Lab – The latest Nothing Phone update (1) significantly increases the peak brightness of its screen

Despite a marketing hype which is not always a guarantee of quality, the Nothing Phone (1) turned out to be a very good surprise on the mid-range market. In addition to its original design, it has a beautiful screen, a well-optimized SoC and real photo capabilities.

On the software side, no big surprises though. Nothing OS, the in-house software interface, is quite refined, very close to what a stock version of Google’s OS offers… and without a really differentiating proposition.

When the smartphone was released, however, the brand announced rigorous software monitoring, improving the performance of the whole. The latest update, Nothing OS 1.1.16, is now available and we have installed it. Besides some security fixes (including the September Android patch) and access to 5G for some Indian consumers, its changelog promises a significant improvement in the brightness of the panel in HDR mode, with a light peak of around 1200 cd / m². On the menu of new features, we also note the arrival of support for Google ARCore, a service that allows you to benefit from augmented reality experiences. Video mode stability has also been improved.

Promise — finally — kept

During our initial test, we noted a light peak of 709 cd / m² on our HDR protocol thanks to our target, even though the technical sheet of the device mentioned a light peak of 1200 nits. The screen of the smartphone was thus restrained, which Nothing had also explained during the course of last summer with our colleagues from GSMArena. The brand acknowledged having chosen to limit the brightness of its panel to 700 nits at the software level. “to ensure a balanced user experience in terms of heating and energy consumption”but did not rule out reversing its decision via subsequent updates.

This resulted in our 1.1.6 update, which led us to repeat our test. This time, we noted a light peak reaching 1129 cd / m² when the Oled panel is subjected to HDR content. A nice increase that allows it to display compatible content even better. In our opinion, the brand has therefore kept its promises. Remember, however, that this does not affect the maximum brightness of the panel excluding HDR content, which we had raised to 689 cd / m² and which remains fixed below 700 cd / m². It is this more conventional brightness that you will be dealing with on a daily basis using the Phone (1).