The Nothing Phone Can Do That (Spoiler: More Than Nothing)

The launch of the Nothing Phone 1 was overshadowed by PR clouds like no tech device has for a long time: interacting with the new mobile phone should be easier, better, more meaningful. Ultimately, as our test showed, the Phone 1 is essentially a perfectly normal Android smartphone – albeit a very special one. Our trial.

Pragmatic technical equipment – more than good enough

The Nothing Phone does a lot of things differently from the rest of the industry. It starts with the flat cardboard box, which you tear open like a package and which is almost as flat as a smartphone, but twice as wide. To some extent, the packaging also symbolizes many of the concepts in this device: it looks very different from what you’re used to – but the core function hasn’t changed. Glyphs can be an exception here – more on that later.

A look at the technical data places the device in the upper middle class: large battery (4500 mAh), fast Snapdragon 778G processor, 128 or 256 GB RAM and 8 or 12 GB RAM. For a phone that costs between 430 and 500 francs, this is an appropriate and very pragmatic configuration. There’s enough power and storage space to make everything feel fast and effortless.

This is matched by the 6.55-inch OLED display with a resolution of 2400 x 1080 pixels and a refresh rate of 120 Hz. This is quite advanced, but useful equipment. The same goes for the two 50 MP cameras with wide-angle and ultra-wide-angle lenses, the main camera even has optical image stabilization. The images are good, but especially in low light the images cannot match those of high-end devices – but they also cost several hundred francs more.

The features and performance of the Nothing Phone 1 is decent at best, without most users ever missing out. There’s a really good mix of hardware for the money here.

The charming quirks

Pragmatic and cheap also sounds a bit boring – the Nothing Phone 1 is the opposite. The main reason for this is the back of the device: here you can not only see through the transparent glass inside the device – more than 900 LEDs provide a special light spectacle.

Glyph calls it nothing. The individual lighting elements can light up in different combinations and rhythms and thus theoretically represent a whole series of events.

You can add your own sound and glyph to incoming calls, emails, Insta messages and more. The idea behind this is that you can put the phone on the display and still not miss important messages as they come in.

To really use this you need to learn some glyphs – it was too tedious for us in the test. But it looks cool anyway.

Overall, the phone’s operating system is laced with stylish retro elements, and the sounds match that too. This makes the operation feel cool and special – although the same Android works under the skin as with other devices.

Conclusion: A really good smartphone that stands out

The first smartphone from the new manufacturer Nothing makes an all-round successful impression. Obviously a lot of thought has gone into users who are interested in their smartphone and want to do everything with it, but are not willing to pay 800 francs or more for a high-end device.

At the same time, the Phone 1 is a real statement: at first glance, this device looks different from most devices. If you want to stand out from the crowd with your mobile phone, you will certainly succeed with this device – even in the dark.

If you don’t need the very best or the fastest device – or just don’t want to spend more than 800 francs for a smartphone, but still want an easy-to-use, fast mobile phone, then the Nothing Phone 1 comes highly recommended. An extremely successful start of Nothing in the smartphone, even without the hype.