After months of artfully sown indiscretions, Carl Pei, co-founder and CEO of the homonymous start-up (and OnePlus deus ex machina), presented the mid-range Nothing Phone (1) with the promised rear LED games on a back body transparent.
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Preceded by a hype with few precedents, despite the specifications and peculiarities had already been anticipated in time, the curious mid-range Nothing Phone (1) was presented by Carl Pei (ex OnePlus) which goes (from 21 July) to expand the list of the young Asian start-up, up to now only including Ear headphones (1).
The Nothing Phone (1) has a frame (159.2 x 75.8 x 8.3 mm for 193.5 grams), IP53 waterproof (vs dust and water splashes), in recycled aluminum with the plastic parts taken from recycling post consumer or biomaterials: the side edges are flat, while the front and back are two Gorilla Glass 5 plates. The transparent back features the (customizable) Glyph interface, in which a set of 900 LEDs (in the style of the old Alcatel A5 LED), they light up as a notification, such as camera lights, to indicate (red dot) video recording in progress, wired charging in progress (the lower white line), reverse wireless in activity (perhaps resting on it own headphones from the same company). If desired, with the “Flip to Glyph” function, you can get notifications only visual and not sound, understanding what it is without having to rely on the display.
The front, between perfectly symmetrical frames on all sides, places a 6.55-inch Flexible OLED, FullHD + (2400 × 1080 pixels), with adaptive refresh rate from 60 to 120 Hz, 240 Hz of touch sampling, 10-bit color depth , 1,200 nits peak brightness, HDR 10+ support, and underlying fingerprint scanner.
In the hole at the top left, there is a 16 megapixel self-camera (Sony IMX471 sensor from 1 / 3.1 ″, f / 2.45, facial recognition, video up to 1080p. @ 30fps) while, on the back, the double ring at the top of left houses a dual camera, optimized for Scene Detection and Night Mode, with two 50 megapixel sensors: the first is a Sony IMX766 (sized at 1 / 1.56 ″, with f / 1.88 and double stabilization, optical and electric, video up to 4K UHD @ 30fps), while the second is the ultra-wide angle (114 °) Samsung GN1 (sized at 1 / 2.76 ″, with f / 2.2, even an electronic stabilization, and video up to 1080p @ 30 / 60fps). The audio relies on two stereo speakers.
Thanks to the reduced thickness that made it impossible to insert a vigorous heatpipe, but also due to the fact that the top processors over time “have decreasing yields”, we opted for a customized version of the octacore processor (2.5 GHz) Snapdragon 778G, not surprisingly Plus , which Qualcomm has enriched with support for reverse wireless charging (5 watts). The GPU is an Adreno 642L while, in terms of RAM (LPDDR5) and storage, there are three combinations, from 8 + 128 (black, 499 euros), 8 + 256 (black, white, 529 euros) and 12 + 256 GB (white, black, 579 euros).
It is not surprising the battery, from 4,500 mAh, since it is charged wired (50% in half an hour) via Type-C at 33W and in Wireless Qi at 15W. Connectivity includes standalone and non-standalone 5G, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, dual band GPS (L1 + L5) and the NFC module for payments. The operating system, starting with Android 12, will benefit from 3 major updates (up to Android 15) and 4 years of security updates (but every two months): the interface, Nothing OS, is fluid thanks to the absence of bloatware and the the fact that the company has made all the customization elements in-house, such as sounds, widgets, backgrounds and font batteries. The image gallery incorporates a viewer for NFTs and a purse to stay updated on price trends: there is also a Game Mode (reduction of notifications when playing, precise synchronization between images and sounds), while those of the connected devices, albeit from third parties.