• Source:JND
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Carl Pei, ex-OnePlus co-founder, has launched the nothing Phone 1 for an introductory price of Rs 32,999 for the 8GB/128 GB variant and Rs 35,999 for the 8GB/256 GB variant and Rs 38,999 for the 12GB/256GB variant. It will be available on 21 July 2022 for pre-order customers exclusively on Flipkart.

The nothing Phone 1 comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G+ chipset and sports a 50MP dual camera setup which includes an ultra wide lens too. There's no macro or telephoto lens to be seen here. It will also sport a 120hz high refresh rate panel with an 6.55 inch OLED display which will have support for in-display fingerprint scanner too.

It won't be shipping with a charger in the box and will support 45W fast charging for its 4500mAh battery.

The phone comes with an LED array at the back which can be seen through its transparent back. The company calls it the Glyph interface and this can be customized for different notifications.

The nothing Phone 1 competes with the likes of the iQOO Neo 6, Poco F4 and the OnePlus Nord 2T.

WHAT's THE HYPE ABOUT?

For those of you who don't know what nothing is - it's a new brand that has been started by Carl Pei, who was also the co-founder of OnePlus back in the day.

He parted ways with the company a few years back and ever since then, he's been working on this really really hyped up brand called nothing.

Well for starters, when the organization rolled out its first product last year- the nothing ear 1, a pair of ANC earphones, a lot of tech experts questioned the hype of the brand since the product didn't really have the charm that the marketing had created. 

Now, with the nothing Phone 1, the search volumes are skyrocketing. Whole of Tech Twitter seems to be talking about the specs of the phone. Even Carl Pei himself took to twitter mentioning the same.

WILL THE PHONE BE ABLE TO MATCH UP TO THE HYPE?

Lets try and break it down piece by piece:

- Design

You've gotta give it to the design team of nothing. They've managed to create all the buzz on social media with its incredible, refreshing design. There's been a lot of clutter in the tech space off late, but the nothing Phone 1 seems to be giving a relief from the usual humdrum designs. The phone definitely looks special, with the customisable LED lights glyph interface on the back, it does shine out in the crowd.

- Invite only format

Carl Pei seems to have taken a book out of the leaf from his early OnePlus days. An invite only system which started with the OnePlus 1, seems to add to the buzz of the device. You can now pre book it though on Flipkart, seems like the invite only model was just to create the hype.

Well, if you can't have it, you want it all the more!

- Eco Friendly Materials

Nothing claims big on using environmentally friendly materials in making the phone 1 such as recyclable aluminum chassis, soy ink printing for the box. All of this also seems to be getting the tree huggers excited.

- Drip Feeding Content

One day there's the back, another day it's the fingerprint sensor, then it's the camera, then it's the LED back panel. They seem to have broken the code of how to drip feed content, one by one. Then finally revealing the device by giving it in the hands of MKBHD, one of the biggest tech youtubers in the world. Quite a tease actually.

WHAT ARE THE MAIN CONCERNS?

- Underwhelming Processor 

While most of the competition in this price point seems to be offering the Qualcomm Snapdragon 870, the nothing phone 1 offers the Snapdragon 778G+. There's a considerable difference in performance between the two processors.

The 778G+ seems to peak out at 545453 in the Antutu benchmarks whereas the Snapdragon 870 offers 689314 benchmark score which is considerably higher than its competitors. Not only the 870, the Mediatek Dimensity in the OnePlus Nord 2T seems to be performing better.

- No charger in the box

Well what apple started with the iphone 12, android world seems to be getting it in there mass market devices as well. I don't seem to get it though, why would a value for money user who's spending 30k on a smartphone want to spend another 1-2k on getting the right charger?

We’ll shortly be reviewing the nothing phone on Jagran Hi Tech Youtube channel and also comparing it to the iQOO Neo 6, OnePlus Nord 2T and the Poco F4. Stay tuned for that.