After weeks of jokes, Nothing finally announces its debut smartphone, the Nothing Phone 1, at a launch event today. Led by OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei, it is the startup’s well-funded startup product launched after last year’s real Ear 1 wireless headphones. You can check out my colleague Allison Johnson’s impressions of the device right here.
The big news is that the Nothing Phone 1 will sell for a modest starting price of £ 399 (the equivalent of about $ 475 USD, though it won’t have a widespread release in the US) when it goes on sale on July 21. . £ 399 gives you the model with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, while up to £ 449 (about $ 535) gives you 256GB of storage. The model with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage will go on sale in late summer for £ 499 (about £ 593).
Unfortunately, as previously reported, Nothing Phone 1 will not receive a full release in the US. In contrast, Nothing says the Phone 1 will launch in more than 40 markets, including the UK, Japan, India and continental European countries.
Image: Nothing
Unlike a company like Apple, which closely keeps all the details of its products up to its official announcements, Nothing has happily revealed many of the key features of the Phone 1 during the weeks leading up to today’s event. It’s a tactic that has generated a lot of headlines, but it means that we entered today’s event with a pretty clear idea of what the Phone 1 consists of.
Mostly, Nothing showed off the design of the phone a full month before today’s event, revealing an attractive set of light strips on the back of the device (called the glyph interface) that are designed for a variety of uses. .
For example, a light strip on the back next to the USB-C port can indicate how far the battery is charging, while a center light illuminates to indicate when the phone is charging ( or charging another device) wirelessly. All strips can blink to alert you when you have a notification or an incoming call and can be synchronized with your phone ringtones. The strips can also act as a fill light for your cameras, while an additional red LED on the back flashes when the phone is recording video.
On the back of the phone, there are two 50-megapixel sensors: one main and one ultra-wide. The main camera supports optical and electronic image stabilization (OIS and EIS), as well as a number of software features, such as night, portrait, and document scanning modes. Meanwhile, the ultra-large camera has a field of view of 114 degrees and can take macro photos up to 4 cm distances. The Phone 1 is available in white or black.
Image: Nothing
On the front, the Phone 1 has a 6.55-inch 1080p OLED display with a maximum brightness of 1,200 nights. Its maximum refresh rate is 120 Hz, but it can drop by half depending on what the screen shows. There’s a small punch cut at the top left for a 16-megapixel selfie camera and a fingerprint sensor on the screen for biometric security.
Internally, the Nothing Phone 1 runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G Plus processor. This may be a disappointment to anyone expecting the phone to use Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1’s flagship processor, but the company has said that this less powerful chip offers a better balance of performance, power consumption, heat output and price. This is combined with 8 or 12 GB of RAM and 128 or 256 GB of storage. As for the software, the phone runs on Nothing OS, which is on top of Android.
Image: Nothing
Nothing’s argument for the Android OS-based Nothing OS software is that it’s designed to integrate better with third-party products. You can control other devices, such as a Tesla car, from the quick setup menu, including unlocking doors and turning on the vehicle’s AC. The software also shows telltale signs of having been developed during the recent boom in NFT and includes integrations such as being able to display expensive images on the phone’s home screen or track their prices. Nothing promises three years of Android updates and four years of security updates (released once every two months).
The Phone 1 runs on a 4,500 mAh battery that can be charged up to 33 W with a cable or 15 W wirelessly. There is an IP53 rating for dust and water resistance, which means it should survive using light rain, but should not be completely submerged.
The Nothing Phone 1 is one of the most interesting inputs in the smartphone market in recent years. But instead of trying to match the specifications of other more established brands, Nothing emphasizes new features, such as the Phone 1’s illuminated light strips, in an attempt to differentiate it. But with the smartphone market increasingly dominated by Apple, Samsung and big Chinese tech companies, Nothing could have its job if it wants to compete on a scale.