Nothing is a brand new, British tech company that's seemingly materialised from nothing at first glance, but much like their products, Nothing is more than the sum of its parts.
According to Nothing the phone industry had become stagnant, and most phones are iterative, and they want to change that.
Unlike other companies who focus on hardware that changes very little, rather than take part in a specs arms race Nothing wants to bring people and tech together through design.
It's a pretty lofty goal and I'm not sure how they intend to do that but their new phone seems to be the lynchpin of their plans.
Nothing was founded by Carl Pei, who was co-founder of the Chinese tech company OnePlus but left the back in 2020.
Pei established Nothing with some heavyweight backers including Steve Huffman, the CEO and co-founder of Reddit as well as Kevin Lin, the co-founder of Twitch and investments from Google Ventures, now known as GV.
The Nothing Phone (1) is the company’s first foray into mobile devices and the name much like the design follows a minimal, industrial feel giving it a distinct brand and feel especially among other midrange phones which usually look generic.
As a tech enthusiast (a nice way of saying geek) Phone (1)'s design really appeals to me with its analog, utilitarian look resembling a hard drive or piece of hardware.
My only real criticism of the design is that they didn’t double down and push the mechanical look even further so it would look less iPhone-like on the front.
Even the packing was unique, not coming in the standard rectangle box I’m so used to seeing and instead packaging follows the Nothings trademark minimalism, with a square box that looked more like a CD case.
It comes in just two colours, black and white and both look really cool. I didn’t think I’d like the minimal design but with its almost cyberpunk industrial, tech yet minimal and modern look, it really makes a statement.
Just like Nothing's previous product, the Ear (1), the Phone(1) features a gorgeous transparent Gorilla Glass, which won’t appeal to everyone, but is reminiscent of transparent SNES controllers and the transparent Game Boy of my childhood, so I absolutely love this aesthetic.
The main attention grabber here is on the back of the device and is a series of LED lights called the Glyph interface.
The Glyph interface is a unique LED notification bar on the back of the device which is pretty noticeable even when it's not in action. It functions as a notification light, fill light, indicates incoming calls as well as the battery's level of charge and aesthetically looks cool.
The Phone (1) is a little heavier than I'm used to at 193g. It has a weighty, premium feel that isn’t uncomfortable but you'll certainly be aware of it in your hand, pocket or bag.
The screen is protected by Gorilla Glass 6 and also features a pre-applied screen protector just to keep that lovely display looking crisp, clean and nick free for as long as possible.
It's made of 100% recycled aluminium and responsibly sourced materials, making with physically and ethically solid with its lifecycle carbon footprint even stamped on the box. It is also splash, water, and dust resistant with an IP53 rating.
The display on the Phone (1) is a decent-sized 6.5-inch, AMOLED panel with tiny bezels of 3mm on all sides making great use of that space, so It's perfect for watching films or murdering fools on COD mobile.
The screen has a resolution of 2400 x 1080, FHD+ offering a 20:9 cinematic aspect ratio and it supports an adaptive refresh rate of 60- 120Hz making scrolling, gaming and videos incredibly smooth.
It is also HDR10+ Certified with a brilliant 10-bit screen able to display about 1.07 billion colours as opposed to a standard 8-bit screen.
The advantages of this are more accurate colours, a wide range of colour gradations allowing you to pick up subtle effects and much more detail in the darks and shadows.
SPECS
Processor: Snapdragon 778G+
Screen: 6.55" 120Hz OLED
RAM: 8GB
Storage: 128GB/256GB
The Phone (1) uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G which is an interesting choice, Nothing claims this is to balance power with power consumption and of course price.
While this mid-range chip isn’t a powerhouse, especially when compared to the OnePlus 10, Honor Magic 4, and Motorola edge x30 use the Snapdragon 8.1 chip.
However, it’s not bad either, the 6nm chip is still fast for everyday use and can handle moderate gaming and this slightly modified version supports wireless and reverses wireless charging too.
For day-to-day use the performance is great, you can still multitask with ease, however, demanding games like Genshin Impact will be a struggle on higher graphical settings and games I tested like COD mobile, Minecraft and X-Com ran really well.
Single core scored 822 and Multi-core scored 2920 higher than the Samsung Galaxy A53 and higher than Google Pixel 6 for multiple core processes.
The base model features 8GB RAM and 128GB storage but there is also a 256GB option and 12GB Ram 256GB storage option. Sadly there is no option for expandable storage via micro SD, which is a shame as this is an option in mid-range phones like the Samsung A53.
Even the camera on the Phone(1) benefits from Nothing's stripped-back minimal vision, instead of featuring 4 superfluous cameras or a huge eye-catching module bolted to the back of the device, the Phone (1) sports a subtle but powerful dual camera set up.
The first camera is a 50 Megapixel main camera as well as another solid 50 Megapixel wide-angle to help capture those cityscapes.
I was shocked at how steady and clear the Phone(1)'s shots were in low light, looking much better than most in this range thanks to its optical image stabilisation.
Another surprise here is the quality of the 16 Megapixel selfie camera on the front pictures came out well exposed and colour reproduction looked good.
The Glyph system even makes for decent fill light as opposed to the usually harsh lighting from mobiles.
Video wise it can record 4K at 30fps on the rear camera, but the selfie camera is capped at 1080 30fps, which is perfectly decent for most normal use although budding cinematographers might want something with more options.
The Phone (1) uses a pretty standard 4500mAh battery that just about got me through a full day of normal use, but much less when I was gaming which was a little disappointing.
It also supports 33W fast charging which on a 30 min charge got me to 62% which was handy given its consistent drain.
The fast charger isn't included with the phone either which was annoying. However, Phone (1) does have 15W wireless charging which does help mitigate some of this.
The Glyph interface has a number of uses from reaction to a call, music visualization, charging time and notifications.
Works almost like a ring light when you are filming, giving you a much more flattering look that’s less harsh than one bright single source like most other phones.
Nothing claims the Glyph lights are a way to identify and filter notifications, as you can set specific patterns to contacts or apps, while this sounds like a good idea I never really used it and it didn't feel so far beyond the notification LED's on my older phones.
The Phone(1) has some very distinctive ringtones inspired by retro tech while flashing the glyph lights look like something glitching and some of the sounds reminded me of a 90s Game Boy or a sample from Aphex Twin.
Using the Nothing OS the Phone(1) offers a stripped-back, simplified experience, with much less bloatware and rubbish making it swift to use, and saving precious storage space.
Given all the hype for this device and especially as a standard iPhone 13 retails for £779, I expected the worst but was pleasantly surprised to see a very reasonable Price starting at £399 for the 8GB 128Gb version.
Verdict 4/5
The Nothing Phone (1) has lo-fi minimalism that I really love, from its name, its look, cameras and interface that is wonderfully constant and creates a unified experience.
Even the beeps and bloops reminded me of low-fi tech like the Game Boy, and Game & Watch for my youth which will appeal to the hearts of nostalgic geeks.
With just a few minor bugs and an anaemic battery, Nothing has still managed to show that they are much more than just gimmicks and hype.
While Nothing hasn’t reinvented the wheel here and it may not boast the most powerful specs it’s still a unique device that shows Nothing is off to a remarkably strong start, they have a solid design, the tech is really good and the price is very appealing, making Nothing a brand to look out for.
It may not be bleeding edge tech but it is bleeding cool.
The Nothing Phone (1) is available from 21 June from the Nothing website starting at £399
