Is this new ‘flagship killer’ Nothing special?
Smartphone | £399 | whf.cm/Nothing1
Once upon a time, a rebellious company by the name of OnePlus sought to challenge the likes of Samsung, Apple and Sony to prove that you can get flagship performance without the flagship price tag. OnePlus phones now carry price tags that rival those of iPhones, but the company’s co-founder, Carl Pei, has a new brand that invokes the ethos of the early days of OnePlus.
You might be familiar with Nothing as we reviewed its first product, the Ear (1) wireless earbuds, in 2021. This Phone (1) is Nothing’s first Android smartphone.
Your £399 buys you a Snapdragon 778G+ processor equipped with 5G and admirable performance. The base model comes with 8GB RAM and 128GB of storage, while 8GB/256GB and 12GB/256GB models are also available.
With its flat aluminium rails and dual vertical-stacked cameras (both 50MP, one with an ultra-wide lens), the Phone (1) looks and feels much more expensive than its price may suggest. And the back features a transparent glass panel that lets you take a peek at some of the internal components of the phone; that’s nothing if not a head-turner.
Lights, cameras, attraction
The most unique feature of this phone is its Glyph interface – a series of LED light strips on the back that can act as a notification light, a camera flash and a battery-charging indicator. While we find it to be fairly gimmicky, we can’t dispute the fact that it also looks pretty cool.
On the subject of those cameras, the Phone (1) is a decent snapper but, with many Android phones toting three or more lenses these days, a telephoto zoom lens wouldn’t go amiss. You will also find a 16MP ‘hole-punch’ style single front camera, which allows for unlocking via facial recognition.
On to the main event. The Nothing sports a 6.55in OLED display, with a resolution of 1080p (pixel density; 402ppi), and a buttery-smooth 120Hz refresh rate (mobile gamers, take note). It’s a big, bright and responsive display that feels like the sweet spot at this price. It also supports HDR via the HDR10+ format – another neat attraction.
The Phone (1) currently runs Android 12, dubbed Nothing OS (an update to Android 13 is just around the corner). It’s a fairly stripped-back version of the Google operating system that is easy to navigate and runs smoothly.
