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The Nothing Phone (1)

Yes, this phone comes with a unique design, thanks to the transparent back and Glyph interface and all those LED lights at the back.
But how does it really perform?
Is it really possible to re-imagine something as ubiquitous as a smartphone?
Well, over the past few years many companies big and small have given it a shot, while others like Apple have stuck to the proven path pushing only incremental updates every cycle.

Now, Nothing–the oddly-named new venture of OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei–wants to take a new look at what they can do with a smartphone, and they seem to have something going here for sure.

Nothing Phone 1 Goods and Bads

Good Stuff

Snappy performance.
Smooth-scrolling, pleasant-to-use OLED screen.
Some unique use cases for glyph notification system.
Four years of security updates promised.

Bad Stuff

Battery life is just okay.
No charger included.
No track record of success yet.

What is in the box?

The Nothing Phone 1’s hardware is fairly standard for a mid-range phone, with one key difference.

This Snapdragon 778G+ phone supports wireless and reverse-wireless charging, a capability that is usually limited to higher-end devices.
Nothing worked closely with Qualcomm to enable this feature for the 778+, which usually doesn’t support it.
The processor is joined by up to 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
The entry-level model comes with 8+128GB, while the unit we’ve got for review is the middle ground with its 8+256GB configuration.
As for pricing, you’re looking at £400, £450, and £500 for 8+128, 8+256, and 12+256GB, respectively.

Moving on, the Phone 1 ticks the usual boxes. It supports Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, has NFC on board, and can work with up to two SIM cards at once.
There are also stereo speakers on board, though as with many phones that use a combination of a bottom-firing speaker and an earpiece, the sound coming from them isn’t quite even.
The bottom-firing speaker is noticeably louder and clearer.

Nothing went for an interesting design when it comes to packaging, too.
The box is so flat that it is barely as high as the phone itself, which means that the company had to spread it out to make room for the USB-C cable, the SIM ejector tool, and the usual paperwork, making the packaging look more like a special edition album box than a phone box.

The Glyph interface

Together, these LED strips form what Nothing calls the “Glyph” interface.
As you’ve undoubtedly seen by now thanks to Marques Brownsville early hands-on, the light strips flash in sync with your notification and call sounds.
You can assign different light shows and sounds to different callers, helping you get an idea who is calling you when you’ve got the phone face-down on the table.
The same idea also applies for app notifications, though here, you can’t select your preferred contacts or apps right in the Glyph settings pane.

However, the Phone 1 alerts me about incoming notifications face down and face up.
In the Glyph settings, there is even a section that allows you to turn on “Flip to Glyph,” which much like the Pixel’s “Flip to Shh” turns on silent mode—but leaving the Glyph light show on for notification.
Given that this means you’ll still get visual cues on new notifications, this isn’t an escape from notification overload.

At least the Glyph interface doesn’t tax the battery much either.
Nothing tells me that in its testing, the Glyph interface only drained 0.5% of the total battery life running on full brightness for 10 minutes straight.

Nothing Phone 1 Specs

Specifications

CPU: Snapdragon 778G+
Display: 120Hz 6.55-inch 2400×1080 OLED with HDR10+, 10-Bit color depth, 1,200 nits max brightness
Battery: 4,500mAh
Ports: USB-C
Operating System: Android 12 / Nothing OS 1
Front camera: 16MP
Rear camera: 50MP main, 50MP ultra wide
Connectivity: 5G, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC
Dimensions: 159.2 x 75.8 x 8.3mm
Colors: White, black
Weight: 193.5g
Charging: 33W PD3.0 wired charging, 15W Qi wireless charging with dual charging support, 5W reverse charging
IP Rating: IP53 splash and dust resistance
Price: £400, £450, £500 / €470, €500, €550 / $400, $450, $500
RAM and Storage: 8GB RAM + 128GB memory / 8GB+256GB / 12GB+256GB
Micro SD card support: No

Conclusion

The final word we can share is that the Nothing Phone 1 could be the iPhone replacement cause technically it could be a challenge for Apple to beat the new design.

Nothing company did a pretty good effort to make the design really cool and sharp but we still can not judge so far.