Nothing Phone (1): A Little Dope, A Little Different

It’s Sick. It’s Wild – And – A little Dope to see a phone made of a transparent back, easily scratching that nerdy itch to see exactly what’s going on under the chassis.

An illuminating glyph on the back unlocks truly silent and personal notifications, and flashing ringtones, drumming up the excitement around this new device.

And, yes, this is the Nothing phone (1): the first phone from a tech start-up from the minds behind the OnePlus and led by the relentless CEO Carl Pei. This is the same brand and title that gave us a little unique Nothing Ear 1 earbuds.

Nothing Phone (1): A Little Dope, A Little Different

So, I decided to follow up. And, I did as a matter of fact. Like for the Nothing Phone 1 specs, I skimmed over GSMArena and other sources likewise. I learned that fans have shown that they are willing to pay thousands more than the expected price tag after 100 devices were put for auction ahead of launch.

But, why are those fanatically determined people willing to pay beyond for what is expected to be basically a capable mid-tier smartphone that seems to be going up against the iPhone, the full specifications and features of which the company has been pretty tight-lipped.

Nothing Phone (1): A Little Dope, A Little Different

It’s all about the hype. To be more realistically precise. It’s the drip. It’s like that dopamine rush that wants us to buy the amazing-looking phone, with a glyph interface, crazy lighting rig around the back, LEDs that work as charging indicators, highlighting unread notifications, or flashing in time with ringtones.

We need you to understand this much-hyped and anticipated release of the year and learn about a handful of Nothing Phone (1) credible leaks and speculations covering mostly the design and hardware, the Nothing Phone 1 software, specifications, and US reliability, and the release date and price.

The Design Is Chic & Wild. But, Reassuring

The first thing that I noticed is that this phone has a transparent back. You can see right through it and you can see the very unique white aesthetic going on there. You got the white wireless charging coils, some white ribbon cables, even the screws are aesthetically matched to this whole look and there’s a whole bunch of metal plates that are textured and patterned and it is wrapped with aluminum frame and you can see the phone 1 printed on to the side of it.

Nothing Phone (1): white front and back

The lights on the back are what you can call the ultimate notification LED. You won’t see this very much in any of the smartphones, but when you do, it is so nice to have a subtle little-looking glowing LED that can tell if you have a new phone call, a text message, or a new tweet which is sick. Right? It also lights up and glows when you are wireless charging or reverse wireless charging which is nice after all.

They call it the glyph lights and if you put the phone down it will flicker for a little bit to kind of flex the lighting system. So there are over 900 LEDs making up a pattern across the whole back of the phone, around the dual cameras, around the wireless charging pad in the middle, and some stripes up into the corner and then down by the charging port at the bottom.

The lights on this lighting system are not RGBs. They’re just plain white LEDs. However, the coloring of the lights is slightly inconsistent on the strips with a greenish tint on the hump and down lower are pinkish.

This is actually called ‘tint lottery.’ as it’s very hard to produce white LEDs with consistent color temperatures.

The frosting has been done nicely and with what they call a Glyph interface, they have a bunch of cool features that serve a real functionality.

Nothing Phone (1): black front and back

First of all, it does light up and can serve as a light charging indicator.

Uh, you can also use it as a notification system with custom light patterns and there’s also the ability to link the lighting to the ringtone. There are 10 ringtones that are default. So, you can know who’s calling you just by looking at it.

The entire Glyph interface can light up at once as a fill light for the cameras and the white color technology is so clean that for some closeups or darker rooms this can actually make a difference versus the normal flash that is on the back of the phone. In addition to this, there is a blinking red light on the back which is a recording indicator for when you’re recording videos.

Nothing Phone 1 features a left-aligned punch-hole dual rear camera directly next to a microphone and flashlight. Plus, there appear to be three buttons on the sides—two on one side (volume buttons) and one on the other (power button). Moving on to the front display and you’ll see the even bezel around it and the top side and bottom bezel – all relatively thin and even and this is very uncommon for all mid-tier phones.

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With a camera cutout in the top left corner, a large display, slim bezels, rounded corners, and a unique design flair Nothing Phone (1) has the acquaintance of the most modern flagships.

Nothing Phone (1) Has Established Its Own Ecosystem

Nothing Phone 1 runs on NothingOS which basically uses Android as its core. However, Nothing 1 has promised to top it with its Nothing OS skin. The genius Carl Pei is adamant about the claim that the Nothing 1 will effortlessly connect and integrate Nothing products and products from other world-leading brands.

Nothing Phone (1): OS

To spice things up, Nothing has released its Nothing Launcher to the PlayStore. This will let you explore the Nothing Phone 1 exciting features. For example, the support for custom icons, different sizes for app icons and folders, and multiple layout options.

Furthermore, with its dot-based widgets and the established black and white design language, and by unifying the graphics, Nothing says that NothingOS will be the best of the Android combined especially with its iconic design language. Take the dot and matrix clock for example – it appears in the same place across the lock screen, the launcher, and the always-on display.

Nothing phone 1 Specifications

We don’t yet know the full detailed specs of Nothing Phone 1, however, what we know so far is its Snapdragon chip, perhaps the flagship-grade Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. The Nothing Chief has proclaimed that its first phone comes armed with the Snapdragon 778G+ chipset.

This is a mid-tier chip but it’s been modified to support wireless charging and reverse wireless charging. But, the stance the company’s taken on this chip is that they chose it because it’s a balance between performance and energy consumption and costs.

But, there’s this conversation I am seeing online, especially on Twitter where people are like, they should’ve chosen a more powerful chip, a more expensive chip to put inside this device but after spending and thinking a little bit about this, I really think if they’d put a more expensive chip in here, it would have gone in the opposite direction of what they’re trying to do.

The Nothing Phone (1) delivers faster and smoother performance through the optimal processing power and RAM that users need. As for the hardware part, the display is assumed to be a 6.55-inch OLED, with a resolution of 1080 x 2400 and a 120Hz smooth OLED display that adorns the front. Though, this has not been officially declared and confirmed.

According to a leak from TechDroider, the Phone 1 will feature a 6.55-inch OLED display that can display up to a 2400 x 1080p resolution. Based on the renders we’ve seen so far, the smartphone will feature a singular “hole punch” front-facing camera in the top center of the display.

According to further Nothing Phone 1 leaks, the camera system could be a 50MP primary and an unspecified 8MP secondary.

Also, a 32MP camera is supposed to take care of selfies. Similarly, a 4,500 mAh battery with 45W fast charging is quite enough to shoot off its users.

Which Country is Nothing Phone (1) Available?

It is sad to see that Nothing Phone 1 is not available in the United States. Carl Pei’s explanation for this is that Nothing phone in the US would be too difficult for their first launch in the US as they do not have the types of relationships required to get a new smartphone off the ground.

In contrast, Nothing Phone 1 will be exclusive to Europe and Asia. This is because Nothing has “strong partnerships with leading local carriers” in the European and Asian regions. While this is disappointing for anyone in the U.S. who wanted to get their hands on Phone 1, Pei is of the belief that future Nothing smartphone releases will eventually be readily available in the U.S.

For instance, Nothing Phone 1 launch date in India is yet to be launched. Based on unofficial preliminary specifications and speculations Nothing Phone ( 1 price) in India is expected to be somewhere near 40,000. Maybe under 40K INR.

Nothing Phone (1)’s Amazon Germany listing has revealed the European price and storage options.

The Phone (1) will come in three variants:

  1. 8GB/128GB priced at EUR 470
  2. 8GB/256GB model at EUR 500, and;
  3. 12GB/256GB unit at EUR 550.

However, the device will be manufactured in India and will cost less in the country. Nothing Phone (1) comes in Black and White color options.

Mobiledokan which is a trusted mobile phone info website in Bangladesh, the price of Nothing Phone 1 is BDT. 50,000. It also reveals other Nothing Phone specifications that you can read on their website.

Nothing Phone 1 Reveal Event Will Take Place on July 12

While the event date stirs up excitement among the users, the official Nothing Phone 1 launch date is still unknown. Despite the piecemeal information on the Nothing Phone, Nothing recently announced that fans are able to sign up for the chance to pre-order the hyped smartphone before it officially goes on sale. You can use Nothing Phone (1 website) to sign up for a special Nothing Phone 1 invite to pre-order your favorite and deserved Nothing Phone.

Nothing has also stated that Phone 1 is going to be in limited supply for some reason. Perhaps, it is a strategy to get their phones in the hands of the people who really want them most. While many are terribly waiting for Phone 1, Nothing is at its max going out in a final push to market the Phone 1 before its July 12 reveal.

How to Get an Invite for Nothing Phone (1)?

Getting a Nothing Phone 1 invite is simple. All you need to do is to log into your account on the Nothing website or register yourself to join the waiting list. For this, you will be asked to log in with Google, Apple or Nothing account. While registering, make sure the email ID is the same as the one used to register on Flipkart or any other platform of your choice.

Once your turn arrives, the company will mail you the pre-order Nothing Phone 1 pass for the smartphone. However, at the time of registration, you would have to pay INR 2,000, which will be deducted at the time of buying the handset. The pre-order Nothing Phone 1 pass will allow you to purchase your device via Flipkart before others. It is worth adding that the company is not giving any codes for the Nothing Phone 1 pre-order. You just have to wait for your turn and the Nothing Phone (1) pass will be mailed to you.

I’ve mentioned a link here where you can read the full way on how I can now register for the Nothing phone (1) Pre-Order Pass.

Still, this anticipation has its sinking moments and the decision gets even harder when purchasing a new phone that still has so many big unknowns in so many areas. This is even fortified when Carl Pei makes a blunt claim that Nothing is moving forward to take on Apple.

Planning to Take on a $2 Trillion Giant is Frickin’ Absurd

We wish and wait for the new and ambitious tech startup to thrive and succeed. But, planning to challenge Apple, it needs to build out an ecosystem of products. Nothing phone (1) is incredibly good with some genuinely neat features—like the crazy lighting rig around the back.

Nothing Phone (1): vs iPhone

The Nothing Phone (1) Doesn’t Stand a Chance Against the iPhone

The problem, however, is that Nothing seems to be aimed at Apple users, which, as we shall see is an almost “sweeping & impossible task”. See Nothing is great but why would an Apple user ever wish to move to a smartphone that is not synced with their MacBook or iPad.

The two flagship smartphone platforms; iPhone and Android have gone to great lengths to ensure that the iPhone or Android is an integral part of our wider ecosystem of tech. Therefore, to create an entire platform, it has to sync with your computer, have basic apps, favorite to-do list, and so on.

So, Nothing Phone (1) might be the sought-after phone in the Android market, rather than a tough competitor to iPhone. Understand, that pretty much all users who do not use Apple phones use Android phones.

This is because the OS is modern and easy to use, and you all can install the apps without an effort. All it takes to build a good phone is a good handset design, a nice skin for the OS, and some proprietary apps. Any Android user who likes the phone would have no trouble switching over to it.

Despite this, Carl Pei wants to compete with Apple. It’s sick, right? But, ambitious. Speaking to The Verge, Pei said that he wants to offer things like Apple’s Universal Control which by the way works on Macs and iPads. This may be too ambitious for Android makers.

However, it is possible for Nothing to become a high-end Android maker with a decent range of hardware. I am certain with this that Nothing can use its design skills to integrate a system like Apple and built on the existing Android OS.

Once it bypasses that barrier, it can then use the Operating system as the basis to match Apple like features and stand out as a differentiator in the Android market.

We have a high value for Nothing, but another OS provider is the world when the existing platforms are so strictly and aggressively growing making it even more unlikely.

That does not mean that Nothing has no place in this world. As I expressed, the viscous startup can use its good design and hardware integration and become an integral part of Android.

So. Should I Get Nothing Phone 1? The Answer is WAIT! I’ll Explain Why

Sure, Nothing has tried to make a splash in the smartphone marketplace and it’s a good start. But, the company has not thrown up a full review of the product. Carl Pei’s influence and all that hype are good in its place but it is only drumming up the hype for a product that does not yet exist.

Certainly, it would be an effective tactic for seeping into the smartphone market. The beta for its launcher is completely disappointing and far from revolutionary.

The Phone (1) price is good. At least for now. However, the phone has much to improve to earn a spot among the best Android phones, not just vague hints or diagrams. So, it is still unknown if Nothing will be the next OnePlus or the next Essential.

This is because there were many factors that went into the success of OnePlus. Similarly, Essential had the same ingredients fed to it, yet it died slowly. So, it is not clear where Nothing will be heading in the coming months or years.

Nothing Phone (1): review

I would love to know more about this phone than the teasers and promos. I’m still not thrilled about buying Nothing because of its annoying and unclear Truth event. Also, wanting to create an ecosystem, and more than just a smartphone is not viable. Remember Essential wanted to do the same thing. Instead, building on the existing platform and giving it major tweaks like the one mentioned earlier should do the work for Nothing Phone (1).

Let’s decide on July 12!

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Joe Warne
Joe Warne
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