A Surprisingly Good Phone With a Party Trick – Review Geek

Let’s just go ahead and say it. From the front, the Nothing Phone 1 looks almost exactly like an iPhone. And that similarity also extends to how it feels. If you blindfolded me and put an iPhone 13 in one of my hands and the Nothing Phone 1 in the other, I would probably have trouble telling the difference. Turn it over, though, and that all changes, thanks to the combination of “transparent” design and Glyph system.

The Nothing Phone 1 comes in either white or black, and I’m testing the latter option. I imagine the white variant does a better job of separating itself from the iPhone, but I rather like this black model. I generally prefer muted colors, especially knowing I’ll probably put a case on the device. Here though, I can’t make that same argument. After all, you can’t grab any old case. You’ll want a transparent case (which Nothing will sell separately) to take advantage of the Glyph system. And it’s also one of the few phones that doesn’t feel like a bar of soap ready to jump from your hands. So you may not feel the need for a case at all.

Check out the edges and the iPhone resemblance continues to show. You’ll find a mic hole and antennae bands along the top, a power button on the right, and volume buttons on the left. The bottom does give away the game thanks to USB-C, at least until Apple finally gets around to making the switch. The bottom is also where you’ll insert your SIM card—what you won’t find is an SD card slot. You either get 128 GBs of storage with 8 or 12 GBs of RAM or 256 GBs of storage with 12 GBs of RAM. Choose wisely.

Head to the back of the phone, though, and the iPhone similarities rapidly disappear.

With the launch of its Ear 1 true wireless earbuds, Nothing started showing off a design aesthetic around transparency. That continues here with the back of the Nothing Phone 1, thanks to a clear glass back. Sure, many phones have glass backs, but they’re usually a solid color. But even though Nothing went with clear glass doesn’t mean you’ll see the internals.

Instead, you’ll see some screws, the wireless charging coil, a few pads and ribbon cables, and the Glyph system. To be honest, it’s a little disappointing at first glance when you go in thinking “transparent phone.” When the company first hinted at that fact, I imagined something akin to those X-Ray skins several companies sell.

But past that, I do like the design. Despite the “visible” screws, this doesn’t appear to be any more repairable than other phones since those screws are below the glass. But the placement of the pads, the lines of the wireless charging coils, and the Glyph LEDs all come together to make something pleasing to the eye. It’s unique and probably stands out even more in the white version.

But the real standout point of the back of the phone is those aforementioned Glyph LEDs. That consists of 900 LEDs arranged in a couple of “C” patterns around the camera and wireless charging oil, a sort of accent mark in the top right, and an “explanation point” just above the USB-C port. They get incredibly bright, enough so I could clearly see them outside on a sunny day. I ended up turning the Glyph system’s brightness down to about 30% most of the time.

Warning: WARNING: The following video may potentially trigger seizures for people with photosensitive epilepsy. Viewer discretion is advised.

The idea here is that you can use the Glyph LEDs as a notification system. They light up in tandem with ringtones, blink when you get notifications, and the “exclamation point” even gives you a sense of your battery level when the phone is charging. It’s neat to look at, and everyone I showed the phone to wanted to see it in action. It’s a crowd pleaser.

But beyond serving as a fun party trick, I’m hard pressed to call the Glyph system useful. To get the most out of it, you need to keep your phone screen side down when it’s out of your pocket, and that’s not my usual habit. I made the point to switch, but then I found myself turning the phone over anyway. Because at the end of the day, the Glyphs only told me that I had a notification, and that’s it. If I wanted to know more, I needed to see the display.

In theory, you can change the notification for individual apps to the same ringtone the Glyph patterns use, and so get custom Glyph blink patterns for each app. And naturally, you can do the same for phone calls and individual contacts. But then you have to remember which pattern you chose for what. And in the case of apps, it still doesn’t tell you much. Sure, I know I got a Slack ping, but what about?

One potentially useful feature is using the Glyph system as a fill light for photos in low-light settings. Instead of using the hard flash, you can opt to light up the Glyph system instead. We’ll get into it more in the camera section, but suffice to say, it produces a better picture so long as the subject is close enough to the phone. But it’s not bright enough to help with anything but a closeup.

Partway through this review, I also found a hidden Glyph feature. If you create a contact named Abra (no other details required) and then assign it a Glyph ringtone, you’ll unlock a Music Visualisation option. That sounded fun and like another good party trick, but in testing, the patterns are pretty random. The video above is that feature in action, and while I can’t play the music in the video, it’s the opening to ‘My Shot’ from Hamilton. I defy you to match the patterns to the music.

Still, it’s a constant tech reviewer joke that all smartphones are the same today—make a slab, add touchscreen and cameras, and you’re done. I’m glad Nothing is trying something new, and it came up with something arguably lovely to look at. But I’m hard-pressed to think of an instance where I wouldn’t be better off leaving the screen side up instead. I do hope Nothing keeps trying because I like what it’s going for here.

The Nothing Phone 1 runs “Nothing OS,” which is the company’s flavor of Android 12. Nothing should get high marks for showing restraint here. You won’t find bloatware, duplicate apps, or useless additions you’ll never use (save maybe that NFT widget). I’d rather have stock Android, but this is “practically stock Android,” so good enough for me.

The most noticeable change comes in the form of fonts, which look like some dot matrix throwback. It’s okay, although if you’re using the default weather widget, you may find the white dot font hard to read on many wallpaper options. Nothing promises three years of OS updates and four years of security updates, which is decent for an Android. But we’ll have to see if the company follows through with the promise; others have made lofty promises and failed after all.

The phone runs very well between the display advantages and the Snapdragon 778G+ chipset. You won’t want to do hardcore gaming on the Nothing Phone 1, but it does fine for everyday use and light gaming. This is an older chipset that won’t top any benchmark charts, but I’ve never once caught myself wishing for more power.

I do want to note, though (and this applies to batter life we’ll touch on as well), in some ways, I couldn’t test the full performance on the Nothing Phone 1. Again, it’s not certified for the U.S. and creates certain limitations. I’m on Consumer Cellular with AT&T towers. I stuck my SIM card in and used APN settings from my Samsung phone. With that in place, I  got 5G service and could make voice calls. But I couldn’t browse the internet while making a voice call.

To be honest, that it worked that well is a surprise. The Nothing Phone doesn’t support VoLTE on AT&T, and that’s a requirement at this point. 3G isn’t supposed to be an option anymore. I also got another surprise, though this one is pleasant: the Nothing Phone is the first entry I’ve tested that actually worked with Google’s Visual Voicemail on Consumer Cellular. Even the Pixel phones refuse to offer that. Things are worse on T-Mobile and Verizon; with the former, you’ll get “unpredictable coverage,” and the Nothing Phone won’t work with the latter at all.

The Nothing Phone 1 packs a 4,500mAh battery, which should be plenty in theory. In practice, maybe that’s not entirely true. I got through the day using the Nothing Phone 1 but typically found myself staring at a 15% or less charge when I set the phone down to go to bed. That’s not great, but it’s “good enough,” I suppose. At least for the day, but don’t expect to make it through a second day if you forgot your charger at home.

Again, I should note that since I’m using the phone on towers it technically doesn’t fully support that my results may not be wholly accurate compared to someone using the phone in Europe or Japan. You might think the Glyph light system is the culprit for the shorter battery life, but that’s not the case. The lights aren’t always lit up after all, and LEDs are battery friendly. Nothing says even if you kept the Glyph lights illuminated for 10 minutes straight, it would only drain the battery by an extra 0.5% or so.

Thankfully the Nothing Phone 1 supports fast charging (and reverse wireless charging). Alas, it doesn’t come with a charging brick, which is the norm, so you’ll need one that supports fast charging if you want to take advantage of that fact. I used it with a OnePlus brick, which is overkill, and the phone jumped from 15% to 100 in a little less than an hour. That helps offset the shorter battery life.

If you live in the U.S., there’s no way I can recommend trying to buy the Nothing Phone 1. Even if you could get your hands on one (which would be difficult at best), you’d probably overpay, and there’s no guarantee it will work well with your cell phone service at all. it’s more likely it won’t work well with your service.

Everyone else, though, should actually consider buying one. No seriously. After using the Nothing Phone 1 for a few weeks, I can wholeheartedly recommend it. It’s a solid phone with great features, especially for the price. Nothing did a great job of creating a good product that performs how I want it to.

And consider this: the Nothing Phone 1 starts at £399, or around $480. When’s the last time you held a phone in your hand that cost less than $500 and also felt as good as an iPhone? Practically never, I’d guess. That might be the story of the Nothing Phone 1—a phone that punches well above its price, tries a few new things, and lands on mostly solid ground. It’s not perfect, mind you. But no phone is, especially at this price. I’ve enjoyed my time with it and have been pleasantly surprised on more than one occasion by Nothing’s take on Android and hardware in general.

It’s true that the Glyph system is probably a party trick at best. But the rest of the phone adds up to a competent performer at a reasonable price while feeling practically premium in the hand. And that’s well … not nothing. I’ll see myself out.