It’s become a routine exercise for most Android brands year after year. Bung in the latest processor, update the camera, make the battery go some extra miles, slip in new colour options and what you get is a new smartphone. Everywhere you look, it’s mostly a selection as monotonous as a supermarket’s washing powder aisle.
There was a pleasant break from the monotony last year, thanks to Carl Pei and his London-based company, Nothing. His team wanted to redefine what an Android phone can do. The 33-year-old has spent most of his life so far designing successful tech products. You have heard of OnePlus, right? He co-founded it, made it a success and then, in 2020, left for an adventure that was his own. His company’s first phone — called Nothing Phone (1) — thrived on simplicity to offer meaningful interactions for the user. It offered a much-needed relief Android needed.
The iPhone continues to win hearts with its soul and personality; Nothing is trying to do the same with its Android offering. And this week will prove to be an important one for the young company as Nothing Phone (2) releases on July 11.
An element of transparency
Nothing is not hesitant to talk to the world about a few of the high points of its upcoming launches. There are quite a few things we already know about the upcoming phone, like it will have the powerful Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset, which is a clear upgrade from the midrange Snapdragon 778 chipset. Pei knows that the performance upgrade is necessary to ensure the new phone remains relevant longer, besides offering significant improvements in battery performance, camera capabilities, network connectivity and heat management. Why not the Gen 2 chipset? The cost increase will not be justified from a user-benefit standpoint.
Further, it will offer three years of Android updates and four years of security updates, which once again ensures that you can hold on to the device longer. It will also be a phone that will have more recycled elements.
To make personalisation run deep, Nothing has added a Glyph Composer that will allow users create custom ringtones and flashing light patterns based on synth sounds from the EDM supergroup Swedish House Mafia. In fact, the glyph interface, which is the heart of the phone, is undergoing an update, according to a video from YouTuber Marques Brownlee. MKBHD has shown the extra zones of LED lighting on the phone, allowing more granular control over the lighting effects: There are 33 zones versus 12 on the Phone (1). The glyph interface can now inform the user how loud the volume is, the progress of a timer and, in the future when third-party apps are allowed access, show the time it will take for Uber or Zomato service to arrive.
Focus on India
When Nothing Phone (1) arrived, it was about showing the world the importance of breaking free from a cookie-cutter existence. This time, Pei and his team have more to prove.
Sure it’s a London-based company but Pei has always known the importance of the Indian market. Usually, we talk about India being a price-conscious market, which it will always be, but young customers are also looking for quality. It can no longer be about offering another phone with a menu talking about specs. It can’t be only about figures; design plays an important role, which has been proved by the success of Nothing products, like the Ear (1) and (2), Ear (stick) and Phone (1).
Such has been the buzz around the upcoming launch that pre-order passes to buy the phone have already been sold out on Flipkart. Needless to say, the company is working towards ramping up production to meet demands. And the best way to meet consumer demand in India will be to manufacture in India, which Nothing is doing in Tamil Nadu.
Focus on software
It will be interesting to see the effect of Nothing phones in the long run. Samsung has always been around across a wide spectrum of price points, going from budget to flagship and now foldable, besides offering tight integration with its vast selection of appliances. At the same time, Xiaomi has a loyal base thanks to its phones as well as ecosystem products. But where does OnePlus fit in?
When Pei co-founded OnePlus with Pete Lau, the idea was to offer an experience that wasn’t compromised, be it in terms of hardware or software. Suddenly in a sea of Android smartphones, users had another choice — a clean software interface in the form of OxygenOS on OnePlus phones. The philosophy continued well for years and there was a sense of hardware consistency. After Pei’s departure, things became a bit uneven. One year, the much-loved alert slider was left in and then it was left out. Sure, things are changing for OnePlus and it’s getting better but one also has to remember that it’s a highly competitive market.
Pei has put a lot of focus on software on Nothing phones. So far it’s one of the cleanest OS we have seen on Android in a long time. It’s a new company, so we need to wait to get a feel of its software upgrade track record. But a recent article in Inverse makes for an interesting read. It says that several former OnePlus software leads are designing Nothing OS, including Shawn Liu, one of the lesser-known co-founders of Nothing. Liu, it seems, was an integral part of the OxygenOS team, creating the Zen Mode and the software for the always-on display. Sam Lee is also on the Nothing ship. If Inverse is right, then 70 per cent of the software development team at Nothing is from OnePlus. All of them share Pei’s vision of taking the industry away from the ennui that has set in. And it’s making us look forward to Nothing OS 2.0.
It’s difficult to define the word ‘nothing’ because we are always doing something. There is a Dutch idea called niksen or the idea of doing nothing. Over a period of time, it makes one see things clearly, beyond our clichéd idea of busyness. Perhaps that’s what Nothing is trying to achieve — go beyond the obvious. Let’s see if Nothing Phone (2) achieves it but, at the same time, Nothing shouldn’t forget that it’s a market packed with competition; there’s no room for slip-ups.
Carl Pei, CEO and co-founder of London-based Nothing
A glimpse of the Gylph setup on Nothing Phone (2)