Nothing is founded in 2020 by tech scientist Carl Bay, who was previously in the cradle of smartphone maker OnePlus. For a long time, that company has brought affordable smartphones to the market, with high-end hardware on board. Prices are up now, but the phones still cost a bit less than other Android manufacturers with similar hardware, like Samsung. OnePlus used to be a subsidiary of Oppo, but now it’s merged with this large line of smartphones.

LED lights

Nothing has been released previously for wireless earbuds with active noise cancellation, called the ear(1). Now it’s the turn of the first smartphone. The phone (1) has a special look especially because of its transparent back with 900 LED lights. This can show patterns that let you know who’s calling. LED lights also indicate how full the battery is and you can tell which app is giving a notification. Nothing like this has appeared on a smartphone before.

The smartphone runs on Android software with its software layer of Nothing. This allows users to open the doors of their Tesla car directly from the shortcut menu, turn on the air conditioner and see how full the Tesla battery is. With other phones, this is done via a separate Tesla app. The software will also maintain the phone’s speed, by prioritizing frequently used apps and closing others, but other smartphones do this to a greater or lesser extent. Another special feature is the gallery of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

default screen

With a diagonal of 6.55 inches, the screen is about the same size as the popular Samsung Galaxy A52, A53, and 20 FE. For smooth movements, the OLED display has a refresh rate of 120Hz, which is quite standard in this price range. The phone (1) has two cameras, one of which is an ultra-wide camera. The device can also be charged wirelessly.

The minimum price for the device is 469 euros, for the variant with 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage. For an additional €30, you get 256GB of storage.