After the Ear (1) (test) with the Phone (1), Nothing brings the young company's first smartphone onto the market. The great feature of the mobile device is the transparent glass back, which reveals the built-in hardware and the Glyph interface. Behind it is lighting with over 900 micro LEDs.
Table of contents
- 1 Glyph interface hidden over 900 Micro-LEDs
- It jingles synchronously with the lighting
- Status LED for video recordings
- Phone (1) comes in white and black
- Nothing convinces with perfect workmanship
- OLED screen with symmetrical bezel
- Snapdragon 778 Plus and up to 256 GB of memory
- Nothing OS comes without bloatware
- Market launch on July 21 from 469 euros
With its Glyph interface, the Nothing Phone (1) stands out from the uniform mishmash that the smartphone market has developed into over the last few years. The London tech start-up, co-founded by Carl Pei (formerly OnePlus), raised funds through Google Ventures, EQT Ventures, C Ventures and private investors such as Tony Fadell (inventor of the iPod), Casey Neistat (YouTuber) and Kevin Lin (co-founder of Twitch ) raised over $140 million. After the Ear (1), of which more than 530,000 units have been sold, the company is consistently continuing its philosophy with the Phone (1), in which design and aesthetics have taken important positions in the development and transparent design features have again played an important role.
Glyph interface hidden over 900 micro-LEDs
The Glyph interface is hidden on the back of the smartphone and is not immediately recognizable because the various elements that make up the three-dimensional relief under the glass do not immediately stand out as technical components. Apart from the two camera lenses, behind which a 50 MP sensor for wide and ultra wide angle is hidden, this is most likely the case with the charging coil. However, the phone (1) does not show that lighting with over 900 micro-LEDs has been installed. The lighting consists of a “C” framing the camera, a diagonal running to the top right, the outline of the charging coil, and an exclamation mark centered above the USB-C socket. If you look very closely, you can also see an elephant in this area as another design feature.
-
All Glyph Interface Micro LED Elements
Image 1 of 6
Phone lighting (1)
Gorilla Glass 5 protects the back
Current battery level
White variant without lighting
Elephant as a hidden design featureIt tinkles in sync with the lighting
The backlight serves as a display for notifications and is divided into incoming calls and notifications for e-mails and messages. Nothing provides ten long ringtones and ten short message tones ex works, which play sound, lighting and vibration synchronously with a wide variety of patterns across the various lighting zones. The brightness of the micro-LED lighting can be freely selected in the settings, and the glyph interface can also be used in idle mode without the associated tones. And to avoid being woken up at night, a schedule can be defined without lighting.
Notifications are just one area of the Glyph interface, though. Nothing uses the “exclamation mark” as a charge indicator to visualize how far the battery has been charged. The display is used whenever a USB-C cable is connected. The same area is used for Google Assistant feedback when the smartphone is addressed with “Hey Google”. In addition, the mobile device recognizes when it has been placed on its front and activates the sleep mode if desired, in which only the lighting works but no more sounds are heard.
Status LED for video recordings
The phone (1) also offers a very classic status LED, but not as part of the glyph lighting, but specifically to signal active video recordings to the other person. A red LED lights up in the small circle at the top right on the back when the camera app is set accordingly, as soon as it is filmed in video mode. Speaking of movies: In addition to the normal LED flash, the Glyph interface can be used as a ring light and ensure even illumination.
-
Dual camera, each with 50 megapixels
Image 1 of 3
Fully recycled aluminum chassis
Left volume buttons, power button rightPhone (1) comes in white and black
Nothing offers the phone (1) in two colors: white and black. The white reveals the relief directly at first glance, but the black is also elegant and offers a stronger contrast to the lighting. ComputerBase was able to preview both variants at Nothing in Berlin. However, the luminosity of the micro-LEDs is so high that the white version also creates enough contrast.
Nothing convinces with perfect workmanship
The Glyph interface is protected with Gorilla Glass 5, the technology itself sits in a 75.8 × 159.2 × 8.3 mm (W × H × D) housing made of fully recycled aluminum that has been certified according to IP53. More than 50 percent of the plastics used are also recycled, explains Nothing. The symmetrical design inevitably harbors the risk of confusion with the current iPhone, but the back as a unique selling point effectively counteracts this. Nevertheless, the bottom line is that the form factor is very similar to Apple's current one. In terms of material selection and workmanship, Nothing doesn't have to hide from larger companies, several phones (1) tried out and the editor's test device were or are perfectly processed.
- < figure class="gallery__figure">
Nothing Phone (1) in white and black (Image: Nothing)
Nothing Phone (1) in white (image: Nothing)
Nothing Phone (1) in black (picture: Nothing)
Nothing Phone (1) in black (Image: Nothing)OLED screen with symmetrical bezel
Nothing consistently pulls the symmetrical design through to the 6.55-inch screen, which has an equally wide bezel all around. Nothing achieves this feature by using a flexible OLED panel that folds back once at the bottom to provide driving from the opposite direction, rather than accepting a “chin”. As Nothing co-founder Akis Evangelidis explained in an interview, Nothing chose an OLED screen for the phone (1), which is around twice as expensive as is usual in this price range. The panel offers 2,400 × 1,080 pixels, 60 to 120 Hz, supports HDR10+ and is said to be bright up to 1,200 cd/m². Similar to the back, Gorilla Glass 5 is used for protection. There is a 16 MP front camera in the top left of the screen, and an optical fingerprint sensor in the bottom center of the display.
Snapdragon 778 Plus and up to 256GB memory
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 778 Plus is used under the hood, which has been expanded for Nothing to include support for wireless charging of the 4,500 mAh battery, which is done with up to 15 watts or 5 watts in the opposite direction. A Snapdragon from the 8-series would have roughly doubled the price of the smartphone, Evangelidis explained. Wired charging is supported with a maximum of 33 watts via USB-PD 3.0, but unlike a USB-C cable, a power adapter is not included with the phone (1). The Snapdragon chip is supported by either 6 or 8 GB of RAM and 128 or 256 GB of non-expandable UFS 3.1.
-
6.55″ OLED display
Figure 1 of 2
120 Hz and up to 1,200 cd/m² brightnessNothing OS comes without bloatware
In terms of software, Nothing relies on its own Nothing OS, which, however, corresponds to stock Android with minimal adjustments to the glyph interface and a handful of its own functions. This includes, for example, the native integration of Tesla to unlock the doors, start the air conditioning or check the range. For the AirPods from Apple, the battery status can be viewed without an additional app. NFT collectors get their own gallery and can drop the tokens on the home screen and follow the courses there too. Nothing has saved itself entirely from third-party apps, so there are no games, Facebook or other non-Nothing or Google apps installed from the factory. Nothing OS is to receive Android updates for three years and security patches every two months for four years.
Market launch on July 21 from 469 Euro
In German-speaking countries, the market launch is scheduled for July 21 in Germany and Switzerland. In Germany, Deutsche Telekom is the exclusive partner for sales via a network operator. Deutsche Telekom will receive the smartphone on July 20 in a limited number of 100 pieces for the flagship store in Cologne, before regular sales at Congstar, Mobilcom Debitel, Amazon, Deinhandy, Sparhandy and Otto start the next day. In Switzerland, the distribution partners are Sunrise, Digitec, Mobilezone and Media Markt.
-
Nothing Phone (1) im Unboxing
Image 1 of 8
Nothing Phone (1) in the unboxing
The phone (1) starts at a price of 469 euros with 8 GB/128 GB. The configuration with 8 GB/256 GB is 499 euros, with 12 GB/256 GB it is 549 euros. The smallest variant is only available in black, the two larger ones in white or black.
Nothing Phone (1) Software:
(on release) Android 12.0 Display: 6.55 inches, 1080 × 2400
402 ppi, 120 Hz
OLED, HDR, Gorilla Glass 5 Operation: touch, fingerprint sensor, face scanner, status LED SoC: Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G Plus
1 × Kryo 670 Prime, 2.50 GHz
3 × Kryo 670 Gold, 2.20 GHz
4 × Kryo 670 Silver, 1.90 GHz
6 nm, 64-bit GPU: Adreno 642L RAM: 8,192 MB
LPDDR5 variant 12,288 MB
LPDDR5 Storage: 128/256GB 1st Camera: 50.0MP, 2160p
LED, f/1.8, AF, OIS 2nd Camera: 50.0MP, f/2.2 3rd Camera: No 4th Camera: No 5th Camera: No 1st Front Camera: 16.0 MP 1080p
Display Flash, f/2.5 2nd Front Camera: No GSM: GPRS + EDGE UMTS: HSPA+
↓42 ,2 ↑5.76 Mbit/s LTE: Advanced Pro 5G: NSA/SA WLAN: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax
Wi-Fi Direct Bluetooth: 5.2 Location: A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo, QZSS Other standards: USB Type C, NFC SIM card: Nano-SIM, Dual-SIM Battery: 4,500 mAh, 33.0 W
permanently installed, wireless charging Size (W×H×D): 75.8 × 159.2 × 8.30mm Ingress Protection: IP53 Weight: 194g Price: €469/€499/€549
ComputerBase has information on this item from Nothing under NDA receive. The only requirement was the earliest possible publication date.
This article was interesting, helpful or both? The editors are happy about any support from ComputerBase Pro and disabled ad blockers. More about ads on ComputerBase.