Nothing Phone 1: here’s what it looks like
Why wait until launch day? Nothing's first phone is seen from (almost) all angles
The eagerly-anticipated Nothing Phone 1 is set to officially touch down on the 12th of July – but the fledgling firm isn’t going to wait that long to give fans a glimpse of its debut handset. Instead of trying to contain the inevitable flood of leaks in the run-up to launch, Nothing has fully shown off the phone’s unique visual style as part of its social media teaser campaign – and now the first videos have appeared online too.
As predicted, Phone 1 will continue the trend for transparent tech started by the Ear 1 wireless earbuds last year. It also has an undeniably iPhone-esque profile, with flat sides, rounded corners and a far less curvy appearance than the current crop of Android alternatives.
Phone 1’s sides are made from 100% recycled aluminium, with stealthy antenna bands that remind us of Apple’s more iconic iPhone models. There’s a power button on the right edge, volume buttons on the left and USB-C port at the bottom. Unlike the Ear 1, there are no bare circuits or components on show here – just internal screws and metal cutouts, protected by glass for a smooth feel (and to avoid becoming a vacuum for all your pocket detritus).
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the phone, beyond its transparent design, is its light-up elements. LED strips surround the camera lens and what is believed to be the wireless charging coil. They are white in all of Nothing’s preview images and the video footage doing the rounds, so it remains to be seen if they’ll light up in different colours – or if the firm will ignore gamer-friendly RGB and double down on its black and white colour scheme. Notification LEDs used to be a regular sight on Android phones, but have largely fallen out of favour.
Nothing has opted for a dual camera layout, indicating the phone’s mid-range or “affordable flagship” ambitions. Hopefully that means the firm has rejected the low-resolution macro lenses that are a regular sight on other brands’ low-price models.
So far we’ve only seen the white version of the handset, but it’s largely expected to ship in black as well – just like the Ear 1 headphones. Nothing has also only shown the rear of the phone so far. We’ll have to wait for the next teaser reveal to see if it has done anything dramatic on the front.
As for what’s powering the Phone 1, how much it’ll cost and when handsets will start shipping to customers – well, Nothing has to save something for launch day, right?
Tom Morgan-Freelander
Deputy Editor 
