The Nothing Phone 1 by Oneplus co-founder Carl Pei is said to be better than all other smartphones, but the marketing is above all better. But that doesn’t make the smartphone a bad device.
When Carl Pei, as co-founder of the then new Oneplus brand, launched the Oneplus One in 2014, the device made a name for itself with great value for money – and with extensive and aggressive marketing methods. Information about the smartphone was regularly passed on to the public in numerous bits and pieces, so that the device was quickly on everyone’s lips – after all, everyone wanted to know what the complete smartphone actually is. Added to this was the congenial “invention” of the term “flagship killer”, which characterized the first years and models of the manufacturer. It hardly bothered that, strictly speaking, that wasn’t true, since the real flagship smartphones could always do more, the term spread around the world like wildfire. He wasn’t really wrong either
Why the excursion into history and the mention of Carl Pei, who as co-founder should actually play second fiddle? Very simple: Pei started his own new company Nothing together with well-known financiers at the beginning of 2021 and the first smartphone, simply named Nothing Phone 1, is now available in stores. Nothing like “nothing”? More like “like nothing else”. At least that’s true when it comes to marketing. Because here, too, the typical Pei information bomb was used, so that the entire mobile phone industry felt like there was only one topic left: the Nothing Phone. That marketing can also promise too much and the buyer’s favor then turns into the opposite, i.e. in sensory overload or even disappointment with the real product,
A plus point of the Nothing Phone 1 is definitely the design. Not because of the similarity to the iPhone 13 – that would have been judged a few years ago as a brazen iPhone copy, today you see it more loosely. Sure: The angular metal frame around the device with the completely straight front and back cannot hide the similarities to the Apple product in terms of the pure form factor. This ensures a high degree of value, since the workmanship of the Nothing Phone 1 is surprisingly good, but also for the accusation of the brazen copy. However, it quickly falls silent when you look at the back and when it is switched on also when you look at the front.
Let’s start with the obvious: the back is semi-transparent and comes with multiple LED strips. You can’t really see much through the transparent Gorilla Glass 5 on the back, and those who expect chips or circuit paths will be disappointed. But you can see the individual, encapsulated components such as the centrally located Qi coil for wireless charging and some screws – that’s quite exciting and just plain interesting. There are also several bands of micro LEDs, the manufacturer promises a total of 900 of the tiny light sources. Seen in portrait format, they are divided into several symbols: There is an exclamation mark at the bottom, a kind of slash at the top right and the dual camera at the top left is framed by the letter C. In the middle and as the largest light installation, the charging coil is surrounded by a format-filling C (or G?). All light strips are kept white, colors cannot be displayed. You can argue about the usefulness of the whole thing, because there are not many possible uses at the moment. This includes the display of incoming messages and calls, including the assignment of certain contacts to different light signal combinations and use as lighting for night shots. But that’s something and besides that it’s one thing above all: different. And depending on your taste even quite chic. Only those who suffer from epilepsy should do without the sometimes stroboscopic flickering strips of light. But of course they can also be switched off,
All pictures of the Nothing Phone 1 in the test
There are also differences to the more expensive iPhones at the front. Because there is – at least with a bright screen background – a surprisingly wide display edge, which is exactly the same width everywhere. Together with the Nothing’s font design, which appears to be made up of individual pixels, this doesn’t bother you at all, although there have long been smartphones with finer edges in the price range around 450. Instead, this results in a coherent retro feeling and further sets the Nothing Phone 1 apart from the iPhone. The rest is as usual. The (only) two camera lenses are individually framed and protrude from the glass surface on the back, the buttons – power on the right and volume rocker on the left – are embedded in the frame without wobbling to match the excellent workmanship and shine with optimal key travel and pressure point.
screen
The specifications of the display are good: 2400 x 1080 pixels extend over 6.55 inches, it displays 1.07 billion instead of 16 million colors and the technology used is OLED with up to 120 Hz. These are good basic data that would also fit a slightly more expensive model. Of course, at least as important is how it all works in everyday life – and here we can give the all-clear. Because even if Nothing is still very young as a manufacturer and not overly big, it does its job properly. Contrasts are well defined, the image sharpness is high thanks to 469 ppi (pixels per inch) and colors are displayed intensively or more naturally, depending on the setting.
The brightness does not exceed 450 cd/m² in manual mode and 620 candela in automatic mode. This is neither particularly dark nor excessively bright, but rather mediocre and more or less in line with the price of the device. The smartphone elite sometimes creates twice the radiance and then does not cause any problems even with readability in blazing sun – this only works to a limited extent with the Nothing Phone 1, a shade-giving hand should help here. By the way: In addition to the play of light on the back, an always-on display can also be set.
camera
The camera also sounds good at first. Nothing on the Phone 1 does without superfluous lenses for depth of field and macro shots, we think that’s a good thing. The two built-in lenses also bring quite convincing values: the main camera takes pictures with 50 megapixels, f/1.88 and optical image stabilizer (OIS), the wide-angle also uses 50 megapixels, but does without the OIS and comes with a less light-sensitive aperture of f /2.2. A 16-megapixel front camera is used for selfies.
The main sensor from Sony (IMX766) is sometimes already in significantly cheaper models such as the Oneplus Nord 2T (test report), but can also be found in more expensive models – so the hardware base is decent so far. Unfortunately, the fear that we had already indicated about the display, namely that such a new and small manufacturer cannot keep up with the competition, at least in terms of software, is at least partially confirmed with the camera. Although the pictures taken with the main camera are anything but bad, they still don’t quite come close to the surprisingly high quality in relation to the price of the Oneplus device. The difference isn’t big, but it’s there. Even if photos offer sufficient image dynamics, sharpness and color fidelity, especially during the day and in good light, a difference can be seen here when looking at the details. As the light decreases, the difference becomes even greater, despite the OIS, the difference to the Nord 2T is even clearer in terms of image sharpness. That is sufficient and far from “bad”. There is also hope that the lead over the competition can be caught up with via firmware updates. At the time of the test, however, it still existed.
A nice gimmick in low light is the darker and therefore softer light of the LED strips on the back of the smartphone, called glyphs, in contrast to the flash. The light doesn’t reach far, but it can be quite helpful at close range.
The main camera is okay, but the wide-angle can’t keep up. The built-in Samsung JN1 clearly lags behind in terms of image sharpness and richness of detail, image dynamics and image noise. This is especially true for night shots – because of the weaker aperture and the lack of OIS, that was to be expected. In daylight, there is still a distance to the main lens, but it is less then. Nothing has to hide with its two lenses, even if – as I said – there is still room for improvement.
Videos do not look bad at all in terms of pure image quality and the sound and stabilization are also decent, but they are limited to 4K/30. Especially with panning, an unsightly blur always creeps in – a pity. Videos with the front camera are limited to 1080p/30, but this is sufficient for video calls. Overall, the image quality is also appealing for photos, even if colors are sometimes overemphasized.
Furnishing
Nothing has opted for a Snapdragon 778G Plus chipset for the Phone 1, whose prime core clocks up to 2.5 GHz. It’s not a top processor, which is probably one of the reasons why the device doesn’t pass as a flagship killer (and isn’t advertised as such either). In fact, according to Carl Pei, this is a good compromise between performance and cost, and we agree. Because the Nothing Phone 1 runs in everyday life, thanks to the 120 Hz display nothing gets stuck or jerks. Games aren’t a problem either, but you might have to turn down the graphics slightly for particularly demanding titles. Anyone who thought the Phone 1 was a full-fledged gaming smartphone because of the fireworks on the back is wrong.
Accordingly, there are no high scores in benchmarks, but rather solid results. Work 3.0 from PCmark spits out about 10,800 points, 3Dmark Wild Life 2850 points. Top devices with Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 even go beyond the scale for the normal wildlife test, where Wildlife Extreme must be used. This supports the previous statement: It’s enough for everyday use without any problems, benchmark fetishists should look around in more expensive areas. The rest of the equipment offers little room for criticism. Competitors such as the Google Pixel 6a offer Wifi 6e instead of “only” Wifi 6, and the Android makers are also ahead in terms of USB speed with 3.1 instead of USB 2.0. Even if at least the higher USB speed would also be welcomed as a standard in the middle class – unfortunately this is not normal and the Nothing Phone 1 can only be blamed to a limited extent for its lack. We think it’s a shame that the internal storage cannot be expanded using a memory card. After all, additional memory from 128 to 256 GB is surprisingly cheap with an additional charge of 30 euros. Both versions then have 8 GB RAM if desired, along with 256 GB interested parties can also opt for 12 GB RAM. That’s a lot in the middle class, but costs an additional 50 euros, in our opinion, disproportionately much. More information can be found in our feature table. that the internal memory cannot be expanded with a memory card. After all, additional memory from 128 to 256 GB is surprisingly cheap with an additional charge of 30 euros. Both versions then have 8 GB RAM if desired, along with 256 GB interested parties can also opt for 12 GB RAM. That’s a lot in the middle class, but costs an additional 50 euros, in our opinion, disproportionately much. More information can be found in our feature table. that the internal memory cannot be expanded with a memory card. After all, additional memory from 128 to 256 GB is surprisingly cheap with an additional charge of 30 euros. Both versions then have 8 GB RAM if desired, along with 256 GB interested parties can also opt for 12 GB RAM. That’s a lot in the middle class, but costs an additional 50 euros, in our opinion, disproportionately much. More information can be found in our feature table. but costs an additional 50 euros disproportionately much in our opinion. More information can be found in our feature table. but costs an additional 50 euros disproportionately much in our opinion. More information can be found in our feature table.
Instead, a few words about the fingerprint sensor and the stereo speakers. The sensor is positioned a little far at the lower edge of the display. Overall, he is not one of the fastest representatives of his guild, but works satisfactorily enough. The stereo speakers (hybrid above, dedicated below) achieve a high volume and even create a hint of bass – not bad.
There are fewer highlights in terms of software, because the simple NothingOS, like the competition, is a launcher and not a complete overhaul. Underneath, Android 12 works with a cutting-edge security patch from July 2022, there should be major updates for another three years, and security patches for another four years. It’s not great, but it’s above average. There are a few adjustments on the surface, the rest is clearly based on vanilla Android. Of course, the adjustments include a dedicated control panel for the glyphs on the back, which are basically used to signal calls and messages or as a “ring light” for low-light recordings. A charge indicator during the filling process can also provide an additional overview and the Google Assistant can use a visual rash to indicate how much his microphones are picking up. This is definitely a unique selling point, but the practical use is rather limited – it just looks interesting. Other customizations include connectivity to a Tesla vehicle, which we would have liked to test – unfortunately, neither car makers nor smartphone makers were willing to provide us with a car for it. There is also the option of displaying your NFTs (Non Fungible Tokens) in a targeted gallery. that we would have liked to have tested – unfortunately, neither car manufacturers nor smartphone manufacturers wanted to provide us with a car for it. There is also the option of displaying your NFTs (Non Fungible Tokens) in a targeted gallery. that we would have liked to have tested – unfortunately, neither car manufacturers nor smartphone manufacturers wanted to provide us with a car for it. There is also the option of displaying your NFTs (Non Fungible Tokens) in a targeted gallery.
battery pack
The battery with its 4500 mAh turned out to be the biggest disappointment in our test. It only lasted 7.5 hours in 120 Hz operation in the PC-Mark battery test, and the smartphone refused further runs. That’s very little. In the test, the smartphone proved to be a one-day model that should be charged at least every night, but it can get tight even with intensive use. Some competitors, such as the Google Pixel 6a for the same price, do this much better and also cheaper models like the Oneplus Nord 2T (test report)with 90 Hz are clearly ahead despite similar hardware. Around 1 to 2 hours should be added when using the 60 Hz frequency, but it doesn’t get much better with the battery. Maybe Nothing can get more out of this via software. Incidentally, the glyphs on the back are not to blame for the smartphone’s poor battery life. Extrapolated at maximum brightness, according to the manufacturer, they would consume around 3 percent of the battery per hour – but in everyday life they are used more for seconds than minutes throughout the day.
The charging speed is also not a highlight of the Nothing Phone 1, but the charging options are. 33 watts are today rather lower standard, so the device needs about 45 minutes for a full charge. The problem: There is no charger included, but there is a USB-C to USB-C cable. If you prefer to charge wirelessly, you can do it in both directions: to your smartphone and from there to other compatible devices without a cable – reverse wireless charging. This is rather rare in the middle class.
Price
There is a choice of storage variants between 8/128 GB for 469 euros, 8/256 GB for 499 euros and 12/256 GB for 549 euros. The Nothing Phone 1 is available in black and white.
Conclusion
No, the Nothing Phone 1 is not a super smartphone, it is not better than anything that has come before. But overall it’s good and above all different. Let’s start at the beginning: The display fits well into the middle class, with a decent display and only slight deductions in brightness. The technical equipment is sufficient for everyday use, you shouldn’t expect a flagship killer just because the head of the new company has done it before in a different position.
The camera still has potential, at the time of testing it was a good average. Unfortunately, this does not apply to the battery, because it is simply too weak. This is probably not due to the hardware, so that there is still hope for improvement here. At this point in time, however, the Phone 1’s stamina is still below average. On the other hand, the option of wireless charging is great.
Let’s get to the obvious highlight: The model looks like an iPhone at first glance, but reveals more unique selling points than most other devices on the market, especially with the transparent back and the installed LED strips. In addition, it is excellently processed. You have to like the extroverted design, but if you don’t like flashing lights on your smartphone, you should look around for alternatives.
In summary, the Nothing Phone 1 is a solid mid-range smartphone that primarily has an expectation problem. Because of Nothing’s extroverted marketing ploy, the device was simply overhyped. At some point, “good” is no longer enough.
Alternatives are the new Google Pixel 6a with a better camera, more performance and significantly longer battery life, or the Xiaomi 11T Pro (test report) with more performance, a better camera and a stronger, ultra-fast battery. A Oneplus Nord 2T (test report) is cheaper and hardly worse . Further alternatives can be found in our top 10 of the best smartphones up to 500 euros .
