Source: Nothing
The first smartphone of new tech startup Nothing is finally official. We've heard and seen several details about the Nothing phone (1) thanks to the strategies of Carl Pei. He is the co-founder and former director of OnePlus, and he brings the style of invite-only/limited partner drops and "slow drip-feed of information" to drum up hype for the new device. So, if you feel like you've seen the phone (1), you probably already have.
Its main talking point is the "Glyph" design, which employs 900 LEDs spread out and overlaid with a diffuser to create lines and curves beneath the Gorilla Glass 5-covered semi-transparent back. The lights flash and pulsate with a brightness enough to warrant a warning for users with epilepsy. You can adjust that brightness and set what the flashing lights mean to you. If you're worried about the lights draining the battery, you shouldn't. The effect should be negligible even at its standard brightness and kept on for 10 minutes.
That unique back certainly sets the phone apart from the competition. But its innards (those parts you can't see) are made out of primarily standard, mid-range hardware. The phone (1) features a 6.55-inch 120Hz OLED display, Snapdragon 778G+ chip, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage. It has a 4,500mAh battery with 33W charging, wireless charging, and support for 5W reverse charging through that coil at the back's center.
Source: Nothing
The cameras you get include a 50-megapixel Sony IMX766 primary and 50-megapixel Samsung ISOCELL JN1 ultrawide at the back, along with a 16-megapixel Sony IMX471. It also has an in-screen optical fingerprint, Wi-Fi 6E compatibility, and an IP53 rating for water and dust resistance. The Nothing phone (1) runs on an Android 12-based Nothing OS, promising widgets with dot-matrix fonts and no bloatware. It's expected to get three years of major OS updates and four years of security patches that will be released "every two months" instead of the standard monthly cadence.
Nothing will sell the phone (1) in a few markets, including Europe, India, and China. It is priced at £399 (around CA$618). There's no word on a North American release, unfortunately.