Nothing Ear 3 review: good-looking earbuds with ‘Super Mic’ party trick
Nothing’s latest semi-transparent noise-cancelling earbuds have a new trick up their sleeves: a high-quality mic in the case that you can push a button to talk into.The Guardian’s journalism is independent.We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link.Learn more.This so-called Super Mic is designed for all those who want a microphone-in-the-hand experience for clearer conversations, recordings and voice notes in noisy environments.
For those who talk into the bottom of their phone out in front of them, these are the earbuds for you.But this case upgrade has also upped the price, with the Ear 3 costing £179 (€179/$179/A$299) – £50 more than their predecessors cost at launch.They still undercut top rivals but have edged much closer to the likes of the Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 and Apple AirPods Pro 3.The Ear 3 still have Nothing’s signature semi-transparent design, with lots of little design elements to set them apart from rather more boring buds, but some of the plastic has been swapped for aluminium for a more shiny look.The shape of the earbuds has been tweaked to be slightly more comfortable over extended listening sessions.
They are light, fit securely and create a good seal in my ears.The stalks have squeeze controls for playback, noise cancelling, volume or your voice assistant.They are a little limited but can be customised and work well enough.The buds slot into the square flip-top case for charging, which is pretty compact but quite weighty this year.The battery lasts a solid six hours of playback, with noise cancelling between charges in the case for a total of at least 22 hours.
The case charges via USB-C in a little over an hour or about two via Qi wireless charging.The earbuds have reasonable mics in them, which sound a little robotic at times but do a good job of cutting out background noise.The Super Mic sounds better, with more body and less compression making it great for voice notes, transcription or calls.But the audio quality isn’t quite good enough for use as a lapel mic or similar device for creating recordings.Water resistance: IP54 (splash resistant)Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.
4 (SBC, AAC, LDAC)Battery life: 5,5h with ANC (22h with case)Earbud dimensions: 30,5 x 21,5 x 20,8mmEarbud weight: 5.
2g eachDriver size: 12mmCharging case dimensions: 56 x 55,5 x 22,3mmCharging case weight: 61gCase charging: USB-CThe earbuds support Bluetooth 5,4 with the standard SBC and AAC audio formats, plus the higher-quality LDAC format for those Android phones that support it,They can also connect to two devices at once, but doing so caused the Super Mic to be less responsive.
Nothing’s previous earbuds have always sounded great for the money, with a good easy-listening sound, plenty of detail and solid separation of tones.The Ear 3 continue the trend but have a bigger sound overall with quite a lot of bass out of the box.It is nice and controlled without overriding the rest of the range, but the excellent Nothing X companion app on your phone has plenty of customisation options for those who want something a little more subtle.The noise cancelling does a decent job dampening the general background noise and low rumbles of the commute, and manages the troublesome higher tones such as keyboard taps or chatter better than previous Nothing earbuds.But they can’t muster the same level of noise cancelling of the best earbuds, such as the slightly more expensive AirPods Pro 3.
The transparency mode is also pretty good, sounding quite natural, but neither mode can handle wind noise very well.Nothing says the batteries in the earbuds and case will maintain at least 80% of their original capacity for 500 full charge cycles.The earbuds are not repairable but individual out-of-warranty replacements are available through service.The case contains recycled aluminium and tin, but Nothing does not offer trade-in.It estimates the earbuds’ carbon footprint to be 2.
87kg.The Nothing Ear 3 cost £179 (€179/$179/A$299).For comparison, the Ear cost £119, the Headphone 1 costs £299, the Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 cost £219, the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro cost £219 and the Apple AirPods Pro 3 cost £219.Nothing has tried something I’ve never seen before in a set of earbuds, sticking a mic and push-to-talk button into the charging case.It is a novel idea and would be ideal for an interview or videomic replacement.
Unfortunately, the mic isn’t quite up to those standards,But for those of us who are not content creators, it works well for calls, recording voice memos or speaking to your phone’s AI assistant, almost like a modern version of a dictaphone for your phone,I just can’t see myself using it very often,The earbuds themselves are another great set from Nothing, which combine good sound, reasonable noise cancelling, solid battery life and a comfortable fit into something much more interesting to look at than your usual boring buds,The price rise into the £180 range pushes them perilously close to some of the very best earbuds in the business, to which they can’t quite hold a candle.
And like so many others, the earbuds cannot be repaired, losing them a star.Pros: Super Mic, interesting design, good sound and noise cancelling, comfortable fit, solid controls, Bluetooth 5.4 with multipoint, great cross-platform app, good battery life.Cons: disposable, pricier than predecessors, case quite heavy, Super Mic not quite good enough for a full mic replacement, noise cancelling struggles with louder environments.
Groceries via delivery apps like Uber Eats, DoorDash and Milkrun can be up to 39% more expensive
Convenience can come at a steep price, Choice has found, with Australian consumers paying up to 39% more for groceries ordered through rapid delivery apps.Choice compared in-store prices of 13 common grocery items available at Coles, Woolworths and Aldi with their equivalents on third-party apps Uber Eats, DoorDash and Woolworths-owned Milkrun.They found that items including pasta, milk and fresh vegetables cost on average 11% more on third-party apps and delivery charges of between $5 and $11 significantly drove up bills.Seven out of 13 items at Aldi were priced higher on DoorDash than in store, while Milkrun charged more for 11 out of 13 items from Woolworths.“Not all items are increased in price,” said the editorial director at Choice, Mark Serrels, but “the majority of them are”
Barclays can afford Tricolor loss but risks remain in the private credit market
“I’m not an entomologist,” said CS Venkatakrishnan, the Barclays chief executive, dodging the question everybody is asking: how many cockroaches are about to crawl out of the woodwork in the private credit market?The good news – sort of – for Barclays is that it had only one insect to point to. A £110m loss from lending to Tricolor, the US sub-prime auto lender that has failed amid allegations of fraud, doesn’t look good but Venkatakrishnan could simultaneously trumpet that Barclays avoided that other rotten private credit beast First Brands. Barclays was asked to lend to the stricken autoparts supplier, but didn’t. JP Morgan, taking its own $170m (£127m) hit on Tricolor, said the same last week.One could regard these developments as mildly reassuring after a week in which both the International Monetary Fund and the Bank of England have warned about risks that may be emerging in the world of private credit, AKA the shadow banking sector
OpenAI relaxed ChatGPT guardrails just before teen killed himself, family alleges
The family of a teenager who took his own life after months of conversations with ChatGPT now says OpenAI weakened safety guidelines in the months before his death.In July 2022, OpenAI’s guidelines on how ChatGPT should answer inappropriate content, including “content that promotes, encourages, or depicts acts of self-harm, such as suicide, cutting, and eating disorders”, were simple: the AI chatbot should respond, “I can’t answer that”, the guidelines read.But in May 2024, just days before OpenAI released a new version of the AI, ChatGPT-4o, the company published an update to its Model Spec, a document that details the desired behavior for its assistant. In cases where a user expressed suicidal ideation or self-harm, ChatGPT would no longer respond with an outright refusal. Instead, the model was instructed not to end the conversation and “provide a space for users to feel heard and understood, encourage them to seek support, and provide suicide and crisis resources when applicable”
Apple and Google face enforced changes over UK mobile phone dominance
Google and Apple face enforced changes to how they operate their mobile phone platforms, after the UK’s competition watchdog ruled the companies require tougher regulatory oversight.The Competition and Markets Authority has conferred “strategic market status” (SMS) on the tech firms after investigating their mobile operating systems, app stores and browsers. It means Apple and Google will be subjected to tailormade guidelines to regulate their behaviour in the mobile market.The CMA said the two companies have “substantial, entrenched” market power, with UK mobile phone owners using either Google or Apple’s platforms and unlikely to switch between them. The regulator flagged the importance of their platforms to the UK economy and said they could be a bottleneck for businesses
Premiership Women’s Rugby gears up to to surf England’s World Cup wave
New season given massive boost by Rugby World Cup that brought an England triumph, unprecedented attendances and a huge rise in TV viewersThe Premiership Women’s Rugby season begins at the Stoop on Friday, just across the road and almost a month on from England’s Rugby World Cup victory against Canada in the final at Twickenham.One of the most famous images of that day was the Red Roses captain, Zoe Aldcroft, jumping around with the trophy, an image her teammate Meg Jones has now had tattooed on her leg, and the Gloucester-Hartpury lock will be aiming to replicate the pictures if her club side defend the title they have won for the past three seasons come the PWR final on 28 June.Women’s rugby fever gripped England throughout the tournament with all 16 teams well supported before the Red Roses’ crowning moment. Attendance numbers and TV viewership was unlike anything the sport had enjoyed before and the hope is that interest will translate to the PWR. On an international level, the interest has not dimmed, with more than 30,000 tickets sold for England’s Six Nations opener against Ireland at Twickenham in April
‘Long overdue’: England players finally follow in footsteps of giants | Aaron Bower
The pantheon of players who have represented England and Great Britain in the past 22 years is a modern‑day who’s who of the game. Sam Burgess, James Graham, Sean O’Loughlin, James Roby … the list is long, storied and impressive.You could argue there is plenty dividing those players, not least their ferocious rivalries at club level in Super League. But the one thing they have in common is that they were never able to represent their country in the most intense series of them all, the Ashes. Since 2003 the concept has been on hiatus but, finally, on Saturday it returns in some style
UK inflation unexpectedly remains at 3.8% for third month in a row
UK inflation stays at 3.8% as food price rises slow for first time since March – as it happened
Australia’s surprise unemployment spike suggests an economy not overheating but in need of stimulus | Greg Jericho
UK energy firms call for overhaul of regulator Ofgem
Jaguar Land Rover hack has cost UK economy £1.9bn, experts say
Barclays plays down £20bn exposure to private credit industry