I didn’t care much about the Nothing Phone, then I saw the price
At 400 bucks it’s almost perfect
The Nothing Phone and Nothing as a company are probably the best examples of “hype” in the tech industry, where the level of popularity and anticipation of a product kind of supersedes anything the product or company itself actually does . In this case, the sheer hype around Carl Pei , former co-fonder of OnePlus, going on to start his own company and tailoring it’s mission statement specifically around the same key areas he used to channel OnePlus around: status-disrupting phones that would appeal to a hardcore enthusiast fanbase. In this case, this new company ironically named Nothing, was also aiming to create a whole ecosystem around said phones, starting with last year’s Ear-1 wireless earbuds and likely going beyond. But hype, promises and accessories aside, I never thought that the actual phone produced would be that good. And well, it is. In fact the Nothing Phone 1 is maybe 2 steps away from being my favorite phone of the year so far.
Now if the MKBHD review and the pictures above didn’t quite sell it for you, this phone was created to stick out. Coming from what’s essentially a brand new startup and being focused on catching as much attention as possible, the Nothing Phone 1 is not subtle. The phone is semi transparent and has an array of LED lights on it’s back called the Glyph interface. These lights activate for notifications, ringtones, charging indicators and a few other features that all serve to essentially convey information to you, while of course making you feel good about how unique or exclusive your phone is. It’s a neat party trick, and combined with a premium metal and glass body, a pair of 50MP cameras, a 120Hz OLED display, and up to 256 GB of storage, you wouldn’t be mistaken for thinking this phone is probably another Galaxy S22/iPhone 13 competitor.
After all it certainly looks the part. And with the fast screen and light software skin, it would seemingly perform the part too. Except this isn’t a $700-$800 flagship meant to take down the iPhone or even the Pixel. In true Carl Pei Fashion, it’s a budget midranger meant to compete with the iPhone SE, Galaxy A53 and Pixel 6A. This phone goes for $400-475. Not exactly cheap by Zim standards, but considering what it’s packing and what you’re getting, easily beyond the scope of most of it’s competition, either in features, or in style.
And that’s not to say this phone is perfect. In fact there’s a reason I thought this phone would have aimed for the more outright flagships. It does away with the headphone jack (sigh) and doesn’t come with an SD card slot. Features we’ve all been taught to expect as “flagship” in this day and age. And honestly I’m not a fan of that. But the headphone jack issue has become so ridiculous even some laptops are taking it off, while the SD card thing is an area where only Samsung is still excelling (and you better not remove it Samsung). So by sheer virtue of the process of elimination, Nothing comes out looking quite good here as well. The other big issue I have is availability. Of course this isn’t coming to Zimbabwe, nothing ever does(wait, was that a pun?), but even moreso, this phone will currently only be available in Europe and certain Asian markets. Even the US is sitting this one out at the moment. And that’s part of the problem. Availability always inflates a product’s price and even if it doesn’t it means it’s probably harder for you to find a friend or cousin in a country that has this phone so you can buy it. It’s like how Pixels sold for crazy prices in South Africa simply because their distribution was limited as well. It’s an understandable flaw considering Nothing is a startup, but it’s likely a flaw we may all feel the effects of if we take an interest in this phone. And that’s a shame, especially considering how this phone seems poised to blow most of its competition out of the water.
In fact all this is partially why I didn’t want to get too hyped about the Nothing Phone, because I knew there would be some areas of let-down. Heck the Snapdragon 778+ that it uses was a dead ringer for me to get concerned when that was revealed. But again, that’s when I though this was a flagship competitor, and despite looking and seemingly feeling like one, it’s not. This phone is instead a reminder that phones can be unique, fun and very reliable on a budget. It’s not exactly a flagship killer, but it can actually make you reconsider on buying a few flagships, especially those from a year or so ago (I mean why would you buy a Galaxy S21 or Pixel 5 instead of this?). And in that view, the Nothing Phone 1 is a triumph, so much so that I hope to get my hands on one, and I’m sure I wouldn’t regret it.
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