Nothing's transparent Ear (1) ‘leaks’ out

Well, well, well. What do we have here? A day after Carl Pei’s Nothing announced the tech startup is partnering up with StockX for an early release of the first 100 units of its Ear (1) wireless earbuds on DropX, an image showing more of the product has surfaced.

StockX has officially (but unofficially) shared an image of the Ear (1)’s transparent case with a partial view of the earbuds. As leaker Ishan Agarwal made me aware: the image is actually the photo that appears when you share StockX’s press announcement.

“So, here is the image of the Case of the upcoming Ear-1 (showing the positioning of the earphones),” observes Twitter user Ayush Verma. “I guess, the white layer will hide the circuit and the battery of the case, as contact points to earphones are also coming from that white part only.”

This image of the case matches up with the teaser images that Nothing has shared and shows the Ear (1)’s design. It would appear Teenage Engineering’s transparent design won’t be fully see-through. This also makes me wonder: if the case is partially white and hides the circuitry, what about the Ear (1) buds themselves? How much of its design will be clear like the “Design Concept 1” that Nothing is aspiring to?

What we know about the Ear (1) — They have active noise-cancellation and three “high-definition” microphones. Nothing is launching the Ear (1) wireless earbuds on July 27. They will retail for $99.99. Retails like Selfridges and Flipkart will carry the Ear (1).

What we still don’t know about the Ear (1) — We still haven’t seen the full design. Nothing hasn’t shared information on how long the battery life is and how many charges the case will provide. No word on any Ear (1) app. Will the wireless earbuds support any kind of customization such as EQ settings? Will it support wireless charging? What about a “find my” feature if you misplace or lose the buds. There’s still so much we don’t know about the Ear (1).