Hot on the heels of a leaked photo claiming to show a Nothing handset just two weeks ago, Carl Pei's co-founded tech startup, Nothing, has today officially confirmed plans to launch Nothing Phone (1), its first smartphone – a product which clearly takes its stylised moniker from Nothing's inaugural earbuds, Nothing Ear (1).
Powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon mobile platform, Nothing Phone (1) will be the second device in the company’s product ecosystem and one Nothing says is "built for seamless connectivity and defined by iconic design".
Scant details, including Phone (1)'s "summer launch" and images of the new operating system, Nothing OS, were revealed by Carl Pei during the Nothing (event): The Truth livestream on 23rd March – but no, we didn't get to see the actual phone.
“Having raised $144m, built a team of over 300 people and secured support from trusted partners like Qualcomm Technologies, we are ready for Phone (1) to mark the start of change for the sleepy smartphone market," Carl Pei said.
Staying true to Nothing's founding mission (just over a year ago, Pei stated that "eventually, we want to build it so these devices talk to each other"), the company is building its Phone (1) from the inside out too, with Nothing OS. This operating system is, says the company, "built on an open and seamless ecosystem that will effortlessly connect and integrate Nothing products and products from other world-leading brands".
Nothing promises its OS will capture the best features of pure Android, distilling the operating system to "just the essentials, where every byte has a purpose" including bespoke fonts, colours, graphical elements and sounds. We did get to see a special feature of Nothing OS's voice recorder, which includes an interactive analogue tape recorder reel that can be used to adjust playback speed (pictured, above).
So, no images of Nothing Phone (1) yet – but a first preview of Nothing OS will be available via a launcher that can be downloaded on select smartphone models from April.
More details about Phone (1) will be announced in the coming months...
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