- How do you launch a new phone

with a new tech company in 2022?

If you're Nothing,

and that's literally the name of the company, Nothing,

you get some big name investors on board,

generate a lot of hype,

and stage a big launch event at your London headquarters.

It's not clear yet whether that's a winning formula,

but it's a different approach at least.

Recent attempts to break into the smartphone market

from well-established tech companies

like Red, Essential, Palm, and even Amazon have all flopped.

What makes Nothing think it can stand out?

Cue the light show.

(intense techno music)

(swaggering electronic music)

The Nothing Phone One is a really good mid-range phone

with one very unusual feature.

You're not gonna see it from the front.

The phone's 6.5 inch screen and the aluminum frame

look pretty run of the mill.

But when you take a look at the back panel,

everything is illuminated. (electronic beeping)

Literally.

There's transparent glass on the back, and underneath that,

you can see the guts of the phone,

along with some LED light strips.

When you get a notification,

they blink in combinations called glyphs,

and the phone plays a retro tech-inspired beep or chirp

when they light up.

(electronic beeping)

And that's pretty much this phone's whole deal.

There's some neat retro touches

throughout the user interface.

And some distinctly modern features

like a widget that displays your NFTs.

But if you ignore all of that

then this is just a really good mid-range Android phone.

It starts at 399 pounds, which is about 475 US dollars.

And that's a totally fair price

for features like an OLED screen

with a fast 120 Hertz refresh rate.

Stabilized main camera, wireless charging,

and fast wired charging.

That's not a combination of features

you get in most mid-range phones.

It's a really appealing combination of price and features

we don't often see in the US, but unfortunately,

the Phone One won't be sold here.

Nothing says it plans

to bring other products here in the future,

but it won't be this one, since it's not FCC certified.

The Phone One has also been the subject

of a ton of hype from Nothing leading up to its launch.

Its website says stuff like

"Phone One can bring us back to us"

and "Less distractions, more soul."

It's a little much.

The design and glyph notifications are neat,

but they're more of a style statement than anything.

It's not gonna reconnect you with your inner purpose,

but the Phone One is as good as any $500 phone out there,

with or without blinking lights.

For starters, they're really bright at default settings,

but you can adjust this if you want.

There are 20 different glyphs, 10 ringtones,

and 10 notification alerts.

And you can assign them

to different contacts and alert sounds.

You can pick one glyph for all of your alerts,

or if you wanna

get really fancy, (electronic purring)

you can assign glyphs to specific app notifications.

This all becomes more useful when you turn on Flip to Glyph.

That's a feature that automatically silences notifications

when you turn the phone over,

so you'll just see the glyph flash.

This would be helpful if you're in a situation

where you don't want notifications making noise,

or text splashing across your screen,

but you still wanna know when certain alerts come in.

It's also a neat accessibility feature

for people who might need it.

The glyph system does a few other things too.

It acts as a status indicator when the battery is charging.

And there's a little red light

that blinks when you're recording video.

You can also light up the glyph

while you're using the camera, to act as a fill light,

which is sort of neat.

It has a kind of cool color cast

as opposed to the regular flash, but as a bonus,

it will definitely get a 10 month old baby

to look at the camera.

These are sort of narrow use cases,

so the glyph lights are really more of a novelty,

which is fine.

When you see the glyph feature in action,

you know immediately that this isn't an Apple

or a Samsung or a Google phone.

It makes a statement, just like a nice pair of sneakers,

or some fancy sunglasses.

Most importantly, there's a good device

underneath that flashy exterior.

So you feel like you're getting your money's worth,

even if the glyphs are more ornamental than useful.

(upbeat percussive music)

Looking at Phone One from the front,

it's a lot more familiar.

The rounded corners, flat screen, and aluminum frame

all look pretty similar to recent iPhones.

It's easy to mistake it for a 13 Pro Max

with the screen off,

which I actually did a bunch of times

when they were lying side by side facing up.

In any case,

the Phone One includes a good 6.5 inch 1080p OLED screen,

with a fast refresh rate up to 120 Hertz.

There's a quick, reliable fingerprint sensor

under the display, too.

The phone is also rated IP53

for a little water and dust resistance.

Not as robust as pricier flagships,

but better than, you know, nothing.

(lively electro-pop music)

Nothing went with a Snapdragon 778 processor for the phone,

which surprised a lot of us who were expecting the company

to use a current flagship chip set,

like the Eight Gen One.

But the mid-range processor was a smart choice,

because it delivers really good daily performance,

and it helped keep the overall cost of the phone down.

Coupled with the smooth refresh rate,

the Phone One feels like a really responsive device,

and it's just nice to use.

There are just two rear cameras on the Phone One,

which Nothing makes a big deal about.

Rather than cramming in more low-resolution sensors

to up the lens count,

it offers just standard wide and ultra wide cameras,

both 50 megapixels.

That's a good thing,

and maybe other Android phone makers

will follow Nothing's lead.

The Phone One's cameras are good, but not great.

They take nice photos in good light

with a healthy amount of saturation.

Night mode is effective for static subjects

and really dark conditions.

And the camera does okay in moderate indoor lighting

like a bar.

Portrait mode photos are passable,

though in dim light, they get pretty grainy.

The main camera is stabilized,

which isn't too common for mid-range phones.

And it seems to help in moderate lighting.

Video clips are stabilized

with a combination of optical and electronic stabilization,

which keeps footage looking smooth

and doesn't require a drastic crop.

Overall, there's nothing too flashy

about the Phone One's imaging system.

They're just good middle of the road cameras,

on a good middle of the road phone.

My testing was limited to wifi,

which should be easier on the battery than wireless data.

Even so, battery life has only been okay.

The phone gets through a day of moderate use

without a problem, but streaming a lot of video

would probably make an afternoon battery top off necessary.

The good news is that Phone One

supports 33 watt fast wired charging,