“Tech has lost its momentum. It feels stagnant — and a bit dull.” As the ex-design lead at Dyson, Adam Bates is probably one of the best placed people in the country to make this assertion. I’ve come to King’s Cross to meet with him and Carl Pei, the co-founder of phone brand OnePlus. Together they’re the superstar team behind Nothing, the enigmatic London start-up which has created the year’s most hotly anticipated (and completely bonkers) new smartphone. “We think it’s time to bring back some fun,” says Bates.
A few days ahead of its launch, I was invited for a hands-on preview of what has been dubbed the “Nothing phone”. The excitement around the new handset is such that 200,000 people have paid a non-refundable deposit for it, despite knowing nothing about its spec or even how much it’ll retail at.
