Nothing Headphone (1) Pro Lands at $399 With Half a Case

The Nothing Headphone (1) Pro goes on sale September 29, 2026 at $399 with three drivers in each cup and claimed 46 dB noise cancelling. UK store pricing is £349, with stock on nothing.tech, Amazon, and Best Buy in the United States and Canada, in black or white.

The leftover miss is a hardshell that leaves the headband in the open, while the company’s own Headphone (a) still lists at $199 with more than twice the ANC runtime.

A Triple-Driver Cup Behind 9H Glass

Last year’s Headphone (1) used one 40 mm dynamic driver and Sound by KEF tuning. The Pro splits the job. A 40 mm bass unit, a 13 × 8 mm precision driver, and a 3.2 × 6.0 × 1.15 mm xMEMS treble chip sit behind a glass window on each aluminum cup, which is the layout laid out in the triple-driver Headphone (1) Pro specs.

THE THREE DRIVERS IN EACH CUP

• Bass unit: A 40 mm dynamic driver with a PET metal-ceramic dome and PEEK plus PU surround, rated for 15% more punch and 26% more sensitivity than the old single driver.
• Precision unit: A 13 × 8 mm dynamic driver with a PEN diaphragm aimed at vocals, especially hard “S” and “T” sounds between 5 kHz and 15 kHz.
• Treble chip: An xMEMS solid-state driver with a silicone diaphragm Nothing says is 95 times stiffer than plastic, covering 10 kHz to 40 kHz.

Most over-ears still ask one cone to do bass, mids, and sparkle. The solid-state MEMS tweeter design is voltage-driven, so it can move faster than a coil, which is why Nothing parked it on the top end and left punch to the 40 mm. Frequency response is 20 Hz to 40,000 Hz. Wireless and USB-C listening are Hi-Res certified, with USB-C lossless up to 24-bit/192 kHz and the 3.5 mm jack up to 24-bit/96 kHz.

A week of listening on Scorpions, Lindsey Stirling, and Pantera found no missing bands, a mid-heavy Flat EQ, and thin bass until the app equalizer moved. The glass is 9H Panda Glass. New titanium-alloy arms are 45% lighter than the Headphone (1) arms, though the full pair still weighs 327 g against 329 g for the original.

Metropolis Studios Replaces the KEF Tune

KEF’s badge is gone. London’s Metropolis Studios now supplies the “pro” layer: a Flat EQ switch, a Studio B spatial mode copied from that mixing room, and five genre curves in the Nothing X app. Official names are Neo-Jazz, Rock, UK Rap + Grime, Electronica, and Bass. Spatial modes include Standard, Live House, Club, Concert Hall, and Studio B, with head tracking.

Flat EQ is the physical tell. The switch sits inside the left cup. Flip it and the pair drops to a neutral profile and cuts transparency, spatial audio, and other EQ. That is the mix-check tool. For daily listening, the same week of notes preferred the app’s parametric EQ over the switch, because Flat EQ pulled air out of the top.

Simple EQ is three bands. Advanced lets you drag points and even treat the precision driver as its own set of bands. Explore is a community library that was still thin before launch. Personal Sound runs a hearing test and writes a curve for your ears. You do not need a Nothing phone for the app on iOS or Android; ChatGPT on the programmable button is the main thing that stays tied to Nothing’s own handsets.

NOTHING’S OVER-EAR RUN

1. July 2025: Headphone (1) ships at $299 with a single 40 mm driver, Sound by KEF, and up to 42 dB ANC.
2. March 2026: Headphone (a) ships at $199 with a 40 mm titanium-coated driver, up to 40 dB ANC, and up to 75 hours with ANC on.
3. September 29, 2026: Headphone (1) Pro ships at $399 with three drivers, Metropolis tools, and up to 46 dB ANC.

The original Headphone (1) is still on the US store at $299, so the Pro is a premium rung, not a replacement. Reviewers of that first pair kept saying the KEF tune ran dark and needed EQ. The Pro is the reply, with a studio name on the presets instead of a speaker brand on the cup.

Why the Case Leaves the Headband Bare

In the box you get the headphones, a hardshell case with strap loops, a 3.5 mm cable, a USB-C cable, and a quick-start guide. There is no lanyard. There is no slot for the cables. The molded shell covers the cups and lets the headband stick out, which turns the carry into a small hard purse with a hoop on top.

WHAT THE CASE ACTUALLY WEIGHS

• Headphones: 327 g, 190.2 mm high, 174.4 mm wide, 78.0 mm deep.
• Hardshell: 383.5 g, 228.5 mm high, 123.0 mm wide, 53.0 mm deep, so the empty case is 56.5 g heavier than the pair it holds.
• Padding: Dual-layer cushions Nothing says are 50% softer than Headphone (1), with a 10% wider headband and 12% thicker padding, plus an 8 mm silicone baffle wall.

Softer pads help glasses and long wear. They also leak more outside noise, which showed up on a trans-Pacific flight with turbulence even with the new baffle in place. Two tether points sit on the shell if you bring your own strap. For a company that treats industrial design as the product, leaving the most visible part of the frame uncovered is a strange miss, and the cables still live in a pocket somewhere else.

The $399 Pair Meets a $199 Sibling

Nothing is asking Sony-and-Bose money. That shelf is already noisy, with Sony’s own XM4C reboot price sitting in a messy stack against older XM5 stock. The sharper comparison is in-house. The Pro costs $100 more than Headphone (1) and $200 more than the Headphone (a) at $199.

THREE NOTHING OVER-EARS AT LIST

Both the Pro and the (a) use a 1,060 mAh cell. The cheaper pair is rated for 135 hours with ANC off and 75 hours with it on. The flagship is rated for 68 hours off and 30 hours on, or 53 and 28 hours with LDAC. Five minutes on USB-C gives the Pro 4 hours with ANC off and 2 hours with it on. The (a) turns the same five minutes into 8 hours off and 5 hours on. On September 22, Amazon had the white Headphone (a) at $139, a 30% cut from list, a week before the Pro opened at full price.

Nothing is already cutting other audio, with the Ear (3a) already selling at $79. Glass cups, the Flat EQ switch, 9H windows, and the extra mics are the $200 delta. Hands-on notes still called the (a) the better overall value, and the battery sheet agrees.

ANC Hits 46 dB With 10 Mics

Nothing calls this its strongest cancelling. Ten microphones do the work, three feed-forward and two feedback per side, with real-time adaptive ANC that watches both the room and the cup seal. The claimed ceiling is 46 dB, a lab maximum, against 42 dB on Headphone (1) and 40 dB on Headphone (a). Transparency is meant to keep voices natural.

A week with the pair found a solid bubble that still sat short of flagship Sony and Bose isolation. Side tone, the faint sound of your own voice, was almost gone in transparency, which is hard to pull off. Wind is the surprise. At 22 miles per hour on a scooter, ANC swallowed gusts that usually wreck over-ears. Transparency let that wind straight in. The same notes warn against riding with cancelling on, because you need the street.

Bluetooth is 6.1 with dual-device pairing, Google Fast Pair, Microsoft Swift Pair, Apple instant setup, auto-wear detection, low-latency mode, and Auracast broadcast using LC3. IP52 covers dust and light spray after what Nothing calls 50,000-plus test rounds. Calls use a four-mic algorithm trained on 30 million scenarios. Carbon footprint is listed at 18.3 kg CO2e, with 99% plastic-free packaging.

V Joins as Global Brand Ambassador

On September 28, 2026, Nothing posted the launch film and named V of BTS as global brand ambassador. Founder and CEO Carl Pei followed with stills from a Seoul shoot, tying the Pro to an artist he said works by experiment. The ambassador film is doing the selling. The case and the $199 sibling are not.

I’m excited to be part of this bold new chapter with Nothing. Headphone (1) Pro feels true to how I create, with a design grounded in creative expression. I look forward to our journey together.

V, Global Brand Ambassador, Nothing launch post

Introducing Headphone (1) Pro
w/ Global Brand Ambassador V

Our most ambitious audio project brings studio-grade tools to everyday listening. Headphone (1) Pro has a triple driver architecture for deeper bass, textured vocals and richer instruments. Our strongest Active Noise… pic.twitter.com/T75LNB421c

— Nothing (@nothing) September 28, 2026

Nothing’s copy puts the pair in the mixing room, on a train, and in a bedroom. That is a wide brief for one $399 SKU. Early hands-on already asks who needs Metropolis presets and an xMEMS tweeter when the (a) already covers the commute. The film answers with a famous face, not with a full case.

Physical Controls Still Beat the App

The right cup is a control deck. A physical power switch, USB-C, and a 3.5 mm jack sit on the bottom. A roller sets volume, clicks for play and pause, and long-presses to jump between ANC and transparency. A paddle skips tracks, seeks, and handles calls. A customizable button can fire an assistant, a camera shutter, or other app jobs. Bluetooth pairing hides on the inside of the cup. The new Flat EQ switch is the only control on the left.

That cluster is a gift if you are right-handed and a reach if you are not. The app still will not let you remap much of it. The hardware is the best part of living with the pair, because you can ride volume and tracks without unlocking a phone, and the clicks have actual travel. Dual-layer pads take the clamp down versus Headphone (1), which helps on long sessions even if isolation gives a little back.

Codecs are AAC, SBC, and LDAC for music, with LC3 reserved for broadcast. Full charge takes 2 hours. Talk time is up to 40 hours with ANC off and 33 hours with it on. The open question at $399 is not whether the cups sound finished. It is whether glass, a studio switch, and a celebrity film are worth $200 over a sibling that already had the buttons and the battery, while the headband still rides outside the shell on September 29, 2026.