Nothing Ear (3) Review: Cheap, Cheerful, Surprisingly Good
At half the price of the default recommendations, the gap in sound quality is much smaller than the gap in cost.
Priya Raghunathan
Sound
Bass-forward but controlled, and the companion app EQ is unusually good for the money. In flat EQ they are genuinely balanced.
Noise cancelling
Effective on steady low-frequency noise, less so on voices. For commuting it is more than adequate.
Build
The transparent shell still looks distinctive two years on, and the case is properly pocketable.
Specifications
| Spec | Detail |
|---|---|
| Type | In-ear, closed |
| Codecs | SBC, AAC, LDAC |
| Battery | 5h 40m with ANC (measured) |
| Rating | IP54 |
How we tested
Every figure quoted above comes from the same protocol, run on every unit in this category. This one spent two weeks of daily listening, including commutes, calls and at least one flight. A blind A/B panel of four listeners, level-matched to within 0.5dB, using the same eleven-track reference playlist across every pair.
| What we measure | How |
|---|---|
| Battery life | Continuous playback at a metered 75dB with noise cancelling on, run to cut-off. |
| Noise cancelling | Attenuation measured against a recorded cabin-noise loop, reported by frequency band rather than as one number. |
| Call quality | Recordings made on a busy street and in a quiet room, judged by the same panel blind. |
| Comfort | Clamping force measured, then a three-hour wear session logged for hot spots. |
| Latency | Audio-to-video offset measured on a fixed test clip over each supported codec. |
We deliberately do not report frequency-response graphs presented without listening notes — they describe a tone, not an experience.
The honest caveat: Fit dominates both isolation and bass response. Our panel has four head shapes; yours is not one of them.
How it compares
The closest alternatives on price are AirPods Pro 3 and Beyerdynamic DT 700 Pro X. All three have been through the same tests, so the figures below are directly comparable rather than collected from different reviews.
| Model | Price | Our score | Standout | Weak point |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nothing Ear (3) (this review) | £129 | 4 / 5 | Excellent value | ANC behind premium sets |
| AirPods Pro 3 | £229 | 4 / 5 | The best passive isolation of any in-ear we have tested | Half the features are missing on Android |
| Beyerdynamic DT 700 Pro X | £259 | 4 / 5 | A near-neutral response that needs no correction | No wireless or noise cancellation at all |
Nothing at this price scored higher in our testing, which is the strongest argument for the Nothing Ear (3).
Is it worth the money?
At £129 the Nothing Ear (3) undercuts the category average of £302 by £173, against an average score of 4 out of 5 across the audio we have tested. Its own 4 works out at roughly £32 per point. That is the straightforward case: above-average result, below-average price.
If the budget is the binding constraint, the Nothing Ear (3) at £129 is the floor we would still recommend — below that the compromises stop being ones you can live with.
Living with it
Two weeks in, the figure that stopped mattering was type — In-ear, closed is more than adequate and you forget about it by the third day. What kept surfacing instead was that aNC behind premium sets, which is easy to shrug off in a spec comparison and harder to ignore at 6pm on a Friday. On the other side, excellent value turns out to be the sort of detail you only appreciate after living with the alternative.
What we liked
- Excellent value
- LDAC support at this price
- Good app EQ
What we did not
- ANC behind premium sets
- Call quality is average
- Short single-charge life
Verdict
The best earbuds under £150, comfortably.
Score: 4 / 5 · £129
Behind this piece
Every product covered here was bought at retail and lived with for at least a fortnight before a word was written. Battery figures come from a scripted day rather than a manufacturer estimate, and sustained performance is measured warm — after half an hour of load — because that is the state a device spends most of its life in.
Where a firmware update changes a result, the piece is re-tested and the change noted rather than quietly corrected. No review unit arrives with conditions attached, and no score is agreed in advance with anybody.
Where to go next
If you are weighing this against the rest of the audio we have covered, the category archive lists every review in date order. The closest comparisons we have published are Nothing Ear (3) Review: Nearly There and Nothing Ear (3) vs Sonos Ace: Is the 2025 Model Worth the Change?.
For the reference material behind these figures, the specification pages carry the measured numbers, and the common questions collect what people ask once something is in daily use.
