Nothing’s Carl Pei (who was also the founder of OnePlus) on various occasions has made it clear that he feels the smartphone industry today has become boring. He says that the large tech companies have lost innovation and almost all of the smartphones today are the same. Pei with his startup Nothing wants to bring the innovation back, bring the excitement and fun back to smartphone.
New releases today have slight improvements over the previous iterations. This definitely makes the mainstream smartphone market look stagnant and unexciting. Carl with Nothing wants to make the market interesting, he wants people to be excited for upcoming phones because they would bring exciting new features to the table.
On July 12th Nothing would officially launch their first ever phone the Phone (1). The company has already revealed the design of the smartphone and has left a lot of people awestruck. The phone while has proportions similar to any regular smartphone, it also has some very unusual features that look more than just gimmicks.
The phone (1) is currently marketed in a single white color. The phone features 2 rear cameras and a transparent back that shows the skilfully crafted inside of the phone. It also features unusually shaped strips of leds in the back glass that the tech startup calls the Glyph Interface. The Glyph Interface acts as a notification led on steroids giving a lot more information through various light patterns
The company has yet not revealed any information on the internals or the performance of the device, but rumours suggest that the smartphone features a snapdragon 778G+ SoC. The SoC can be found in smartphones like Motorola Edge 30, Vivo T2 Pro (upcoming) and Honor 70 (upcoming). The specs place the smartphone in the premium midrange category.
We expect the price of the Phone (1) to be between 30 to 40 thousand Rupees. The Nothing Phone 1 definitely looks premium for the price range. Carl seems to be using the same strategy he used with OnePlus, building a device at a mid range price yet building features around it that are exclusive to the premium segment.
The Ear (1) gives a clear indication of this strategy being implied. Priced at Rs. 6999, the ear 1s provide a wide range of features and quality that is much better than its competitors. Carl definitely wants the phone to attract the masses without loosing on it’s plan to become a premium technology company in the future.
But is the phone really that revolutionary? Carl wants to build an ecosystem of products similar to what Apple has built, but with a more open approach. The ambitious startup wants to build an ecosystem where every device you own works together (even if it is not built by Nothing) with the Phone (1) being at it’s core. They also claims that the Phone (1) would connect seamlessly with not just devices like your headphones and speakers but also your PCs and even a Tesla.
While companies like Samsung are already trying to build an ecosystem even working with Microsoft to make Windows and Android work together, these are still not as open as Nothing claims its implementation would be.
The innovation which Carl claims to have been lost in todays smartphones compared to when the first iPhone was launched is obvious. Considering the fact that the iPhone was the first device with the multitouch and an all screen interface there is very little you could go in after that. The basic rectangular form factor used today might seem a bit boring but it brings about consistency in the smartphone market making shifting from one phone to another very easy.
Companies today are trying to diverge into different form factors while still keeping a similar experience by announcing foldable devices. While these are still in their early stages they are signs that the innovation is not completely lost. Companies are trying to bring new stuff to the table without compromising the user experience.
Carl with this new venture has definitely been making big claims and it would only be a matter of time to find out how well would they stand on their promise. Nothing wants to change the smartphone market and might be moving in the right direction.
