Revisiting Nothing Phone (1) - Is it still something in 2023?
The Nothing Phone (1) was announced back in July 2022 in the Philippines. A year after, let's see if it is still a viable pick.
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| The Nothing Phone (1) |
To recap, the handset highlights a transparent glass cover with eye-catching LED lights called the "Glyph" alongside a 6.55-inch 120Hz FHD+ OLED screen, 6nm 2.5GHz SD778G+ SoC, up to 12GB RAM, up to 256GB storage, 4,500mAh battery w/ 33W fast charger and 50MP + 50MP camera setup.
Originally, the device starts at PHP 27,990. But, until July 11, 2023, you can get the device with a PHP 5K price cut.
Anyway is it still something at this point?
Let's find out!
Build Quality/ Design
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| The rear view |
As you can see the Nothing Phone (1) strikes a simple but unique design. We got the color Black variant and it is oozing with confidence giving us a regular mid-range feel.
The build is not bad, but we hope that Nothing will significantly improve it to catch up with the build of most premium mid-rangers of 2023.
It has a transparent rear cover which shows you how neat and meticulously made the inside while the LED strip lights compliment the overall look of the phone.
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| The Glyph lights |
Speaking of which, it is called the "Glyph" since it resembles the letter "G" at the center around the magnetic coil with accompanying vertical and slanted LED strips on the bottom and upper right. While you can also see an oblong striplight around the cameras.
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| Cool unique feature! |
The Glyph lights up when you receive a notification, call, text, charge your device or simply take pictures. Somehow it can also be used to illuminate dark surrounding when taking photos. I personally liked it, but I won't blame you if you will find it gimmicky.
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| The display |
Its screen uses a punch-hole cut-out located at the upper left corner while you can notice slim bezels on all sides. This is something where we can commend Nothing, not all phones at this price point have an immersive display like this.
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| The right side |
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The phone has rounded corners ala iPhone, with an aluminum frame on the sides. The right portion covers the power button and the left area covers the volume rockers.
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| Top view |
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The top portion shows microphones and antenna bands and the bottom shows a USB-C slot, speaker grill, and SIM card slot.
In terms of durability, the phone experienced several accidental drops throughout the year. Fortunately, the FREE transparent case and tempered glass protected it and up to this point, there were no signs of scratches, dents, or whatsoever. Obviously, both the case and tempered glass retired just a week ago.
Multimedia Experience
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| The display |
In terms of media consumption, the Nothing Phone (1) uses a 6.55-inch OLED screen with Full HD+ resolution 1080 x 2400 at 402 ppi, 120Hz refresh rate, 240Hz touch sampling rate, 1 billion colors, HDR10+ support, 700 nits of max brightness and Gorilla Glass 5 Protection.
Very good immersive display for the price!
The display produces bright and sharp details on the images, it has deep contrast and rich colors making them ideal for your typical social media, streaming videos, and more.
Its 120Hz refresh rate provides buttery smooth scrolling and is even supported on some games.
In 2023, the OLED panel is definitely an eye-catcher. Our friends often provide comments on the phone about having a "really good display" and that it's way different from theirs.
However, there are brands nowadays who has an OLED + curved combination which is much of a head turner over the flat display on the Phone (1). Still, many prefer it over curved for various reasons such as not wanting accidental touches, durability, and other compromises.
For audio, the speakers of the Nothing Phone (1) deliver decent sound with good details although the volume is noticeably not the loudest.
It's also noticeable that it lacks the 3.5mm audio. You'll have to get your own USB-C to 3.5mm converter to enjoy wired music sessions. For wireless, you can team it up with the Nothing Ear (1) which is suited to the phone's software.
Cameras
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| The dual rear cameras |
In this area, they implemented a 50MP f/1.88 Sony IMX766 with OIS and EIS + 50MP f/2.2 Samsung JN1 shooter with 114-degree ultra-wide-angle sensor and 4cm macro capability.
The phone maker has done right in this department!
The phone maker has done right in this department, they jump out of the bandwagon of using triple or quad sensors with those extra macro and depth helpers. Instead, they made it efficient by using two capable sensors to do those jobs.
Rear Camera Samples
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| 2x zoom shot |
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| Indoor shot well-lit |
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| Ultra-wide indoor |
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| Indoor slightly dim scenario |
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| Indoor food shot 2 |
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| Indoor food shot 3 |
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| Indoor Portrait mode f/2.0 |
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| Normal night shot |
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| Ultra-wide night shot |
As you can see in the photos above, Nothing Phone (1) can take splendid shots on our daylight or well-lit environment tests. It is currently one of our go-to mobile cameras when coming to events or vacations as it can capture the right details, color, and accuracy per scenario. The ultra-wide and 2x zoom are mostly used such as on tight spaces or when we need to take photos from afar but still want retained picture quality.
For Portrait shots, the blur effects produces are still artificial, and the edge detection especially on the hair are far from perfect, but they are getting better with this.
When it comes to dark places, the phone can still perform although you will notice the noises around and with less dynamic range. Fortunately, the Night Mode can answer that for non-moving subjects with improved details but still with lesser noise.
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| 16MP selfie cam |
For selfies, the phone uses 16MP f/2.5 sensor.
Selfie Camera samples
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| Selfie shot with blur |
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| Selfie low-light |
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| Selfie using night mode |
On the selfie side, it can take well-detailed shots in properly lit scenarios. The portrait mode works fine in that it emphasizes the subject even more and it looks natural.
In low-lit areas, the camera does the job of capturing most details of our face which is important while the surroundings have fewer details. Using the night mode will brighten the quality but for us, the regular mode looks more natural.
For videos, it records up to 4K 30 at the back. If you want smoother frame rates, it has 1080p at 60fps. It even has OIS to help the device take smoother and less shaky videos. For selfies, there is no 4K unfortunately.
Performance
Nothing didn't go for a high-end chip on their first phone but instead went the route of getting a capable mid-ranger 6nm 2.4GHz Snapdragon 778G+ 8-core chip with Adreno 642L GPU. It is paired with 8GB RAM and 128GB UFS 3.1 storage (our unit) or the 12GB RAM and 256GB variant.
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| The benchmarks |
Nothing Phone (1) benchmark scores:
1. AnTuTu - 596,336
2. Geekbench - 1,028 single-core, 2,588 multi-core
3. 3D Mark Wild Life - 2,525 at 15.10 average fps
4. CPDT - 624.8 MB/s write speed, 959.8 read speed
In real-life usage, the Phone (1) is still fast and snappy. In fact, it can run multiple apps at a time with rare slowdowns.
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| The game's settings |
In terms of gaming, it can run popular titles such as MLBB at 120 fps and high settings, and Farlight 84 at 120 fps with HD visuals. It may not be marketed as a phone for playing but given the fact that it supports those refresh rates is already an advantage.
Still reasonably fast even in 2023
The 8GB RAM is still okay by today's standards. However, in the storage department, we find that 128GB easily can be full if you take a lot of photos and videos alongside installing multiple heavy games. As a remedy, we use cloud storage for pictures and videos and then uninstall the most unused app or games.
If you have the 256GB variant that may still be enough considering the updated games these days are really huge.
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| The battery usage |
On the battery side, the 4,500mAh can last you a day under moderate usage which includes occasional games, social media, or streaming. However, when using the cameras outdoors alongside 5G and hotspots the phone can last around 6-7 hours. That is understandable given how draining those activities can be.
When charging it, the Phone (1) supports up to 33W adaptor for wired via USB-C, which took us around 1 hour and 10 mins to full. On wireless, it supports 15W which takes around 2 hours to fully charge.
The phone also supports reverse wireless charging, a handy feature especially if you're Nothing Ear (1) or other supported devices ran out of battery. No annoying wires on the go.
For connectivity, the phone supports WiFi 6 and 5G data which both works blazing fast when it comes to internet downloads or uploads.
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| The Nothing OS 1.5.5 |
When it comes to OS, the device initially arrived with Android 12 with base Nothing OS, six months later it has been immediately upgraded to Android 13 (Nothing OS 1.5.4), and that's what we've been using up to this point.
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| The Glyph, Game Mode, and About Phone |
This is one of the closest to vanilla Android, it is lightweight, minimalistic, and gave us a smooth experience in terms of navigation and features.
You can get several widgets, customizable wallpaper, icons, colors, font, and even a gaming mode to control incoming notifications and view the frame rate per second.
Nothing Phone (1) Specs
Display: 6.55-inch Gorilla Glass 5 protected 10-bit OLED screen w/ 120Hz adaptive refresh rate, 240Hz touch sampling rate, HDR10+, FHD+ 2404 x 1080 resolution at 409 ppi
CPU: 2.5GHz 6nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G+ 5G octa-core processor
GPU: Adreno 642L
RAM: 8GB/12GB LPDDR5
ROM: 128GB/256GB UFS 3.1
Back Camera: 50MP f/1.88 Sony IMX766 w/ OIS, EIS + 50MP f/2.2 Samsung JN1 114-degree ultra-wide-angle w/ 4cm macro + LED flash
Selfie Camera: 16MP f/2.45 Sony IMX471
Battery: 4,500mAh w/ 33W fast charging, 15W wireless charging, 5W reverse wireless charging
OS: Android 12 w/ NothingOS
Connectivity: WiFi 6, 5G SA/NSA, 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.2, OTG, NFC, GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo, QZSS, dual SIM (nano)
Sensors: Accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyroscope, sound, magnetic
Others: In-Display fingerprint sensor, IP53 water and dust resistance, stereo speakers, 3x microphones, Haptic touch motors, Glyph interface with 5 lighting strips, USB-C, Colors: White, Black
Dimensions: 159.2 x 75.8 x 8.3 mm
Weight: 193 g
Price: PHP 27,990 (8GB/128GB), PHP 29,990 (8GB/256GB), PHP 32,990 (12GB/256GB)
Our thoughts
The Nothing Phone (1) still kicks perhaps a year or two as the brand promised to provide 2 more OS updates after Android 13. If you have it, it is still worth keeping particularly if you have the 256GB variant. The 128GB may still be enough, but you'll have to do some remedies.
Right now, it is still my personal daily buddy for photo shooting, multimedia consumption, and even casual gaming.
With an original starting price of PHP 27,990 and you're in the hunt for an upgrade or simply buying a new phone, there are phones out there that you can opt to choose with better overall offerings.
Not unless you prefer the "transparent design", and consistent Android updates aside from the aforementioned strengths.
There's also an ongoing deal that may attract you at starting price of PHP 22,990. That's PHP 5K less which will let you experience the Nothing Phone (1).
The Nothing Phone (2) with rumored near-flagship specs is also right in the corner if you want a higher-end offering.
What do you guys think?
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