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Nothing ear (2) upgrade to LHDC 5.0 teased ahead of launch

The ear (2) buds are on the way. (Source: Nothing)
The ear (2) buds are on the way. (Source: Nothing)
Nothing's second-gen flagship TWS earbuds now have a week to go before their (March 22, 2023) launch. However, their OEM's CEO, Carl Pei, has gone ahead and announced a selection of potentially significant spec upgrades over their ear (1) predecessor. One applies to the buds' sound quality, whereas the other might affect their durability.
Accessory Audio Leaks / Rumors Wearable Software

LHDC 5.0 is definitely going mainstream in the consumer audio space, with the Nothing ear (2) buds now officially backed to join the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 and Xiaomi Buds 4 in supporting the up-to-date codec.

Nothing (and, ironically, former OnePlus) head Carl Pei has just completed an interview with Forbes about his second brand, partially to hype this upcoming ear (2) upgrade. Official support for LHDC 5.0 might indeed confer "audio quality" bragging rights over the (1)s; then again, its potential advantages may depend on support on other ends of the listening experience.

On that note, Pei did mention to Forbes that "I told the Spotify team they need to hurry up on their LHDC road map.” The ear (2) buds could be mistaken for their predecessors based on allegedly leaked renders; however, Pei's additional revelation of their switch to IP54 ingress protection, which has "allowed [Nothing] to improve the water resistance of the earbuds", as opposed to the ear (1)s' IPX4 rating, implies at least slight differences in build after all.

On that note, the company itself has also recently taken to its Twitter account to announce that it has expanded the team of "experts" responsible for the ear (2) buds' production by 30%, to include "an architecture engineer and tooling expert", and have tested their pairing with "over 120 smartphones and laptops", compared to 70 for their predecessors.

Buy some ear (1) buds in black on Amazon.

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> Notebook / Laptop Reviews and News > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2023 03 > Nothing ear (2) upgrade to LHDC 5.0 teased ahead of launch
Deirdre O'Donnell, 2023-03-15 (Update: 2023-03-15)