Headphone (a)

Headphone (a) is the second over-ear product released by Nothing in March 2026. The Headphone (a) is offered as a more budget-friendly option of the successful Headphone (1), which was the company's first venture into the over-ear headphone market in July 2025.

The Headphone (a) shares both design similarities with the Headphone (1), albeit with less transparency and a more playful colourway, and function similarities, with a slightly downgraded spec to enable lower pricing.

Headphone (a) was launched on 5 March 2026 alongside the Phone (4a) Series devices, with online pre-orders beginning the same day and open sales starting on 13 March except the limited edition Yellow which was on sale from 6 April.^[1]

Similar to previous product launches, Nothing hosted an exclusive in-store drop for the Phone (4a) and Headphone (a) in the Nothing Store Soho on 7 March where customers could get hands on and purchase the new products before general sales.^[2] Despite this, it hasn't yet been communicated when Headphone (a) will arrive in India.

Headphone (a) launched at £149 / $199 / €159, putting it in a much more affordable bracket than the Headphone (1) which had a launch price of £299 / €299 / $299.

Headphone (a) follows the same design inspiration as the Headphone (1) , the main difference is in build materials. The Headphone (1) featured a formed aluminium body on each ear, with a plastic transparent middle while Headphone (a) has an all-plastic design. Nothing's signature transparency elements remain, albeit shifted to the main body with solid coloured plastic sections in the centre.

They released in standard white and black varients, but Nothing also introduced two bright and playful colour options for Headphone (a) - pink and a limited edition yellow. The mesh inside the ear cups on these coloured options matched the outside colour.

The device also weighs almost 20g less than its big brother, coming in at 310g and maintaining the IP52 water resistant rating, protecting against dirt and dust.^[1]

Despite being a budget option, Headphone (a) retained a 40mm driver which is made of titanium-coated PEN+PU and is the same size as those in Headphone (1). The Headphone (a) also retains Clear Voice Technology with a 3-mic AI algorithm, one less than Headphone (1), and is said to be trained on over 28 million noise scenarios.^[1,3]

Headphone (a) features the exact same, well received tactile buttons and switches introduced with Headphone (1).

The roller scrolls to adjust volume, as well as having a single press for playing/pausing media and a long press for toggling ANC modes.

The paddle clicks backwards and forwards to skip tracks with a short click, or scrub through audio when held, providing the audio source supports this feature.

It also features a button on the right ear which can be set up to trigger photos and videos, activate a digital assistant or use Nothing's “Channel Hop”, enabling the user to switch between recent media and favourites without needing to interact with their phone.

Controls are customisable through the Nothing X app.^[3]

Headphone (a) supports LDAC, USB-C audio, and a 3.5 mm jack for high-quality playback across any setup. With Hi-Res Wireless certification and 24-bit/96 kHz precision, it delivers lossless sound.^[3]

Headphone (a) “lasts for days” with up to 5 days / 135 hours of playback, or 75 hours with Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) enabled. This vastly out performs the quoted playback time for Headphone (1) which only claims 80 hours playback without ANC and 35 with ANC enabled.

A 5 minute charge can give up to 8 hours of listening time and zero to full battery takes only 2 hours. Charging is via the included USB C cable.^[3]