Hands-On With The Nothing Phone (1): Design Above All

pcmag.com:

Buzzy startup Nothing finally launched its long-awaited smartphone today, the Phone (1), and I've been poking and prodding at the device ever since my unit arrived. If you aren't familiar with it, this handset's claim to fame is its radically transparent back and neon-like lines of light. The Nothing Phone (1) retails for a reasonable £399 ($474) in the UK but, alas, the phone won't work properly in the US and is actually illegal to sell here. More on that further down. First, though, let's celebrate something about Nothing.

The Phone (1) is, to some extent, designed by hipsters, for hipsters. OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei (and a bunch of other ex-OnePlus execs) teamed up with Swedish design firm Teenage Engineering to create something with a bit of the fast-and-smooth philosophy of early OnePlus phones, but with a far edgier visual aesthetic.

I've chatted with Pei a few times over the past few months about his smartphone philosophy. He says he is trying to appeal to a creative class of people—that explains why he initially framed the Phone (1) as a competitor to Apple's iPhone. This positioning as a creative device makes it even more of a tragedy that it won't be available in the US, where so many online creators reside.

To some extent, the Phone (1) reminds me of a time long ago, when phones were fun(Opens in a new window). Back in the mid-2000s, before black slabs ruled the world, phones came in all sorts of wild shapes and sizes; sliders, folders, and spinners were rampant. The Phone (1) is, to some extent, business-as-usual on the front, but the transparent back reveals a whorl of circles and squiggles, like those mechanical watches that showcase their inner workings.

The phone's 6.55-inch, 2,400-by-1,080-pixel OLED