All the New Deets About Nothing Phone (1): OS, Chip, and Future Plans

Excited about the first Nothing Phone (1)? We all are. The phone’s concept is full of leaks, teasers, and speculation, which seem very effective in making us more and more curious as the months pass by. And although there are still no clear and precise descriptions about it or its specs, we can’t help but obsess ourselves with this promising phone. 

In the ‘The Truth’ event held by Nothing, founder Carl Pei announced some details about the much anticipated first handset of the company. Yet, it was still far from the actual groundbreaking announcement we were expecting. Instead, it was much like another teaser that made us just beg for more. The information provided in the event was genuinely limiting and vague, with the release date that could even happen in the summer of 2022 (between June and September). 

An 18-second teaser video was released in the event, showing the logo o the phone that looked to be illuminated. With this, and given that the Nothing Ear (1) came out with partially transparent parts, some suggest that the rumored lighting will illuminate the parts of the phone’s semi-transparent elements.

With respect to how the phone will work, Carl Pei said that it will use the ‘Nothing OS,’ which is just the same as the Android OS we are all using today, but with tweaks for a better experience. From the screenshots shown in the event, it can’t be denied that it will be a familiar system for everyone. The home screen shows a number of apps and a Google search bar, with almost the same layout as other Android phones. Everything is laid on a clean black and white interface with the widgets delivering words and numbers in the dotted style — something Nothing wants to be a part of its trademark. 

“The best of Android, combined with our iconic design language,” Carl Pei described it. “The hub for your digital life. We started by keeping what you love about stock Android, and removed the bloatware.”

On the other hand, given that Qualcomm is one of the companies that back Nothing, it is no surprise that it will use a Snapdragon chip. But for the RAM, we’re still clueless, though Carl Pei said some good things about it.

“It delivers the optimal processing power and RAM for the exact app you’re using, while learning from your usage,” he stated. “By caching in the RAM, the apps you use the most will launch faster. The apps you’re not using, but take up resources in the background, will be closed.”

As for the pricing, everyone remains clueless, but here’s the deal: Nothing Phone (1) is being designed to challenge iPhone. That seems big and ambitious given that Nothing is still a new startup with just one product launched, the Ear 1 earbuds, which we can’t entirely call successful.

The founder said in an interview with The Verge that the phone will be designed in a way that everyone will easily distinguish that it is Nothing’s product, much like how we easily recognize any Apple product with just a glance. According to him, the release of the phone will also pave the way to another important objective of the company — an ecosystem of interconnected devices. After its launch, the company would be able to explore the creation of other devices and accessories to widen the system’s ecosystem and test them through this first Nothing phone. 

Carl Pei also expressed his dream to give the company’s future devices the ability to use the same Universal Control tech known in Apple and allow them to control other third-party devices seamlessly, including Tesla cars and even Apple’s AirPods. That all sounds dreamy but let’s face it: those plans are still somewhere far in the future. For now, we can focus on the launch of Nothing Phone (1), and from there, we’ll see the next step of this enthusiastic brand.