Every now and then a young upstart comes along in the tech world to shake things up - sometimes they rise, sometimes they fall.
Carl Pei has done it once before. He’s the co-founder of the OnePlus brand of smartphones, which he set up while working for Chinese phone giant Oppo.
OnePlus had massive success with a range of phones that were a lot better than the price charged for them would suggest. Oppo and OnePlus have since merged, with Pei leaving the company in 2020 to set up his own electronics company Nothing.
Read more: Nothing ear (1) review
Now he’s a young upstart again, looking to upset the Apple cart. Nothing has already hit the market with Ear (1), its earbud headphones - they’re good and well-priced, and have done well in the market.
This week Pei announced the company’s next step - it's bringing out a fully-fledged smartphone this summer. Unsurprisingly it’ll be called Phone (1). Nothing’s planned USP is to offer a whole range of devices that work seamlessly together (and with other makers’ devices) and feature ‘iconic design’. If that sounds familiar, that’s intentional.
As Pei himself says: “We’re building the most compelling alternative to Apple. If you want products that connect and work seamlessly together, the only choice is Apple. The MacBook, iPhone, iPad and AirPods all work together the way you want.
Read more: Apple iPad Air 2022 review
"Yet as soon as you leave the ecosystem – for a Windows PC or Android phone – it breaks down. There’s no alternative to Apple today. This means consumers don’t have a choice and innovation slows down.
“That’s not right. That’s why there’s Nothing.”
Pei has, as yet, revealed little detail about the phone aside from its name and that it will be the ‘beating heart’ of the Nothing ecosystem. He has shown off some examples of the new Nothing OS that will power it, though. It sports the same minimalist vibe the Ear (1) headphones feature - so we can expect the phone to do the same.
Nothing OS is built on Android, but Pei says it will be designed for a consistent, fast, and personalised experience across the device. Potentially what Nothing will offer here is something quite new in the market - Pei is quite right to say that Apple’s unified ecosystem shines in comparison to the fragmented Android world.
If he can bring a bit of that seamless integration and iconic design to the other side of the fence it'll make a lot of people's lives a lot easier. Apart from that, who doesn’t like a young upstart trying to shake things up? In the end that means everyone has to up their game.
As Pei says: “We hope that Nothing phone (1) is the wakeup call that the industry needs. We’re not saying we’ll fix the industry with one product, but we want phone (1) to mark the start of change.”
Watch this space over the coming months as Nothing reveals more about its upcoming device.
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