Nothing’s new Headphone a brings you the best of the Headphone 1 for $199

By Pranob Mehrotra Published March 5, 2026

Alongside its latest mid-rangers, the Phone 4a and Phone 4a Pro, Nothing today unveiled a new pair of affordable headphones. Dubbed Headphone a, the new model derives its design from the more expensive Headphone 1 but drops Nothing’s signature transparent look for a simpler, yet colorful finish on the earcups.

Priced at $199, the Headphone a aims to bring premium features to a more budget-friendly bracket, undercutting its flagship sibling by $100 without sacrificing much. The headline feature here is battery life, with Nothing claiming that the headphones can deliver up to 135 hours of continuous playback with ANC turned off.

Charging is equally impressive, with a quick five-minute charge reportedly delivering up to five hours of playback. The over-ear cans adopt many of the same controls as the Headphone 1, including a roller, paddle, and multifunction button built into the earcups for volume adjustment, track changes, ANC mode switching, and more.

Under the hood, the Headphone a feature 40mm titanium-coated drivers and LDAC support for high-res wireless audio streaming over Bluetooth. The headphones also offer adjustable ANC with multiple presets and a transparency setting, along with a triple microphone setup that uses AI-based noise reduction to isolate the user’s voice in noisy environments.

The companion Nothing X app allows for manual audio tuning with an 8-band equalizer and sharing custom presets with the Nothing community via QR codes. The Headphone a is available for pre-order today with retail sales starting March 13. At launch, the headphones will be available in white, black, and pink finishes, with a limited-edition yellow version arriving on April 6.