After months of mystery and teasers all over social media, Nothing has finally taken off the wraps on what is officially its second device after the Nothing Ear 1, namely, the Nothing Phone 1. The device was officially launched at an event in Nothing’s Studios here in London, and we were fortunate enough to attend and go hands-on with it.
With that said, the Phone 1 is a very interesting handset, integrating core smartphone features with new and updated design elements, and I just want to give some initial impressions of the hardware and software features of the phone. As a disclaimer, these are all first impressions based on my limited time with the device, so all opinions in this article will reflect what I was able to work with on that day.
Design and Display
The first thing that most people will notice about the Nothing Phone 1 is the external design. It somewhat resembles certain smartphones out on the market, especially with the flat sides and rounded look, but it incorporates design elements that help it stand out from the rest of the competition.
The phone comes with a completely transparent rear panel with Gorilla Glass 5, which shows off some of the phone’s internals, camera hardware, as well as the Glyph Interface, which we’ll talk about later. It’s very lightweight, thanks to the sides of the phone which use aluminum instead of steel, and compared to a lot of other smartphones that I’ve handled before, the Nothing Phone is easier to handle thanks to its lightweight design.
The display on the front of the device measures 6.55 inches, with a 1080 x 2400 pixel resolution. It’s got an OLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate, and it’s protected by Gorilla Glass 5 similar to the rear panel. It also houses the front camera in a small hole punch on the top left corner. The display is nice and responsive and the high refresh rate made it feel fluid. There wasn’t any lag or slowdown during my time handling the phone, which is always a good sign. Thanks to the OLED panel, it was also bright, and colors were vibrant with good contrast.
Additionally, the phone features symmetrical bezels all around the screen, which is something that you don’t see a lot on mid-range Android phones.
Glyph Interface
Turning the phone over will let you see the Glyph Interface at the back, which plays a big part in how the phone differentiates itself from the rest of the smartphone competition. Simply put, the Glyph interface uses multiple LED lights that respond to different notifications and software features.
You can customize which ringtones and alerts you want to use on your phone, and the back of the phone lights up to match whatever ringtone or notification you have set up, as well as charging status, and more. Putting it facedown will trigger the phone’s silent mode, leaving only the lights to tell you when you’re receiving a message, call, or such.
Given that this is one major highlight of the device, I can’t imagine using a case to fully cover up the design of the phone. Some of the sample units that were available during the launch did have cases on them, albeit with see-through designs.
Software, User Interface
In terms of software, the Phone 1 runs on Nothing OS, which is mostly a clean version of Android, save for a handful of Nothing apps. In his message during the keynote, Carl Pei mentioned how there are already a lot of good default Android apps, so there was no need to replace them with the brand’s own set of apps, instead focusing on adding features with incremental value to users.
With that said, the user interface of the Nothing Phone is rather clean and streamlined. Of course, there are a few visual touches and Nothing-exclusive features like minor design accents and software, but it manages to keep the OS simple and functional, without all the need for a heavily-customized skin or third-party bloatware.
Personally, I like it when companies keep additional apps to a minimum since we get to enjoy Android for its core and essential features, as well as the visual interface of the product. I think this is one of the strengths of the Nothing Phone 1.
Internal Specs
There has been a lot of talk about the internal specs and potential performance of the phone. Inside the Phone 1 is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G+ chipset, which on paper might sound unimpressive to some people, given that it is a mid-range SoC in a flagship device. It actually reminds me about the time that Google stuck a series-7 Snapdragon chip inside the Pixel 5, and the similar reactions from the tech community at the time.
However, mid-range Snapdragon chips have been known to perform surprisingly well, especially when paired with enough memory like the 8 or 12GB of RAM inside this phone, and optimized software. I do think that the choice to keep a mostly clean version of Android on the phone will do wonders with the 778G+, and as I mentioned earlier, the phone was smooth during my time using it. It didn’t freeze once or even lag which was a nice indicator of general day-to-day performance.
There’s also a 4500 mAh battery inside the phone which should be enough to power the device through an entire day. Given the mid-range chipset, this is quite possible, although factors like screen brightness and the high refresh rate should be taken into consideration.
Cameras
The Nothing Phone (1) comes with three cameras all over, which consist of a 50MP main camera and a secondary 50MP ultrawide sensor, and a front camera that has a 16MP sensor.
So far, the images that I was able to capture on the cameras looked good. Nothing says that they avoided putting in unnecessary camera hardware, like the usual combo of 2MP macro and depth sensors which are found on a majority of Android phones. Instead, the company decided to equip the Phone 1 with a pair of 50MP sensors, which produced impressive shots.
The phone will also be able to shoot 4K videos and has other features like night mode, HD portrait, and more. Like I said at the beginning of this video though, these are only my first impressions based on my limited handling of the device. Based on what I’ve seen though, the camera quality looked good and promising.
Final Thoughts
At a starting price of 399 pounds, the Nothing Phone 1 is clearly meant to take on other competing mid-range Android phones like the Google Pixel 6a and Samsung’s A-series phones like the Galaxy A53 and A33. Of course, it will need to stand out from the rest of the competition, and given Carl Pei’s experience in the smartphone industry, it will be exciting to see how the phone and the brand itself hold up in the long run.
Despite the somewhat low-powered chipset, it’s an impressive device based on what I’ve seen so far, and smartphone users looking to try out something new and different will definitely want to check this out.
Originally published at http://teamvry.com on July 16, 2022.
