Nothing Phone (1) review: A trippy lightshow at an affordable price

Officially unveiled in a trendy east London event space by its swaggering CEO and founder, the messianic visionary Carl Pei himself, the Nothing Phone (1) promised nothing less than a epoch-defining revolution in how we interact with technology.

“A new way to communicate,” thrums the marketing materials, as if the rapture were upon us and we had moments to get our affairs in order. “Less distractions. More soul. Just pure instinct, formed as a machine. It’s here now. Phone (1) has arrived.”

Of course, with all of this white hot hype flying around, the debut smartphone from tech startup Nothing was always on a collision course with cold, boring reality. As anyone should have guessed, behind all of the bluster the Nothing Phone (1) is just a phone. An excellent mid-range Android phone with some unique features and a tantalising price, but still just a phone.

Nothing founder Carl Pei made a name for himself when he helped launch OnePlus almost a decade ago. The brand is now best known for its premium flagship Android devices, but OnePlus was once a disruptive outsider infamous for producing super-optimised, smartly designed phones costing a fraction of the competition.

As OnePlus phones matured and began to conform to the mainstream mould set by the likes of Xiaomi and Oppo, there was a new opening for a truly interesting entry-level smartphone costing less than £400. Enter the Phone (1), only the second product launch from London-based Nothing, following the launch of its popular Ear (1) wireless earbuds last year (£89.99, Amazon.co.uk).

Read more:

How we tested

We’ve been testing the Nothing Phone (1) in the weeks leading up to the phone’s launch, as well as using the phone as our regular daily device ever since. We paid close attention to its standout features and custom Android software, testing the camera in a range of lighting conditions and putting the battery through its paces using high-drain gaming apps.

We’ll start with the Phone (1)’s stand-out feature, which Nothing is calling the glyph interface. The back of the phone is transparent, revealing not only the phone’s apparent innards, but a configuration of segmented white LEDs that can be illuminated in all sorts of ways and in concert with the notifications appearing on the phone.

The largest is a ring light surrounding the wireless charging coil, which hovers above an exclamation mark by the charging port. Around the camera module is a C-shaped indicator. To the right an energetic forward-slash. These lights all ring and flash in tandem with the Nothing Phone (1)’s unique library of notification sounds, a set of snickety-snackety pings and whistles that are utterly unlike the gentle digital chimes of more boring phones.

One sounds like a frozen pea being spat into a wine glass. Another sounds like a 1950s robot being startled by a ghost. One sounds like you’re tuning an old radio. When accompanied by the synchronised flashing LEDs, the audio-visual spectacle is a bit like being trapped inside The Cube while Philip Schofield chases you around doing sound effects.

With your phone face down on a table, specific patterns of flashing lights let you tell at a glance whether you’ve got an email or an incoming call, and by assigning patterns to contacts you can (with some practice) tell who’s trying to reach you without touching your phone. Of course, both of these tricks can be achieved on any phone simply by leaving it face up on the table, so you can see the screen.

Nothing Phone (1) display and design

The Nothing Phone (1) has an excellent display, boasting a 6.55in Full HD OLED screen and a 120Hz refresh rate. That’s a smoother display than the identically priced Google Pixel 6a.

The phone has a flat screen, but uses a flexible OLED panel to “tuck” the bottom edge of the display underneath itself, creating extra room along the bottom of the phone. This means the device has evenly thick bezels all around – a small (and expensive) design touch that gives the Nothing Phone (1) a polished and refined appearance and should please perfectionists.

The uniformly flat-edge design is reminiscent of the iPhone 12, so much so that you’d easily confuse the Nothing Phone (1) for an Apple device if it weren’t for the wild lightshow happening behind the back glass.

The phone is also super-lightweight and feels secure in the palm, with clear attention paid to the placement of antenna bands and the machining of buttons and speaker grilles. It’s a great looking phone, no matter which side you’re looking at.

Nothing Phone (1) camera

As part of a £399 phone, the cameras aren’t here to compete with super high-end flagships, but they’re functional enough thanks to a pair of 50MP sensors. This gives the Nothing Phone (1) great picture quality in daylight and indoors, and decent enough results in low light conditions.

The glyph interface can be used as a makeshift ring light when shooting in portrait mode, and even features a blinking red recording light when filming, just in case you ever find yourself in the early 1990s tracking down a witch in the woods.

Nothing Phone (1) software

Just as OnePlus was on a mission to strip away all of the garbage software so many Android phones come bundled with, the Nothing Phone (1) takes stock Android and streamlines it to within an inch of its life. Unlike the average Samsung phone, which has a litany of Samsung apps alongside almost identical stock Android apps, there’s no duplicated software on Nothing OS.

Out of the box the software experience feels squeaky clean and fuss-free, and we like the option to tweak things such as the sizes of icons in the settings tray and of folders on the home screen. The default wallpaper reminds us of our nan’s front door, too, which we appreciate.

Nothing Phone (1) performance

Performance is where the Nothing Phone (1) takes its foot of the gas and reminds you that, beyond its flashy and premium stylings, it’s still a £399 mid-range device. The phone is powered by a cheaper and older generation Snapdragon processor and starts with a just-about-adequate 8GB of RAM.

That’s a decent enough specification for most users today – apps open quickly, the phone doesn’t heat up and multitasking isn’t an issue – but in a few years this will be old technology. And as software becomes more demanding, we could notice the Phone (1) slowing down more quickly than a better equipped device.

Battery life is another weak spot for the Nothing Phone (1). With heavy usage throughout the day – gaming, filming, looking at dogs on TikTok – the phone would run out of juice well before we could make it back to the bedside charger. Charging is quick however, and Android software should be capable of squeezing more efficiency out of hardware as the phone learns and adapts to your usage patterns.

The Verdict: Nothing Phone (1)

We love a phone that catches attention, and the Nothing Phone (1) does exactly that. Whether it’s sitting on a table and flashing aggressively like an alien spaceship coming in to land, or it’s making sounds like a Yamaha keyboard falling down the stairs, the phone will never fail to elicit a “what the actual hell is that?” from friends, family and concerned bystanders.

But beyond the pomp and hype of the phone’s big launch, and looking past the novelty glyph interface, the Nothing Phone (1) is a perfectly decent mid-range Android phone with a great design and a premium finish. Proof that affordable needn’t mean boring, it’s perhaps the most exciting cheap phone we’ve ever tested.