Assume Nothing
Innovative tech brand looks to break away from the pack by putting the fun back into smartphones... so how successful is its new one?
NOTHING founder and CEO Carl Pei wants to bring excitement and innovation back to the world of smartphones.
Pei, who has some experience in the game having previously cofunded Oneplus, says smartphones and personal tech in general has become boring.
He’s planning a whole range of consumer tech products that will, he says, bring back that sense that something fun is going on.
We already have the Nothing Ear (1) headphones, a pair of wireless earbuds that set the tone for Nothing’s design philosophy with transparent outer shells.
This week the company put their next product up for sale in perhaps the mosthyped tech launch of the year so far.
The Nothing Phone (1) has arrived, and caused a splash in doing so.
But did it achieve the goal of doing something genuinely new? The answer to that question is, as you might expect, both yes and no. On the front you have a fairly standard Android phone – I mean, how much different can the front of a touch-screen smartphone be? It’s a 6.5in piece of glass with a hole punched out for a front-facing camera.
A nice OLED screen is promised with a variable 120Hz refresh rate – nothing new in that.
The software is a version of Android called Nothing OS. Pei promises this will be nothing like the skinned Android other companies offer – they usually feature a load of bloatware extras you don’t need or want. Nothing OS is described as a refinement of Android, with a consistent look and feel across the board using bespoke widgets and fonts. Seamless integration with thirdparty hardware like headphones is also promised.
The whole thing is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G+ chipset, which should mean it’s fast enough to satisfy gamers, as well as powering some serious camera features.
So far, so not much different from a lot of Android phones out there.
But things start to get interesting when we turn the device over.
Nothing has developed an illuminated notification system called the Glyph Interface. This collection of light-up strips and bars can be configured to tell you quite a lot with the phone face-down on the table.
You can pair contacts to ringtones that each have an individual glyph pattern displayed when they call you, so you can see who is on the line when the phone is face down and in silent mode. The glyphs can also be programmed to give you a little bit more info about notifications as they come in – they can show you if you’ve got an email or text.
They will also show the charging status and battery level.
The cameras on the back are a pair of 50MP units – one wide and one ultra-wide, which can produce great images, and use some software smarts to add flexibility.
In camera mode the Glyph Interface can also be used as a light to gently illuminate close-up subjects without the harshness of a flash.
Aside from the hype, the Nothing Phone (1) has an important factor in its favour – its price. At £399 it’s something of a steal, and offers an attractive design-led device that’s as cool as anything anyone else is making, but at a much lower price than the big hitters from Apple, Samsung, or even Google.
Whether it’s really the revolutionary device we’re promised doesn’t really matter when you get the price and the features right.
Phone (1) is available in both white and black, with three models to choose from: 8GB/128GB (£399 GBP), 8GB/256GB (£449 GBP), and the 12GB/256GB (£499 GBP, available late summer).
Open sales for Nothing Phone (1) start at 7am on July 21 at nothing.tech and select. O2 is the sole carrier in the UK.
...things start to get interesting when we turn the device over. Nothing has developed an illuminated notification system called the Glyph Interface.