Nothing now sells three over-ear headphones spaced exactly $100 apart, and the newest of them, the Headphone (1) Pro that went on sale in the US on 29 September for $399, has an awkward problem that has little to do with Sony or Bose. Its closest competition comes from Nothing’s own shelf, where the original Headphone (1) launched at $299 in July 2025 and the Headphone (a), launched in March, costs $199 while promising roughly twice the Pro’s battery life whether noise cancelling is on or off.
That makes the useful question less about whether the Pro is good, which early reviews broadly agree it is, and more about what each extra $100 actually buys. Answering it means separating the numbers Nothing publishes from the ones reviewers have measured, because the Pro wins most comparisons on paper and gives some of that ground back once people start carrying it around.
Nothing’s Three Over-Ear Headphones Side by Side
The Headphone (1) Pro is Nothing’s most capable over-ear headphone on paper, with three drivers per ear cup and 46 dB of noise cancelling, but it has shorter rated battery life and a heavier case than the cheaper Headphone (1). The table below uses Nothing’s official figures unless a note says otherwise.
| Headphone (1) Pro | Headphone (1) | Headphone (a) | |
| US list price | $399 | $299 | $199 |
| UK list price | £349 | £299 | £149 |
| On sale | 29 Sept 2026 | 15 July 2025 | 13 March 2026 |
| Drivers | 40mm dynamic + 13 x 8mm dynamic + xMEMS | 40mm dynamic | 40mm dynamic, titanium-coated |
| Tuning credit | Metropolis Studios | KEF | None named |
| Max noise cancelling | 46 dB | 42 dB | 40 dB |
| Battery, ANC on | 30 hours | 35 hours | about 75 hours (reported) |
| Battery, ANC off | 68 hours | 80 hours | 135 hours |
| Weight | 327g | 329g | 310g |
| Carry case | Hard case, 383.5g (measured) | Case, 264g | Drawstring bag |
| Bluetooth | 6.1 | 5.3 | 5.4 |
Two things stand out before any listening test. The flagship has the shortest rated battery life of the three, so it loses to both cheaper siblings on the spec most people notice after the first week of ownership. The UK pricing also tells a different story from the US one, since the Pro costs only £50 more than the Headphone (1) in Britain, compared with a $100 gap in the US.
What the Extra $100 Buys on Paper
The biggest change is the driver setup. According to the specifications reported by Popular Science, each ear cup splits the frequency range across three drivers, with the 40mm dynamic driver covering 20 Hz to 10 kHz, a smaller 13 x 8mm dynamic driver handling 5 kHz to 15 kHz, and an xMEMS solid-state driver taking everything from 10 kHz up to 40 kHz. The Headphone (1) and Headphone (a) both rely on a single 40mm driver to cover the whole range.
The xMEMS part is worth putting in context, because it is the detail most launch coverage leads with. Silicon MEMS drivers are not new to headphones, and xMEMS has been pitching them to over-ear makers since at least 2024 before publishing a dedicated headphone architecture in September 2025. Nothing uses the part only for the treble, while conventional dynamic drivers still carry the bass and mids.
Noise cancelling moves up to 46 dB from the Headphone (1)’s 42 dB, using ten microphones in total, and Nothing says the Pro delivers 5 dB stronger average noise reduction over a frequency range 40% broader than its predecessor. The rest of the upgrade is spread across build and features, since the Pro adds titanium to the aluminium frame and replaces plastic accents with 9H Panda Glass, widens the headband by 10%, moves to Bluetooth 6.1 with LC3 support, offers five head-tracked spatial audio modes and plays Hi-Res audio over USB-C at up to 24-bit/192 kHz.
The partnership behind the tuning has changed as well. The Headphone (1) carries “Sound by KEF” branding, with KEF describing the 40mm driver as engineered in partnership with the British speaker company, whereas the Pro’s launch materials credit Metropolis Studios instead, and none of the coverage we checked mentions KEF at all. Metropolis contributed a physical Flat EQ switch for checking mixes, a Studio B spatial audio mode modelled on one of its rooms and five genre EQ presets built around British music. Lowyat reported the switch from KEF directly, but Nothing has not explained why the KEF credit was dropped, so the reason should not be read into the change.
What the Headphone (1) Pro Gives Up
The Headphone (1) Pro is rated for 30 hours with noise cancelling on, five hours less than the $299 Headphone (1), despite a larger 1,060mAh battery. SoundGuys called this the Pro’s odd compromise, noting that its own testing of the original Headphone (1) reached roughly 43 hours with ANC on, well above the 35-hour rating. With ANC off the gap widens to 68 hours against 80, and the Headphone (a)’s 135-hour rating sits in a different category altogether.
The quick-charge figure follows the same direction. KEF’s product page lists five hours of playback from a five-minute charge on the Headphone (1), and SoundGuys reported the same claim for the Headphone (a), while MusicTech lists two hours from five minutes on the Pro. We have found that Pro figure in only one source so far, so it should be treated as provisional until Nothing’s own spec sheet confirms it.
Nothing has not said why the Pro lasts less, and it is reasonable to suspect that powering three drivers and ten microphones costs more energy than one driver and a smaller microphone array. That remains a hypothesis rather than an explanation, however, and it is the first question worth putting to Nothing.
Weight is a wash on the headphones themselves, at 327g for the Pro against 329g for the Headphone (1), but the case is another matter. TechRadar weighed the Pro’s hard shell at 383.5g, bringing the carrying weight to about 710g, whereas KEF lists the Headphone (1)’s case at 264g. Both TechRadar and T3 singled the case out as the Pro’s biggest flaw, and SlashGear added that it leaves the headband exposed and has no space for cables.
What Early Reviews Found
The tested differences are narrower than the spec sheet suggests. TechRadar gave the Pro four out of five, describing a neutral sound with detailed treble and noise cancelling that is clearly better than earlier Nothing models, though it also called the battery middling and, when setting the Pro against the Headphone (a), judged the sonic improvement too small to justify an extra $200. SlashGear recommended the Pro but reached a similar conclusion about the Headphone (a), and it found the tuning leaned towards the mids and the noise cancelling very good without matching Sony or Bose flagships.
T3 heard better separation and detail than on the Headphone (1) but described the gap as modest, still considered the original excellent value, and ended up preferring Sennheiser’s Momentum 5 Wireless in the same price bracket, a model Memeburn covered in its Momentum 5 price and specs breakdown. Across three reviews, then, the consistent finding is that the Pro sounds and cancels noise better than the Headphone (1), but not by enough to make the older model feel outdated.
Where the Headphone (a) Fits
The Headphone (a) is the model that makes this comparison uncomfortable for the Pro. It costs $199, £149 or €159, weighs 310g, supports LDAC and Bluetooth 5.4 and carries the same IP52 rating as the Pro, while Gearnews puts its battery at about 75 hours with ANC on and 135 hours with it off, figures TechRadar said looked realistic in its own time with the headphones.
The savings come from somewhere, and they are easy to identify. Noise cancelling tops out at 40 dB rather than 46 dB, there is no KEF or studio tuning credit, spatial audio is fixed rather than head-tracked, and the headphones ship with a drawstring bag instead of a case. Nothing also gave the Headphone (a) an AI-based bass enhancement aimed at younger listeners, and TechRadar found its sound more energetic than the Pro’s.
Which Nothing Headphone Should You Buy?
Based on the published specifications and the early reviews so far, rather than our own testing, the three models sort fairly cleanly by what a buyer values most:
- The Headphone (a) at $199 suits anyone who cares most about battery life and price, since it runs more than twice as long as the Pro with ANC on and costs half as much, provided a bass-forward sound and a softer bag are acceptable.
- The Headphone (1) at $299 remains the middle choice for listeners who want KEF-tuned sound, a lighter case and longer rated battery than the Pro, and T3 still rates it as strong value after the Pro’s launch.
- The Headphone (1) Pro at $399 makes sense for people who will use what only it offers, namely the three-driver setup, the stronger noise cancelling and the Flat EQ switch with its Metropolis studio modes, and who can live with shorter battery life and a bulky case.
For buyers whose priority is simply the strongest noise cancelling at this level, TechRadar pointed to Sony’s WH-1000XM6 at $449, which weighs 254g and remains the ANC benchmark in its category. More options sit in Memeburn’s list of the best over-ear headphones for 2026.
Nothing has built a sensible ladder, but the Pro sits on its top rung without making the rungs beneath it look worse, and until the case and battery issues are addressed, the $199 and $299 models remain the more complete purchases for most people.
FAQs
What is the difference between Nothing Headphone (1) Pro and Headphone (1)?
The Nothing Headphone (1) Pro adds three drivers per ear cup including an xMEMS treble driver, raises noise cancelling from 42 dB to 46 dB with ten microphones, and adds a Flat EQ switch and studio listening modes developed with Metropolis Studios. It costs $100 more and is rated for 30 hours with ANC on, against 35 hours for the Headphone (1).
Does the Nothing Headphone (1) Pro have better battery life than the Headphone (1)?
No. Nothing rates the Headphone (1) Pro for 30 hours with ANC on and 68 hours with it off, while the Headphone (1) is rated for 35 and 80 hours, even though the Pro has a 1,060mAh battery.
Is the Nothing Headphone (1) Pro still tuned by KEF?
The Headphone (1) Pro’s launch materials credit Metropolis Studios rather than KEF, whereas the original Headphone (1) carried Sound by KEF branding. Nothing has not explained the change.
Is the Nothing Headphone (a) better than the Headphone (1) Pro?
The Nothing Headphone (a) has far longer battery life and costs half as much, but the Headphone (1) Pro has stronger noise cancelling, more detailed sound according to reviewers, head-tracked spatial audio where the Headphone (a) only offers a fixed mode, and a hard case. Early reviews from TechRadar and SlashGear found the Pro’s sound improvement too small to justify the $200 difference for most buyers.
How much does the Nothing Headphone (1) Pro cost?
The Nothing Headphone (1) Pro costs $399 in the US and £349 in the UK, and it went on sale on 29 September 2026 through Nothing’s website, Amazon and Best Buy.
The post Nothing Headphone (1) Pro vs Headphone (1) vs Headphone (a): Is the $399 Model Worth the Jump? appeared first on Memeburn.