Nothing unveils a thriftier take on its trendy transparent headphones

Nothing is following up on the success of its first foray into the noise cans business with a set of budget-friendly headphones.

Arriving alongside the new Nothing Phone 4a, the Headphones (a) combine the cheap price of the CMF Headphones Pro with the luxury-grade looks of the Headphones 1.

As with the former, there’s a range of colourful variants on offer. Then, like the latter, there’s a throwback transparent design and a set of robust physical keys that are used to control playback. This time around, you can even use one of the buttons to remotely control the camera shutter on your smartphone.

More often than not, it feels like the pitch here is that you can get the eye-catching looks of the Headphones 1 at a more affordable price-point. On the inside, the Headphones (a) boast a set of 40mm drivers. The over-ear headphones come with integrated active noise cancellation, support for LDAC, Hi-Res, and spatial audio. 

According to Nothing, the Headphones (a) will offer around 135 hours of playback with ANC enabled on a single charge. If accurate, that's a pretty impressive figure. 

The Headphones (a) are also decently durable (with an IP52 rating for water and dust damage) and relatively lightweight at just 310g. Nothing's new nifty noise-cancelling cans also play nice with all the usual fast pairing standards across both Android and Windows. 

In Australia, the Headphones (a) will be available at a recommended retail price of $329 from 13 March 2026.