The Nothing phone (1) is output. If it’s a good phone, it doesn’t really reinvent the way of using a smartphone. But is it normal to expect that from a phone? That’s what we’re going to talk about.
We tested the Nothing phone (1) and we rather liked it. But as its release approached, an impression came over us: what if we had done too much on this phone? When we write ” we », we mean here the microcosm of tech enthusiasts and all the specialized sites, who have been jumping for several months on the slightest bit of information. As the expression wants it: the hype was very strong, even perhaps too strong.
Because yes, we are not talking about a flagship like a Galaxy S22 Ultra, Honor Magic 4 Pro or Vivo X80 Pro, but very much a mid-range phone with a mid-range chip, mid-range photo capabilities, mid-range display, materials… in short, you get the idea.
What does Nothing say?
Even Carl Pei himself, co-founder of Nothing and former mastermind of OnePlus, wrote shortly before the launch of the phone on his Twitter account: “Too much ‘hype’ for phone (1) in my humble opinion. »
Too much hype for Phone (1) imho
—Carl Pei (@getpeid) July 9, 2022
At the launch of the phone in London on July 12, 2022, Frandroidwas able to question the young entrepreneur about this surprising sentence.
“I was scrolling through my Twitter feed and I couldn’t see anything but Nothing, Nothing, Nothing everywhere… It was crazy. I mean, it’s just a smartphone, it’s not like grass that people can touch outside. There shouldn’t be so much hype for it. »
The commentary on the sentence is therefore just as astonishing as the sentence itself. We then asked him if he was implying that buyers were going to be disappointed by the mid-range positioning of the Nothing phone (1), which does not generally cause such an expectation. There, his answer is clearer.
“Mid-range, high-end, entry-level…it’s bullshit”
“That’s the thing. Mid-range, high-end, entry-level…it’s bullshit. Some people will look at our phone and the first thing they will say is: [il prend un ton déçu] ‘oh, it’s mid-range’. Sure, we have a mid-range processor, but we also have glass on the back to name a few. The word mid-range is for people who only look at the spec sheet, but we want to be more than that. »
Among our brothers and sisters of Numeramaat the question, ” Aren’t you afraid that the media coverage is too much for a company that hasn’t proven anything yet?“, the founder responds in short that they will be judged on the products, citing Apple in passing. “People remember that they used good Apple products in the past, so they anticipate that the next Apple product will be really good. That’s why they’re excited about him. So I think that for us, above all, it has to be a company that makes good products. »
The big surprise: no surprise
This is certainly apparent from reading our test, but the most surprising element of the phone (1) is certainly its lack of surprise.
However during the first event of presentation of the telephone, Carl Pei had promised to“show people that we can change things”. With this kind of sentence, we were therefore entitled to expect a few more surprises than a simple telephone.
The hype was also fueled by another phenomenon. Over the days before its launch, we gradually discovered various elements that seemed to mount that Nothing could explore several exciting avenues that could shake us up.
More precisely, if we go back some time before its release, four elements could legitimately arouse hype in our eyes:
- A very original design in transparency with the added utility offered by the glyph, the name given to the set of LEDs that can be seen at the back;
- A new OS, certainly based on Android, but coming from a company that claimed as much Apple and marked by its links with OnePlus, there was much to expect a lot in terms of fluidity in particular;
- A design close to the iPhone which implied premium finishes;
- The very good value for money of Nothing’s first product, the ears (1), which suggested the same thing.
If we take stock (calmly) of these four promises (for some tacit of course), it is clear that the expectation was indeed much too high, because none is really fulfilled.
Not as promised, but still very good
the glyph, if it brings a small hint of novelty, does not completely change the game and the same goes for the transparent background. Admittedly, this allows you to have a phone that is unlike any other, but that’s all.
NothingOS for its part is perhaps the element that most meets expectations. The fluidity is there. What bothers us more is that the new OS looks a bit empty next to an Android 12 from Pixel for example.
On the design side, the handling, although pleasant, is light years away from an iPhone, in particular because of its aluminum edges.
Finally, the price starting at 469 euros, very close to the 500 euro mark, seems much higher in the world of smartphones than the 100 euros requested by the ears (1) when they come out in the world of wireless headphones. thread.
Is it really serious?
We may be giving the impression here of firing red balls at the phone (1), when in reality we rather enjoyed this phone. We simply note that once again, the hype may have been a bit excessive.
What happened is no doubt due to the fascination that human beings have with stories of reversal of situation featuring “a little” versus “fat people“, wayDavid versus Goliath. A story on which Nothing did not hesitate to press and not completely wrongly. We must all the same underline the tour de force represented by the launch of a new brand of telephone from the heart of Europe in 2022. This is undoubtedly a good reason to be hyper.
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