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Many companies have the acumen to build great products, but no one knows that practicality isn’t everything.
For example, I am fascinated by transparent designs. Was it easy to make wireless earbuds with visible circuitry? The short answer is no. In fact, according to Thomas Howard, the teenager who helped design the Ear 1 and his vice-president of engineering design, making see-through products was nothing short of a huge pain in the ass. Watch this video if you don’t believe me.
But its founder, Karl Pei in particular, knows that intangibles have no price (literally or otherwise). Audio is just a facade for Nothing’s wireless earbuds to exist. Our mission is to foster a sense of coolness.
Sometimes that means breaking your back with which type of glue is the least noticeable. For ear sticks, the latest wireless earbuds, it means something else. It’s lipstick.
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beauty and the beat
Without a doubt, the first thing anyone notices about the Ear Stick is its charging case. Nothing’s Ear Stick is tubular. literally.
Nothing’s Ear Stick charging tube actually According to Pei, it’s lipstick-inspired, and if you’re wondering about its origins, it has a nice pop of red at the top to emphasize the point.
Not only is the tube shaped like a lipstick applicator, but it feels the same. Every time you twist the case to eject the earbuds, the action ends with a satisfying click. This ritual gives me enough dopamine to reconsider removing the bud. Who wouldn’t want to hear that click again?
The buds themselves look similar to the Ear 1, except without the silicone eartips. Instead of tips, the ear sticks have a smooth, bean-shaped shell that fits in your outer ear.
As someone who has repeatedly struggled to find chipless wireless earbuds that fit comfortably in my ears, I’m happy to report that the Ear Sticks stick well. even gave some intense shake flavors to the. Both my spinal cord and buds are intact.
(Note: Obviously, ear fit is a very personal thing, so what works for me may not work for everyone.)
it is intangible nothing effect.that is product.
In my opinion, the Ear Stick looks cool, just like the Ear 1. In a world filled with Apple’s ubiquitous stark white AirPods, the Ear Stick makes a visual statement. As an Ear 1 owner and advocate as well as a frequent user of New York City’s mass transit system, I know the Ear 1’s design makes for an interesting look. I think the Ear Stick does the same.
If you’re a fan of Nothing, you know Pei wants to change the way their products, and therefore yours, look and feel. That is the intangible Nothing effect. That’s the product.
But if you’re in the market for wireless earbuds, looks might not be enough. There’s nothing cool about the door, but you should be tech-savvy.
sound, battery, features
From a technical point of view, if there’s one thing you need to know about earsticks, it’s do not do Equipped with active noise canceling (ANC).
For some people, that would be a deal breaker, but for others it might not.As someone who’s been using the Ear 1 for over a year, I’d certainly go back to buds without ANC. But in the end, it’s your choice whether you can live without the buffer between you and the noisy New York City subway.
That said, using the Ear Stick, at least in my experience, does add a fair amount of ambient sound to my listening sessions. The lack of buffers appears to be partly by design. Unlike wireless earbuds with tips that fit snugly in your ear canals, there’s a lot of wiggle room for external sounds. About conversations with people in the room while listening to (albeit soft) music.
This is life without ANC. If you want more immersion, you’ll have to pay an additional $50 for the first-generation Ear 1, which was previously priced at the Ear Stick’s starting MSRP of $99.99. It’s the result of software updates that make the Ear 1 better than it was at launch.
Noisebleed doesn’t say anything about sound quality, but in my opinion it’s a good pair of earsticks for the price point. But for earsticks, quality is only half the appeal. You also get granularity thanks to Nothing’s companion app, Nothing X.
Via Nothing X, you can tune your wireless earbuds to boost treble, bass, and even your voice when chatting on the phone or on Zoom. If it’s even louder, you can customize the equalization yourself.
Nothing X’s creative UI (the blob-like controls shown above) is not only practical, it makes experimentation fun. Broken Social Scene may need a high frequency boost. Subtleties like this aren’t just a bonus, they’re what really give Nothing an edge.
The same level of whimsy creeps into the earstick’s new touch controls – or squeeze Control, I should say. Unlike the Ear 1 bud, which can be controlled by tapping the outside of the bud (which can be frustratingly detrimental), the Ear Stick can control volume with pause/play, skip songs, and various squeezes.
Give stem left or right to pause 1 Subtle squeeze; give a stem to skip to the next song or reject a call 2 squeeze; a triple Skip the pinch. a long Pinch the right stem to increase the volume, and pinch the left to decrease the volume.
At first, the pinch and squeeze commands just felt wrong. Why not tap? Better Instead of trashing the system? Needless to say, it was a little nerve-wracking to hold onto a device that was sometimes precariously stuck in my ear.
But within a few hours of using the earsticks, my anxiety actually turned into excitement. Once you get the hang of the new Squeeze lifestyle, the earsticks actually become like an extension of your body. If you’re hesitant about the Ear Stick’s squeeze control, we recommend waiting a bit. They’re like sprouting new limbs – weird, but potentially useful.
On a more practical level, the Ear Stick is solid hardware. After several Zoom calls, other participants reported that my audio was very clear. Battery life also seemed to exceed the Nothing’s reported spec of he seven hours outside the case. After about 4.5 hours of continuous use, Nothing X reported that the Ear Stick had about 50% battery left. I’m not saying that with a case the wireless earbuds will be formidable for 29 hours.
If you’re interested in all the tech specs, here it is:
specification:
- driver: 12.6mm dynamic
- Diaphragm: PEN (polyethylene naphthalate) and PU (polyurethane)
- Codec: AAC and SBC
- IP Rating: IP54 dustproof, waterproof and sweatproof
- charging: USB-C only (no wireless charging)
- battery: 7 hours outside the case, 29 hours in the case
Is cool worth the cost?
Designing something meaningful and unconventional is a dangerous game. This is true for any category of artist or engineer, but the consumer doubles him for those carving out the crowded world of technology.
Nothing, and Pei saw an opportunity in the marginal space of form and function and they took the leap. They now have three successful products that demonstrate their efforts. It’s a win for Nothing, but it’s also a win for everyone, like Pei, who looks to the vastness of product design in the tech industry and sees decline instead of progress.
The Ear Stick doesn’t revolutionize audio the way the Phone 1 didn’t go mobile from the top, but very, The important thing is that it is good, accessible and looks very cool.
If you only want a pair of wireless earbuds, that might not be a problem, but if you love technology and sometimes your everyday life can be magical, consider buying ear sticks as a down payment for your technology. please. A future that is as exciting as it is convenient.
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