Shekhar Vaidya
• Phone (1) is the first smartphone from Carl Pie’s Nothing.
• Carl Pie, Nothing’s CEO, announced the smartphone on July 12, worldwide.
• The company has already a TWS named Nothing Ear (1) which was announced last year.
• The USP of the Phone (1) are Glyph LEDS and the see-through rear panel.
• The smartphone has an aluminum frame and glasses (Gorilla Glass 5) on both sides.
• The aluminum frame equips the power button on the right, volume keys on the left, sim slot, charging slot, & stereo speakers on the bottom, and secondary microphone on the top.
• The display has a 16 MP punch-hole selfie at the top-left corner and an under-display optical fingerprint sensor at the bottom center.
• The rear panel equips a primary 50 MP wide sensor and a secondary 50 MP ultra-wide sensor at the top-left corner.
• It is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G+ 5G SoC.
• It is available two(upto 256 GB, UFS 3.1) storage and two(upto 12 GB) RAM variants.
• The device is fueled by a 4500mAh battery that supports 33W fast charging, 15W wireless, and 5W reverse wireless charging.
• It runs on the company’s custom stock-like Nothing OS, which is powered by Android 12.
• The company has promised 3 years of major Android and 4 years of bi-monthly security updates.
• The smartphone is available in Black and White color options and three different RAM/Storage variants.
• The three different variants are 8GB RAM+128GB ROM, 8GB RAM+256GB ROM, and 12GB RAM+128GB ROM.
• The prices are £399/€469/₹32,999, £449/€499/₹35,999, and £499/€549/₹38,999 for the base, mid, and top variants.
• The phone is available across the UK, Europe, and Asia.
• The company has plans to introduce Phone (1) in the US with their limited number of private community investors via a closed beta program.
• Carl Pie is known for creating hype to market the product even before the launch, last time he did it with OnePlus, and not with Nothing.
• He was trying to do something different and unique from what current OEMs are doing.
• At some level, he did think of something unique, design-wise, and created the see-through rear panel and the Glyph LEDs.
• The main USP of Nothing Phone (1) is its design, the transparent panel, and the Glyph LEDs.
• The second USP of the phone is its clean stock-like UI, a stock Android with a few modifications.
• In terms of design, everything Nothing did is unconventional. The see-through panel is different and the Glyph LEDs are unique. But everyone has a different taste when it comes to design.
• I like the see-through rear panel, and I can use it for a long time, but with the Glyph LEDs, the interest is already fading.
• The Phone has a beautiful 6.55” OLED 120Hz display with HDR10+ support. It is smooth and provides us with a flagship experience.
• The volume buttons are on the left (like iPhone), which may take a couple of days for Samsung and OnePlus users to get used to.
• The device is IP63 rated, so it manages to survive in light water flashes, nothing more.
• The Nothing team has done a fabulous job in terms of software experience. It comes with a neat and clean UI, not even single bloatware.
• Nothing OS is exactly the Pixel OS with a few retro touches here and there to settle the retro theme.
• The smartphone is powered by Snapdragon 778G+ SoC, a mid-range SoC from Qualcomm with 5G support.
• Since it is a mid-range SoC, heating is expected while gaming the high-end titles like BGMI, CODM, and Mobile Legends, but the good thing is the gaming performance is better than expected.
• The battery and charging is good as well as lags behind at the same time. Where other OEMs are providing 65W fast-charging support, the Phone (1) only support 33W.
• Also, the wireless and reverse wireless charging is something that no other OEM introduced in this segment.
• Nothing is again unconventional in this area too, where other OEMs are equipping with 3 or 4 rear cameras Nothing decided to go with only two camera sensors.
• The primary sensor is the 50MP Sony IMX766 and the secondary sensor is the 50 MP Samsung JN1.
• To be honest, I am not impressed with the camera performance, Nothing could have done a little more better.
• If captured in some lighting conditions, the phone can produce some good quality photos, but if you try in low- lighting conditions, the phone struggles to produce good photos.
• The front panel equips a 16MP Sony IMX471 punch-hole camera. It produces similar photos to all the other smartphones in this segment, nothing extraordinary.
• Overall, the Nothing team, didn’t go anything out-of-the-box, as they did in other areas, but it is good in this segment.
• Overall it is a great smartphone, the good build, the unique design, with some great features.
• The smartphone did a great job standing out from the crowd without compromising on basic functionality.
• But for price-sensitive markets like India, the price could have been a little more competitive for much more better results.
• Finally, if you are looking for a change from the BBK net, Nothing can be a great smartphone to opt for.