparent materials with the rounded squircle look most commonly associated with Apple’s AirPods Max. While I don’t think Nothing is copying Apple’s design by any means — these are very clearly different headphones — I do think the sheer popularity of the AirPods have likely had some impact on the Headphone (1).
They appear to come in at least two colors — silver and black — combining rounded metallic speakers with those Nothing Ear-inspired translucent panels. Each cup is capable of folding flat, though it’s hard to tell if they’re capable of rotating inwards to pack down. One of the cups — seemingly the right cup, based on our second leak — seems to hold at least two physical buttons, indicating Nothing is, as promised last month, avoiding a strict reliance on touch controls. And, naturally, an up-close look at each respective cup reveals the company’s standard branding.
The second leak shows two different people wearing a pair, complete with what appears to be built-in 3.5mm wire — another big difference from Apple. Otherwise, the only other big takeaway is the “Sound by KEF” branding on the adjacent earcup, something confirmed in a press release audio company KEF put out last month.
In its initial tease, the Nothing team did allude to AirPods Max, though only in the sense of Apple’s (fairly ridiculous) pricing. Considering Apple’s over-the-ear headphones cost a whopping $550, your guess is as good as ours on where Headphone (1) pricing might actually land. As far as knowing how comfortable they are — and whether they actually sound good — we’ll have to keep waiting for Nothing’s July 1st event, where we’ll also see the official reveal of the company’s first true flagship Android phone.
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