in a world where $1000 phones are now normal, it’s refreshing to see a mid tier phone with so much attention to detail.. I am definitely not expecting it to outshine a $1000 phone, that’d be unrealistic, just need a clean experience.
The selling point of OnePlus back in the day was that they could beat flagship for ⅓ or ½ the price ... But this isn't TwoPlus or OneMinus, it's clear that they went a very different path
@@InformatrIIcks It's the Nothing Phone 1 tho, once we get a few more iterations the LEDs at the back could be game changing. Let's see what they can do.
Love the idea of having "nothing" in your set and background. All those containers and transparent items relate to the product being reviewed. Always love this kind of attention to details.
Apparently, they have released the Nothing OS 1.5 recently and its got a lot of stability, performance improvements. All I care for is battery life. Also, how about a phone that has color changing back? Can you imagine? A phone that has all LED back, can be white, black, red, or with letters, anything thru an app. I right here gave the world a $$$ idea for free. The only drawback for me is the speakers, which arent as good. IDC for cameras or gaming.
I feel that after this, the next logical step is doing a smart watch. They don't rely as much on performance but heavily on user experience so it could be decent.
@@kleanish u didn't get the joke ... Nothing will probably launch smartwatch named wrist.. like ear 1 buds... So if someone asks me which watch I'm wearing.. I'll say there's nothing on my wrist
Gotta admit it to Carl. He basically made hype for an averagely normal phone all out of Nothing. You really can't fault the man who basically created a phone from something before and restarted everything from scratch. Truly a man of Nothing.
The amount of detail that has gone into the studio for this single video is amazing! There's literally everything and nothing in the studio. Has a frame but no picture in it, has a glass but no water, has a book shelf but no books... Truly amazing work on the video production alone, obviously the feedback on the phone is great as always!
Marques shall never stop making videos about tech, he is a light in this dark (UA-cam) world. The inevitable day of him leaving this platform will be a very, very sad day.
"Like I remember back in the day, phones used to have RGB notification lights" I am missing this functionality tremendously! Thank you for mentioning it, now I don't feel alone in this universe ...
My Samsung Galaxy Note II had one and it was really useful. I had mapped all of my notification sources to custom colors. It must only cost 5c to add, so I don't get why phones stopped including them.
ok my dear you are a very important person i really need you to save me i have been broke for a long time due to impossibility and it is difficult for me to find a job so i beg you the best of me find 5ghc for food aid please....
This feels like a great consumer product. Not everyone wants the highest spec- but everyone needs basics done right. I’m certain that this phone will be pretty easy to recommend
But there's honestly nothing that other mid-tier phones can't do. I just don't see much of a difference. Plus if you want a refined mid-tier phone Apple's got their SE phones and to an extent the iPhone 11 that still works very well.
I love how MKBHD reviews always seem to focus on asking and answering the most critical questions that the audience *should* ask and care about, instead of being caught up on just what the new features can do (e.g. what are the actual practical use-case *trade-offs* of the light-up signals? vs just describing what the light-up signals can and cannot do). And also relentlessly focuses on those questions, while not overloading us with details on less relevant specs and features.
But if you look at it in another way, it's sort of a way of telling people how they may use some features in their phones. Idk maybe I'm just overthinking
I hope Nothing can survive and thrive. We really need the kind of tech- & design-savvy companies for not only top tier markets. It's almost a miracle to see something sweet like this happening. Well done! Carl Pei and Teenage Engineering.
They should place the LEDs on the side, that way it would be useful when the phone is laying on the table. Nobody wants to have their phone to sit upside down just for the sake of seeing LEDs which aren't as useful as an actual screen, but having LED's on the side can make the phone still noticeable when something happens and you don't have to flip the phone to see the notifications.
Good point. LEDs should be on the side or bottom near the charging port. Putting them on the back is not a new idea and the reason it's been done before and not caught on is because the majority of people don't put their phone face down. Such a shame, big opportunity missed here by Nothing.
Remember Nokia 3220 with LED's all around? But I get it though. Frame is the strength part. If you cut a groove in it to fit LED's you're gonna severely compromise strength
And that's actually really good idea. Imagine having RGB LEDs all the way around and when screen is off they serve as a cool notification/charging indicator but when screen is on they work like Philips Ambilight expanding what's on your screen. That would be awesome.
I like the background objects in many of your shots like the scrabble tiles and tools. They make great contrasts, and look good. I also like your no-BS approach. Your opinion of the defining physical features coincides with my (unseen) perception. Thank you for your in-depth, complete and concise review!
The amount of detailing in Marques video, empty glass, a frame with no art or paintwork, a empty cassette case and near that the Nothing buds case and the rack or ladder in which a empty transparent box hats off hats off "slow claps" 👏👏👏
To be fair, the design seems to be the only thing that they can offer anyway that is something that other companies can't, the specs aren't really anything to write home about and they're by no means an iPhone killer, so they really aught to double down on the one thing that actually seperates them from the rest somewhat.
I love the way that this is a new company, just started out but they came in a very unique way. Setting themselves apart from the other android phones in terms of design and features (the LED lights at the back). It deserves all the hype.
Gotta admit that the nothing phone is suprisingly looking very modern and futuristic in contribution to the iPhone camera design with of course the additional lights at the back of the phone as MKHBD has discussed before.
KBHD actually voiced exactly the thoughts that I had as I watched that crisp Launch event. Does it really stand out in terms of design? Are the 900+ LEDs really useful? Does it look like an iPhone? Stock Android Experience, is it unique? Are the mobile phone buyers being manipulated? I guess we all need to answer those questions for ourselves....Good luck Nothing Phone 1.
The back panel is a gimmick and nothing more. The stock ringtones and notification tones are annoying, and I’m willing to bet those LEDs only work with Thomas’s ringtones. Give a bunch of mid specs, at a reasonable price and add a gimmick to make people overly hyped
@@kevindellatore I'd have to agree, I could maybe see a ring of LEDs around the front of the phone (maybe like where the bezel is) , then you'd basically have a ring light for selfies, it could be used face up so you don't have to put your screen on potentially scratchy things and ruin it, annnnnnnd I can't really think of anything else but I could see having a ring light built into the front of your phone being legit useful for people who take a lot of selfies as opposed to some lights on the back of the phone that flicker when you get a text message.
The biggest appeal to me is that it has flat edges and a glass back, reminiscent of the iPhone 4 era. Which to me was by far the most premium feeling device in the hand. Bonus points for being an Android phone, so you get the customizability which I find to be too lacking for my use in iOS.
I wanted to say this in the last video about this phone, but forgot to. I foresee this phone being absolutely amazing for the deaf and hard of hearing. If they can add much deeper customization to the LED notifications on a per app and per user basis, deaf people would be able to figure out who texted them when the phone is laying on a table.
Tons of people said that. We already have plenty of options for them anyway such as, you know, looking at the screen instead of trying to decode blinking LEDs. I don't see the point in this gimmick at all.
Know what I love about an MKBHD video, apart from the actual product review itself, the attention to detail the surroundings. Reviewing the Nothing phone and here he is, nothing on 3 of 5 shelves, nothing in the boxes on the shelfs, nothing in the glass on the desk, nothing in the picture frame and nothing in the old cassette case on the round table. Just.....yeah, Bravo
This actually isn't a bad phone for the money. These days it's around $447 for the 8/256 variant. Is it a good deal? Depends how you look at it. If you think it's more expensive than most phones with the Qualcomm 778G, yes it's a bit pricey, but do consider that it's not just the SoC you're buying. At this price you're getting an SoC that's just one notch below flagship SoCs, but you're also getting solid build quality, wireless charging, a unique design, an OS that's highly optimized for efficiency and is free of bloat, competent cameras, a display that's uniform around the edges, etc. Achieving that last one is actually no small feat because you need a bendable display to hide the display connector that's the reason why phones have 'chins'. It's practically similar to the iPhone's uniform bezels, and the OLED screen is very decent and color-accurate as well. So is this phone a good deal? I would think it is. Not a flagship killer but you can do a lot worse with ~$400.
@@GriefSeeker how do you know for sure how much the S23 will cost? There's no reliable info on price leaks. If anything, the vanilla S2x (the lowest model historically) typically goes for around $700+. The Nothing Phone 1, at least in my country, can be had for $450 right now for the 8/256 variant.
@@ronch550 Because the S22 was slightly above $600 with all launch promos and there's no way Samsung is going to increase the price when they're trying so hard to compete with Apple in NA.
Marques, I can't explain how much I love the production quality of your videos. The b-roll, the music, the casual but concise scripts, everything. You're one of the greats on the platform and I think I speak for most of us when I say we appreciate your continued incredible work on your content. Cheers 👍
Like you said, I think it is smart they're forging their own path on their products. Excited to see what else they come up with. Would love to see a better camera (even if it was on a more expensive "Pro" model) in the future but this seems like a good option. And it is neat looking, even if it isn't for me.
55 ok my dear you are a very important person i really need you to save me i have been broke for a long time due to impossibility and it is difficult for me to find a job so i beg you the best of me find 5ghc for food aid please
I am honestly happy to see a decent competitor entering the market. If it comes to the US, I will definitely give it a go, I really enjoy the attempt to sustainability
Not going to lie, I seriously love this. To have a phone that sleek looking at that price range, if I were to show this to my buddies and have them guess the price, I guarantee it wouldn't be 399. I was concerned around the performance of the phone since it seems a lot of the cost went into design and materials, but this is a GREAT consumer product. I think if Nothing can expand that name and produce this on a bigger scale, it would be a hit amongst the regular consumer market Obviously there are sacrifices, but all in all I think they nailed what was most important for most regular people. A phone with a great experience, great design, that just works
Considering how few updates a lot of android phones get, the performance isn’t too much of an issue because the OS doesn’t end up using a very large proportion of the phone’s resources. So unless you’re playing some very intensive games, you’ll probably be perfectly fine.
I like the idea and aesthetic here. Price is nice too. It’s exciting to see where it could go. Not ready to leave apple for it. But it would be cool to have as a back up
I think its way too expensive. You get same cpu (778g) in $300 phones like a52s today. (edit: i know they say its got a custom cpu.. but only difference is one of the cores is clocked 100MHz more.)
@@AndrewTSq Most of my issues are from Apps being incompatible with Android but heavily supported through iPhone. Sadly might switch sides bc of this for work purposes.
@@AndrewTSq not a single issue? Not a single crashing app that just doesn’t work? I have hard time believing it. I have had problems with both android and apple phones since 2010
@@hinglemccringleberry7265 like on their other product? See through housing, solid black internals? Not necessarily the glyphs, because honestly I have no idea how they’d implement that. But the rest would look nice.
Nothing design looks great. 1 is a little under-spec'd but that is OK for now. 2 seems to be delayed but rumored spec is top notch. I would consider if Nothing matches Samsung/Google/Apple years of software support.
@@faizkhan977 that would be crazy. same processor as the OP11 at 950-$1100USD? unreal. I'm using a OP6t currently but now have to consider waiting for the second iteration of the nothing phone D:
One of the first Android phones in a while that I think actually looks good. Not too sure bout the back, but the overal aesthetic with the same bezel all around the screen and the hole punch is great!
I'm still on my Pixel 2, it was a surprise to hear that the coloured notification dot is no longer common! I use it every day, it would be nice if the manufacturers brought it back before I buy my next phone, but I doubt it 😅
This was such a a shocker to me moving to a new phone back in the day (I think it was from a galaxy S7 to the LG V30). The RGB notification light has become something I was so used to on all my previous androids and felt like something that set them apart from the iPhones that I’d had. I guess with the advent of always on displays they were deemed unnecessary.
This was such a a shocker to me moving to a new phone back in the day (I think it was from a galaxy S7 to the LG V30). The RGB notification light has become something I was so used to on all my previous androids and felt like something that set them apart from the iPhones that I’d had. I guess with the advent of always on displays they were deemed unnecessary.
Same phone, add $200, use the latest processor. I don't mind if they use last year's flagship though. There is less difference in performance with a 1 year old flagship processor over a new mid-tier processor.
I love the aesthetic of the phone, all i need to do is wait for nothing phone 3 or 4 when they make it better, but for an entry level this is not bad tbh
I love that unique phones with unique features are coming out to shack up the norm with Apple and Samsung phones. That's why as an iPhone fanboy, I still appreciate the Android platform because it gives competition and a new perspective
A year and half back when pixel 4a came out at 33k for 6gb+128 with avg SoC, 3140mah and plastic back everyone appreciated. this phone here has a major design shift, an aluminium frame, 0 bloatware, 4500mah, 2+1 decent cameras, most importantly something innovative at the same price and I see lot of neck picking. Geez what’s with that
i look at it in a different way. the pixel 4a has an amazing camera and good enough specs for a good user experience. only the battery was a bit small. the nothing phone looks to me just like every other midrange phone with lights on the back which i couldnt care less, because im always laying my phone display side up on the table for the always on screen. in my opinion the glyphs are just a buying gimmick that nearly no one will actually get any use out of it besides of being a partytrick. also i dont like glass backed phones. if you need wireless charging which i dont need you can still go for a plastic backside that wont crack if you drop it. i'm more of an utilitarian guy who always chooses function over form.
Still using pixel 4a. And not gonna give it up until the update for the apps stop completely... As for this phone, the LEDs may not be a game changer. But the specs are really good enough and the user interface is clean and close to stock Android. 120 Hz screen and the design is unique ... IMO, nothing is a worthy midranger. And expecting more from Nothing....
I love how there's always an easter egg in mkbhd's videos. Like the frame with NOTHING in the back, the cassette with NOTHING in it, the glass.... you get the point. Smort!
After a year, I must say that it was a gamble worth taking. They have gotten better taking all the feedbacks and improving them along the year. "Nothing" has turned into "Something"
Yup. That is what I was thinking all this time; A small LED "Dot matrix" display would have been so much more useful. Or something like the screen on the front of a GoPro (pre-8), but backlit when you tap it. This is just a cute gimmick. The only thing I care about; is it "Great for the money", like OnePlus once was?
@@tridinh1011 And the phones with ROG Vision are also 3x the price. Granted, they’re top spec, but that’s something to take into consideration as well.
For me, i feel like "Nothing" is trying to make us understand that we have been paying too much for literally nothing exceptional. The most average population of the world needs a phone that has the capabilities to perform almost all the tasks with ease like we need a phone to be aesthetically appealing, with a good camera to capture day to day memories, a powerful enough processor to handle the day to day tasks with ease, a beautiful bright and smooth display, a robust and solid exterior (with some protection), and with few additional takeaways like wireless charging, cool looking LEDs, etc. but all this with an affordable price tag. I think "Nothing" succeeded in almost all these areas pretty solidly. We might be Apple lovers, Pixel lovers, Mi lovers, or any other brand in particular but we could not deny the fact that Nothing company has delivered it's promise pretty well. Kudos to the team. The buying decision at the end is always subjective. ❤️❤️❤️ Love from Me ❤️❤️❤️
LED's on the back of a phone that you don't see for 99% of the time using your phone - nothing exceptional and a waste of money. No head phone jack - have to buy wireless headphones....oh look they sell those too - nothing exceptional yet we have to pay more No charger brick - oh look we sell those as well - nothing exceptional yet we have to pay more. They're literally doing what other companies are doing - shafting the consumer, albeit under a different guise.
The notification led was a cool feature. I miss having it on my old xperia ion. Why don't companies add it back at least using the always on display? Like some ppl turn AOD off to save battery. A little circular blinking dot at the corner (preferably you could choose the location) of the screen would do the job perfectly
True. Ever since my first bezel-less phone, I miss the little dot for notifications. There's one 3rd party app i found about a year ago but i think it's so crappy that I had to uninstall it.
@@OfficialSamuelC that's just when a notifiaction is received, the notification LED is to see if you got a notification when your phone is laying screen up on a table and you've been focused on something else or gone for a few minutes.
The only extra use I see on this phone is using the glyph light instead of flash when taking pictures of ID or laminated file/pictures. Won't get that big ole glare
That dark version looks so sleek. I don't know why nothing decided to have the white one be the one used in promotions. The design itself is steller for that price point. I hope the Nothing (2) gets customizable rgb led on the back to make it more usable as a notification indicator.
I agree the black one looks super sick and sleek. I think they went with the white one for marketing though because it sticks out more. Almost all phones now are black or doing pastel/frosted colors, or are doing punchy colors like the Red iPhone. But there's not many white phones currently. So i think they just wanted to capitalize on how attention grabbing the white one is. But i do think the black one is sexier.
Honestly, this phone seems like a great buy. It does some things different. It’s good looking. Uniform display bezels. There’s no major red flags. I’m digging the hell out of it.
This is exactly what I was waiting for as a OnePlus fan. I totally understand Carl Pei his decision to leave OnePlus. OnePlus had my attention since the very first version and my first OnePlus is the 6T which I'm still using currently. But as most of us know, OnePlus went in a different direction which killed the original OnePlus vision. Thanks to Nothing I have my hope back for the future of real innovation and best user experience.
@@brentparker1665 They went from Flagship Killer status to literally a flagship in terms of price to value scale. Plus their brand moto was Never Settle which meant never settle or choose those chinese ROMs which are heavy, filled with useless features and what not, but now OnePlus basically are contradicting themselves.
@@goblinslayer5404 exactly... As a OP5 user waiting for upgradation.. I was disappointed by nothing phone 1.. I need performance rather than gimmicks...
@@harshmohanh2268 than buy a flagship, buy a samsung 22 ultra. That's top performance, but you have to be ready to pay 1000$+ for a phone... a phone! C'mon, that's just ridiculous.
I really missed the notification LEDs when I switched to a phone without them. I so wish a company would release an update to use the always on lock screen functionality to have a few pixels in the corner emulating a blinking LED.
Burn in would become a problem unfortunately if the dot was always in the same spot. There are apps to make that happen though if you really want to do it. Samsung also has an option where the always on display only appears when a new notification arrives which seems like a decent compromise
@@fxjh21 i upgrade phones every 2-3 years and never managed to break a charging port. Idk how you guys do that. Sure the older pre type c connectors were flimsy and would get loose. But that isn't the case anymore.
@e vila I've never broken a type c or a micro b cable. So I don't see how people do it either. As far as convenience, wireless is definitely more convenient. No argument. You just place the phone down and it charges. As opposed to plugging in a cable and then placing it down. And that's if the cable didn't fall down behind the table first. The same wireless charger can be used by both Android and Apple phones. And when you want to quickly use your phone, just pick it up. Don't have to unplug it. Now if the convenience isn't enough for you, that's different, and totally understandable. But it's definitely more convenient for all those reasons
3 best things about this are the screen with the even bezels all the way around, a clean reliable user experience and nice asthetic overall. I think they found a great niche.
^ | | THE COMMENT ABOVE ME IS A BOT, DO NOT GET SCAMMED BY IT, IT WANTS TO SHOW PEOPLE FALSE INFORMATION THAT MKBHD IS A BAD PERSON BUT ACTUALLY ISNT, SO I REPEAT, DO NOT GET SCAMMED BY THIS BOT
It reminds me of my Essential phone that I loved. Both try to use novel materials and features to differentiate themselves. Hopefully they don't have the same problem that Essential had of over-promising. Their decision to stay overseas is a good sign from that perspective. Essential was killed by poor signal quality in North America, mostly Tmobile. It was why I had to stop using mine. I hope Nothing can continue to grow and become a real player, in a market that is becoming overly consolidated with little real competition. Also that black one looks awesome! I prefer it to the white.
Looking past the hype, the Nothing phone (1) is just another average Android smartphone. That being said, it has the coolest design among its competitors 🔥
I mean its a 399 phone tho. As long as the integration of the software is good idm the price point for the specs. Sure there will be tons of redmi, xiaomi and whatever other Mis are there at the same price with better specs but again specs doesnt make a phone.
@@Lord_ofcinder For me it does. Yes, this phone looks cool, but those Chinese phones are much, much faster. If I'm spending this much money, I'm going to be focusing on the specs. This phone doesn't stand out in any areas sadly.
@@vaff69420 again I am not saying those phones are worse but if the integration with the hardware is good enough then this phone is better. I remember when the iPhone XR came out people kept shitting on it for its display being sub1080p and they kept saying how xiaomi and redmi have better display at a cheaper price. Having higher numbers on the paper doesn’t matter if the quality is shite. iPhone XR display is still one of the best at the range it is in and beat every shitty display from those Chinese phones. Not saying they are bad but higher numbers on paper doesn’t make a phone good. As long as nothing (1) can provide good support, better integration with the hardware and cheaper price, I think this would go big
Average, therefore it justifies the mid tier price. This is another Nexus 5 experience now in 2022, and that was a fantastic phone. If the Nothing Phone nails the reliability and simplicity of that phone, and the build and UI quality exceeding the trash build and tacked on OS of the cheap Chinese phones, they are onto a winner.
@@Lord_ofcinder iPhone XR was a monster I bought 2 of them for $800 and it’s still the greatest phone I’ve ever owned hands down. If they had not offered me $800 trade in per phone I would not have upgraded 😁. That lcd panel was amazing and it’s even hella cheap to fix and repair. I never once actually had an issue with the display.
When it is eventually ported, it would be cool to see how the Pixel camera app works on this phone. They really should release this in the US, someone other than Samsung needs to make a $400 phone for the US. Follow the same strategy as OnePlus, just sell it online unlocked.
Based on what Nothing's design language has been in both products, they should definitely make a Watch. Looking forward to more devices from them. The Phone(1) felt like a great successor to the Pixel 4a that I still love using.
There's an actual successor called pixel 6a which comes around at this price. Apart from high refresh rate I believe that to be a superior experience. Better performance, better camera
@@vedaryan334 they're 2 different phones for different target markets. If you want a better performance and 4 years of OS updates, the pixel 6a might be better. But if you want a larger 120hz screen, a metal/glass body, better screen protection, a unique design, and faster charging at the cost of a slightly weaker performance, then the Nothing phone is better
At launch, Nothing advertised the Nothing Phone (1) as being capable of reaching 1,200 nits when viewing HDR content. Considering the smartphone's price, this would have been an impressive feature, if it were true. Now they changed their pick brightness 1200 to 700.
Good gods that's a gorgeous phone! I feel like the corners could be a little less chamfered to differentiate from the iPhone's profile... But overall it snaps into that cyberpunk aesthetic I truly adore. Now, if there was a feature like e-ink over the skeletonized components and under the gorilla glass so you could have a custom set of graphics under the glass, that would make that a must-have for me.
Your review is really good! You adopted a clear neutral unbiased and fact based review that also provides a manufacturer with a lot of advice as to what the consumer wants. Well done! Great review
For all of its flaws, I actually really like this phone, and am seriously considering it. An unintended plus I just realized of the phone too is just how useful these glyph lights can be for those with hearing impairments. If you can’t really hear a notification, you can now see it. I’m anxiously awaiting more customization options for it!
It's a pretty unique product that tries to do things differently in an VERY oversaturated market. You may like it or not, but you must give credit to this phone for being able to stand outside the crowd.
nothing always comes with a new concept, absolutely love it. they don't charge exceptionally high for something you already can expect when buying a phone. Half the money is just for the fame and aesthetic and because "everyone else is buying it". I hope nothing goes far to compete with brands that charge insanely high for looks.
Love that there is nothing in the frame on the back wall at the start of the videos 😂, nothing in the glass , nothing on the shelf and at 1:15 the letters on the table spell NOTHING
Great review. I think this phone does everything just enough for the average user, and honestly we can't expect more from a smartphone today as we've seen everything they have to offer. Notification LEDs should come back, but at the front of phones.
I agree the notification light should be on the front. As much as i dislike phones with curved edge screens. Some of them use the curve to display notification side lights, so i appreciate that functionality. I know it's physically not possible yet, but the front bezel of the Nothing phone being the LED strip notification light would be sick.
You can’t expect more from a smartphone? Are you okay? This is a mid range device with average ass cameras The iPhone and Samsung are way more Unique than this device And you can’t use price as an excuse because Samsung and Apple have old phones more capable than this crap
Nevermind notification LEDs, just have the phone use a small spot of the OLED pixels to achieve the same result. The phone could even move the notification light around to reduce a risk of burn in.
this is actually the first android phones that i'd consider buying, love the design and that beautiful back, too bad the glyph interface isnt very customizable
@@raz9800 do you use: 1/ Always On Display 2/ Split screen 3/ Dual app mode How do you feel about back gestures on Android: don’t you feel it is easier ?
It’ll evolve into something awesome with time, this is just their launch model, they had to come out first and be known,then next launch will probably have a Pro and Max options with more amped specs. We’re likely to see maybe a watch or a few tech things from them. Let’s pray they don’t give us so much hope then after they just don’t go down & quiet like Red Hydrogen phone.
I actually love the Nothing Phone 1, I appreciate what the user experience looks like it’s going to be, I appreciate the symmetric bezels and the great flavor of Android, near-stock that is.
Pretty cool! Neat cyberpunk feel. It's more for everyone else seeing you with it, than your own utility. That's not my style, but for people wanting to be seen with a cool phone at a mid level price, not bad!
I would love a hybrid analog smart watch from Nothing. Clean design aesthetic, analog face but vibration and lights to indicate notifications and messages. Nothing insane, but clean and simple
i used to have a Sony Xperia SP between 2013 and 2016 and i looooved so much its rgb light bar, that worked as a notification light and also followed any song rithym
Seems like a decent phone. Decent specs, decent functionality, some interesting quirks and gimmicks that might appeal to some people. And a fairly good price. It's no flagship, but it's a solid phone and I do like the aesthetic and the lights (even if the functionality is a little flawed).
I sure would love the camera on my 6P to be put into this phone in every other way. Much better design, better size, symmetrical bezels, flat screen, brighter screen, faster charging, and I'd imagine it doesn't get nearly as hot as the Pixel does in general use.
Very interesting idea imo which came to mind was dimmable back panel, sth like it was with OnePlus "Invisible camera" concept back in time. For instance u could switch btw more common design and this extravagant.
yo now that i think about it, that would be really fucking crazy. Imagine showing your friends a normal black phone and then the back glass goes transparent and they can see the internals.
The first that brought my attention isn’t even the review, but the intentions in the set design. From the frame, to t-shirt-using different shades. The gradient of gray, white and black. This is real attention to details here. And I believe many people will pay for you to design their UA-cam studio. Great work!
Its pretty cool to see a new brand do something fresh in design, great optimization, decent enough specs, good battery life and a nice display. The Glyph features are honestly just a marketing gimmick in my opinion. They are really cool and makes the phone stand out especially with the transparent back and the fake 'internals', but the Glyph lights are just not useful enough. Seems like a missed opportunity to not include features we might want, like expandable storage or a more useful LED display on the back (even a small one such as the one on the first Samsung Z Flip).
The fact that there is nothing behind him is just an amazing touch !
Didn't even notice that lol, nice catch!
I just realised that wow 😅
A ladder a round table
And all the things that are there are transparent/empty.
Define “nothing”
in a world where $1000 phones are now normal, it’s refreshing to see a mid tier phone with so much attention to detail.. I am definitely not expecting it to outshine a $1000 phone, that’d be unrealistic, just need a clean experience.
The selling point of OnePlus back in the day was that they could beat flagship for ⅓ or ½ the price ...
But this isn't TwoPlus or OneMinus, it's clear that they went a very different path
@@InformatrIIcks It's the Nothing Phone 1 tho, once we get a few more iterations the LEDs at the back could be game changing. Let's see what they can do.
@@itizwhatitiz9560 or could lose them completely
Just buy moto phone for a clean experience
Liking your comment on my 100 dollar phone
Love the idea of having "nothing" in your set and background. All those containers and transparent items relate to the product being reviewed. Always love this kind of attention to details.
Thank you for telling me that!
Didn't even realize lol
These GLYPHS can be achieved by an ALWAYS ON DISPLAY in Android! Developers?
Shaddap
just nothing 😉
The color coded LED idea would be freaking rad. Hope they take your advice!
you can already do that with help of a sticker
@JERRY tm then it'll be just a clone of ROG phones and the phone's gonna cost much more
Like blackberry?
@@j0ps-xfx 😂🤣
Apparently, they have released the Nothing OS 1.5 recently and its got a lot of stability, performance improvements. All I care for is battery life. Also, how about a phone that has color changing back? Can you imagine? A phone that has all LED back, can be white, black, red, or with letters, anything thru an app. I right here gave the world a $$$ idea for free.
The only drawback for me is the speakers, which arent as good. IDC for cameras or gaming.
I feel that after this, the next logical step is doing a smart watch. They don't rely as much on performance but heavily on user experience so it could be decent.
And very heavy on looks, grab more of the analog watch market that hasnt stepped over. Great idea
There's Nothing on my wrist
@@vishalgohel9257 oh you should consider a watch, heart rate tracker, or smart watch. Super useful
@@kleanish u didn't get the joke ... Nothing will probably launch smartwatch named wrist.. like ear 1 buds... So if someone asks me which watch I'm wearing.. I'll say there's nothing on my wrist
@@vishalgohel9257 No I got it. I was purposely ignoring it because everyone and their mom have made the joke
Gotta admit it to Carl. He basically made hype for an averagely normal phone all out of Nothing. You really can't fault the man who basically created a phone from something before and restarted everything from scratch.
Truly a man of Nothing.
@nofeline it's Nothing
Its a complimentary roast 🤣
This is some creative backhanded compliment I guess ?
Huh?
Most of the hype came from his name and expectations that it will be the next Oneplus 3T. I doubt the next phone will have the same hype.
The amount of detail that has gone into the studio for this single video is amazing! There's literally everything and nothing in the studio. Has a frame but no picture in it, has a glass but no water, has a book shelf but no books... Truly amazing work on the video production alone, obviously the feedback on the phone is great as always!
Report these bots
Also his shirt has no writing on it
the whole studio scene is actually a nothing pun on its own
Marques shall never stop making videos about tech, he is a light in this dark (UA-cam) world. The inevitable day of him leaving this platform will be a very, very sad day.
Also, you can hear the "emptiness" of the room by the echo in his voice. Nice touch!
"Like I remember back in the day, phones used to have RGB notification lights"
I am missing this functionality tremendously!
Thank you for mentioning it, now I don't feel alone in this universe ...
Ya idk why phones got rid of this. The best part of my Sony Xperia back in 2012 (1st phone lol)
My Samsung Galaxy Note II had one and it was really useful. I had mapped all of my notification sources to custom colors. It must only cost 5c to add, so I don't get why phones stopped including them.
Sony still uses it for their phones.
@@Rizvi365 sony still has them in 2022
@@Genshinaction whaaa no way. Haven't had one in a while switched to Google and think they stopped it once they started their own Pixel line smhh
He kept his promise. He could have easily said - here goes nothing- 😅
Nothing to it
ok my dear you are a very important person i really need you to save me i have been broke for a long time due to impossibility and it is difficult for me to find a job so i beg you the best of me find 5ghc for food aid please....
5:46 almost nothing
Nothing is impossible 😳
No he didn't. Are you guys all death. He literally ended with the pun "there is "nothing" left to talk about".
This feels like a great consumer product. Not everyone wants the highest spec- but everyone needs basics done right. I’m certain that this phone will be pretty easy to recommend
Tons of phones do that tho
But there's honestly nothing that other mid-tier phones can't do. I just don't see much of a difference. Plus if you want a refined mid-tier phone Apple's got their SE phones and to an extent the iPhone 11 that still works very well.
Yes not everyone does but S22 and iphone sales don't lie. This is just a normal mid range phone with a gimmick
But it doesn't have a headphone jack tho
@@HPLikecraft dogshit screen, battery, iphone se is bad compared to this
I love how MKBHD reviews always seem to focus on asking and answering the most critical questions that the audience *should* ask and care about, instead of being caught up on just what the new features can do (e.g. what are the actual practical use-case *trade-offs* of the light-up signals? vs just describing what the light-up signals can and cannot do).
And also relentlessly focuses on those questions, while not overloading us with details on less relevant specs and features.
facts that's why he's the 🐐
But if you look at it in another way, it's sort of a way of telling people how they may use some features in their phones. Idk maybe I'm just overthinking
@@tojeagugo6593 ur definitely overthinking
I hope Nothing can survive and thrive. We really need the kind of tech- & design-savvy companies for not only top tier markets. It's almost a miracle to see something sweet like this happening. Well done! Carl Pei and Teenage Engineering.
Now they just have start making the OP1 again.
"I hope Nothing can survive and thrive."
Now that's not very nice.
@@markkoetsier6475 Im starting to get sick of the Nothing puns. Nothing is funny anymore... WAIT-
High refresh rate mid rangers and budget phones are fantastic. I love how almost all new phones have high refresh rate now.
For me, high fps mainly matters while gaming. But, most midrange phones start skipping frames while playing graphics intensive games.
I personally hate it in budget phone's because it stuteres after few months of use
Except for iPhones of course
@@awwman8998 maybe not exactly a budget phone, but i use my poco f3 now for quite some time and it's still really snappy.
While my smartphone have 120hz refresh rate, I only use the base 60hz to preserve battery life
This man's cinematography is on another level and still amazes me every video! Keep up this quality content!
It's average
Keep up? Do you not know this man? He’s been on UA-cam gor centuries doing the same thing
He has a fcking team, he is not alone. Its not his own work
@@Thomas_Sch it’s both
15M subs bro
They should place the LEDs on the side, that way it would be useful when the phone is laying on the table.
Nobody wants to have their phone to sit upside down just for the sake of seeing LEDs which aren't as useful as an actual screen, but having LED's on the side can make the phone still noticeable when something happens and you don't have to flip the phone to see the notifications.
Good point. LEDs should be on the side or bottom near the charging port. Putting them on the back is not a new idea and the reason it's been done before and not caught on is because the majority of people don't put their phone face down. Such a shame, big opportunity missed here by Nothing.
Remember Nokia 3220 with LED's all around? But I get it though. Frame is the strength part. If you cut a groove in it to fit LED's you're gonna severely compromise strength
I feel like most people leave their phones facing down on the table. I rarely see people leaving their phones facing up.
And that's actually really good idea. Imagine having RGB LEDs all the way around and when screen is off they serve as a cool notification/charging indicator but when screen is on they work like Philips Ambilight expanding what's on your screen. That would be awesome.
Or they should just make the antenna bands into LED at the same time
I like the background objects in many of your shots like the scrabble tiles and tools. They make great contrasts, and look good. I also like your no-BS approach. Your opinion of the defining physical features coincides with my (unseen) perception.
Thank you for your in-depth, complete and concise review!
The amount of detailing in Marques video, empty glass, a frame with no art or paintwork, a empty cassette case and near that the Nothing buds case and the rack or ladder in which a empty transparent box hats off hats off "slow claps" 👏👏👏
I think the framing suggests that the glass is half full.
Also a fleshlight in the corner
@@lalalalalala9109 fleshlight? where lmao
@@experimentalcyborg yes correct
@@lalalalalala9109 All kinds of visual puns marques has kept 😂
I like how they really doubled down on the unique aspect, including the retail box
And they kept Nothing in the box. No charger, no case. Staying true to the brand name.
@Don't Read My Profile Photo ok 😌
To be fair, the design seems to be the only thing that they can offer anyway that is something that other companies can't, the specs aren't really anything to write home about and they're by no means an iPhone killer, so they really aught to double down on the one thing that actually seperates them from the rest somewhat.
The lights are cool, but you could mod any phone to have the same lights honestly 🤷♀️🤷♀️
@Don't Read My Profile Photo oh onii san
6:18 I like how it eliminates the glare because of how spread out the light is compared to the flash
@shiptoast Yah. how convenient. just go around with a ring light in your hand all the places
@shiptoast There's ring lights now?!! i dont live in the us so i really don't know what your talking about
@shiptoast just bring a dslr, i dont get the purpose of him reviewing phones. oh
I love the way that this is a new company, just started out but they came in a very unique way. Setting themselves apart from the other android phones in terms of design and features (the LED lights at the back). It deserves all the hype.
considering its founded by the guy who also founded oneplus i dont think it deserves this sort of credit like they just came out of nowhere lmao
@@a.w_. The deserve it ngl one ui plus would be good on it too
Don’t see how there is anything special about the phone except the useless lights
It's gonna fall off later on like oneplus did
@@a.w_. you could say they came out of nothing
Gotta admit that the nothing phone is suprisingly looking very modern and futuristic in contribution to the iPhone camera design with of course the additional lights at the back of the phone as MKHBD has discussed before.
Is this a thesis
@@aurx14 No, this is literally average size for a typical MKBHD video comment
KBHD actually voiced exactly the thoughts that I had as I watched that crisp Launch event. Does it really stand out in terms of design? Are the 900+ LEDs really useful? Does it look like an iPhone? Stock Android Experience, is it unique? Are the mobile phone buyers being manipulated? I guess we all need to answer those questions for ourselves....Good luck Nothing Phone 1.
Indeed
The back panel is a gimmick and nothing more. The stock ringtones and notification tones are annoying, and I’m willing to bet those LEDs only work with Thomas’s ringtones.
Give a bunch of mid specs, at a reasonable price and add a gimmick to make people overly hyped
The lights might be cool for a day or two. It'll get annoying real quick real fast. It's more of a gimmick that being legitimately useful
@@kevindellatore I'd have to agree, I could maybe see a ring of LEDs around the front of the phone (maybe like where the bezel is) , then you'd basically have a ring light for selfies, it could be used face up so you don't have to put your screen on potentially scratchy things and ruin it, annnnnnnd I can't really think of anything else but I could see having a ring light built into the front of your phone being legit useful for people who take a lot of selfies as opposed to some lights on the back of the phone that flicker when you get a text message.
Then nothing is not for you
The biggest appeal to me is that it has flat edges and a glass back, reminiscent of the iPhone 4 era. Which to me was by far the most premium feeling device in the hand. Bonus points for being an Android phone, so you get the customizability which I find to be too lacking for my use in iOS.
I wanted to say this in the last video about this phone, but forgot to. I foresee this phone being absolutely amazing for the deaf and hard of hearing. If they can add much deeper customization to the LED notifications on a per app and per user basis, deaf people would be able to figure out who texted them when the phone is laying on a table.
Tons of people said that. We already have plenty of options for them anyway such as, you know, looking at the screen instead of trying to decode blinking LEDs. I don't see the point in this gimmick at all.
Your attention to detail and excellence is what makes us keep coming here for your reviews. You’re simply the best!
Know what I love about an MKBHD video, apart from the actual product review itself, the attention to detail the surroundings. Reviewing the Nothing phone and here he is, nothing on 3 of 5 shelves, nothing in the boxes on the shelfs, nothing in the glass on the desk, nothing in the picture frame and nothing in the old cassette case on the round table. Just.....yeah, Bravo
This actually isn't a bad phone for the money. These days it's around $447 for the 8/256 variant. Is it a good deal? Depends how you look at it. If you think it's more expensive than most phones with the Qualcomm 778G, yes it's a bit pricey, but do consider that it's not just the SoC you're buying. At this price you're getting an SoC that's just one notch below flagship SoCs, but you're also getting solid build quality, wireless charging, a unique design, an OS that's highly optimized for efficiency and is free of bloat, competent cameras, a display that's uniform around the edges, etc. Achieving that last one is actually no small feat because you need a bendable display to hide the display connector that's the reason why phones have 'chins'. It's practically similar to the iPhone's uniform bezels, and the OLED screen is very decent and color-accurate as well.
So is this phone a good deal? I would think it is. Not a flagship killer but you can do a lot worse with ~$400.
$450 usd is $600+ cad, that's enough to buy a S23 at launch with their launch promotions
@@GriefSeeker how do you know for sure how much the S23 will cost? There's no reliable info on price leaks. If anything, the vanilla S2x (the lowest model historically) typically goes for around $700+. The Nothing Phone 1, at least in my country, can be had for $450 right now for the 8/256 variant.
@@ronch550 Because the S22 was slightly above $600 with all launch promos and there's no way Samsung is going to increase the price when they're trying so hard to compete with Apple in NA.
@@GriefSeeker ok. Well, buy what suits you best. Personally though, I'm curious about this Nothing Phone. I think it's a good value.
This phone is the price of a Pixel 7.
Marques, I can't explain how much I love the production quality of your videos. The b-roll, the music, the casual but concise scripts, everything. You're one of the greats on the platform and I think I speak for most of us when I say we appreciate your continued incredible work on your content. Cheers 👍
Like you said, I think it is smart they're forging their own path on their products. Excited to see what else they come up with. Would love to see a better camera (even if it was on a more expensive "Pro" model) in the future but this seems like a good option. And it is neat looking, even if it isn't for me.
It I
Ok I iiiiiiioiiiiiioii I ii
Oiii I o I ii o ii o
Iiii I iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii I iiiiiiiiiiii ii
Iiiiii I ii i
Pretty neat design with the see-through backside.
55 ok my dear you are a very important person i really need you to save me i have been broke for a long time due to impossibility and it is difficult for me to find a job so i beg you the best of me find 5ghc for food aid please
here comes jerryrigeverything
I am honestly happy to see a decent competitor entering the market. If it comes to the US, I will definitely give it a go, I really enjoy the attempt to sustainability
$299 if you sign up for beta testing. Good deal. I’m already in
@@mcastro8429 Really? Where at?
Not going to lie, I seriously love this. To have a phone that sleek looking at that price range, if I were to show this to my buddies and have them guess the price, I guarantee it wouldn't be 399. I was concerned around the performance of the phone since it seems a lot of the cost went into design and materials, but this is a GREAT consumer product. I think if Nothing can expand that name and produce this on a bigger scale, it would be a hit amongst the regular consumer market
Obviously there are sacrifices, but all in all I think they nailed what was most important for most regular people. A phone with a great experience, great design, that just works
Considering how few updates a lot of android phones get, the performance isn’t too much of an issue because the OS doesn’t end up using a very large proportion of the phone’s resources.
So unless you’re playing some very intensive games, you’ll probably be perfectly fine.
Holy shit it’s 399??
You forget that competition catches up faster than you think in the real world....
Poco X4 GT can easily crush that peice of junk
It's actually closer to 500 US dollars factoring in the exchange rate and shipping costs, 399 pounds is not 399 dollars
I like the idea and aesthetic here. Price is nice too. It’s exciting to see where it could go. Not ready to leave apple for it. But it would be cool to have as a back up
I’ve been traumatized from all my friends’ android phones. Too many issues.
I think its way too expensive. You get same cpu (778g) in $300 phones like a52s today. (edit: i know they say its got a custom cpu.. but only difference is one of the cores is clocked 100MHz more.)
@@NovaDoll Never had an issue with any android phone since 2009, so guess your friends have been extremely unlucky.
@@AndrewTSq Most of my issues are from Apps being incompatible with Android but heavily supported through iPhone. Sadly might switch sides bc of this for work purposes.
@@AndrewTSq not a single issue? Not a single crashing app that just doesn’t work? I have hard time believing it. I have had problems with both android and apple phones since 2010
I almost 100 percent think they're going the smartwatch route next, imagine their design language on a watch. It's going to be so cool.
I believe before watch, they will relaunch nothing ear 1 stick on low price. Cutting some features from the original Ear 1.
They will be dead by then.
how would this design translate to a smartwatch??
@@hinglemccringleberry7265 like on their other product? See through housing, solid black internals? Not necessarily the glyphs, because honestly I have no idea how they’d implement that. But the rest would look nice.
I kinda wanna see their attempt on an arm laptop competing with Apple's latest MacBooks
Nothing design looks great. 1 is a little under-spec'd but that is OK for now. 2 seems to be delayed but rumored spec is top notch. I would consider if Nothing matches Samsung/Google/Apple years of software support.
Yeah, for a first gen, I am pretty excited
778 is a good chip
What spec is nothing phone 2 rumoured to have?
@@senseii2041 it might be a 8 gen series. Fingers crossed 🤞
@@faizkhan977 that would be crazy. same processor as the OP11 at 950-$1100USD? unreal. I'm using a OP6t currently but now have to consider waiting for the second iteration of the nothing phone D:
we love all the details on transparent props 👍🏻
The work Marques puts in the background of his videos is just amazing....always tries to match the theme as subtly as possible
I love how Marques does no gimmicks and just talks. His analysis and cool voice is enough here - no need for fancy stuff.
Mrwhoseboss is still the best..
Sometimes misleading cuz he doesn't do enough research
They are both the best!
Both r nice stop this
Starting a war I guess😂
I couldn’t stop giggling when I saw D Brand made a “something” skin for the iPhone
Same🤣🤣🤣
One of the first Android phones in a while that I think actually looks good. Not too sure bout the back, but the overal aesthetic with the same bezel all around the screen and the hole punch is great!
It’s basically iphone 12 without glass on the back, or I’m alone who sees it?
@@TheVlasan yep
Samsung Galaxy S22 has the same design
@@TheVlasan ding ding ding..we have a winner!
@@TheVlasan Yeah true, to be honest, aesthetics were one my reasons to switch to iPhone. I'm still hoping for a great looking Pixel
I'm still on my Pixel 2, it was a surprise to hear that the coloured notification dot is no longer common! I use it every day, it would be nice if the manufacturers brought it back before I buy my next phone, but I doubt it 😅
Sony still has it
This was such a a shocker to me moving to a new phone back in the day (I think it was from a galaxy S7 to the LG V30). The RGB notification light has become something I was so used to on all my previous androids and felt like something that set them apart from the iPhones that I’d had. I guess with the advent of always on displays they were deemed unnecessary.
This was such a a shocker to me moving to a new phone back in the day (I think it was from a galaxy S7 to the LG V30). The RGB notification light has become something I was so used to on all my previous androids and felt like something that set them apart from the iPhones that I’d had. I guess with the advent of always on displays they were deemed unnecessary.
wow same
just wondering are you on an 2 xl? Cause I am & I have no notification light
This is a really good 1st attempt, I'm super impressed and I might buy one just to support the company even if I don't end up daily driving it
yo you could buy me one to support the company and i would defs daily drive it xD
You have a point on the Lights, especially the Black Berry use to have those RGB lights .
For the price range, I think the phone is pretty damn solid. I'd love to see how they enter the flagship market
Same phone, add $200, use the latest processor. I don't mind if they use last year's flagship though. There is less difference in performance with a 1 year old flagship processor over a new mid-tier processor.
No. You don’t. That’s the whole purpose of this phone, to not be a flagship
For the price is overpriced unless you are American so it's balanced priced in your shit market
Add those ring LEDs to the front bezel & there goes the flagship Nothing(n)
I don't want another flagship. I want the king of value with good stock android experience, like OnePlus used to be
I love the aesthetic of the phone, all i need to do is wait for nothing phone 3 or 4 when they make it better, but for an entry level this is not bad tbh
yeah especially if they'd have a dope camera i'll be def a customer
Definitely
I just wanna know, who tf puts their phone screen side facing down?!🤣
@Krish Shah Yeah, right!😂 But, regular day-to-day use me?
@@NikhilAditya25 me I put it all the time, that phone is made for me 🤭
I love that unique phones with unique features are coming out to shack up the norm with Apple and Samsung phones. That's why as an iPhone fanboy, I still appreciate the Android platform because it gives competition and a new perspective
As an apple fanboy 🤓🤓
You are a great tech reviewer. Knowledgable, unbiased, authentic. Always enjoy your videos.
I really appreciate your editor and whoever comes up with these video ideas..love it man❤️
A year and half back when pixel 4a came out at 33k for 6gb+128 with avg SoC, 3140mah and plastic back everyone appreciated. this phone here has a major design shift, an aluminium frame, 0 bloatware, 4500mah, 2+1 decent cameras, most importantly something innovative at the same price and I see lot of neck picking. Geez what’s with that
i look at it in a different way. the pixel 4a has an amazing camera and good enough specs for a good user experience. only the battery was a bit small. the nothing phone looks to me just like every other midrange phone with lights on the back which i couldnt care less, because im always laying my phone display side up on the table for the always on screen.
in my opinion the glyphs are just a buying gimmick that nearly no one will actually get any use out of it besides of being a partytrick.
also i dont like glass backed phones. if you need wireless charging which i dont need you can still go for a plastic backside that wont crack if you drop it.
i'm more of an utilitarian guy who always chooses function over form.
Because the phone is pretty average whos only selling point is it’s price and the gimmick that I the leds on the back
Still using pixel 4a. And not gonna give it up until the update for the apps stop completely... As for this phone, the LEDs may not be a game changer. But the specs are really good enough and the user interface is clean and close to stock Android. 120 Hz screen and the design is unique ... IMO, nothing is a worthy midranger. And expecting more from Nothing....
@@Ferzin400 Pixel 4a amazing camera at the time could never compete with the flagships
This still has some problems while the pixel 4a had better software and a bigger company behind it, their marketing is also very controverisal
I love how there's always an easter egg in mkbhd's videos. Like the frame with NOTHING in the back, the cassette with NOTHING in it, the glass.... you get the point. Smort!
And the small letters around the cassette where its written N o t h i n g
After a year, I must say that it was a gamble worth taking. They have gotten better taking all the feedbacks and improving them along the year. "Nothing" has turned into "Something"
Do you think it's worth buying now?
Yup. That is what I was thinking all this time; A small LED "Dot matrix" display would have been so much more useful. Or something like the screen on the front of a GoPro (pre-8), but backlit when you tap it. This is just a cute gimmick. The only thing I care about; is it "Great for the money", like OnePlus once was?
Im sure that Marques would have said so if it is great for the money like OnePlus once was.
The ROG phone has done it for 2 years now
@@tridinh1011 And the phones with ROG Vision are also 3x the price. Granted, they’re top spec, but that’s something to take into consideration as well.
@@tridinh1011 what about camera?
For me, i feel like "Nothing" is trying to make us understand that we have been paying too much for literally nothing exceptional. The most average population of the world needs a phone that has the capabilities to perform almost all the tasks with ease like we need a phone to be aesthetically appealing, with a good camera to capture day to day memories, a powerful enough processor to handle the day to day tasks with ease, a beautiful bright and smooth display, a robust and solid exterior (with some protection), and with few additional takeaways like wireless charging, cool looking LEDs, etc. but all this with an affordable price tag.
I think "Nothing" succeeded in almost all these areas pretty solidly.
We might be Apple lovers, Pixel lovers, Mi lovers, or any other brand in particular but we could not deny the fact that Nothing company has delivered it's promise pretty well.
Kudos to the team.
The buying decision at the end is always subjective.
❤️❤️❤️ Love from Me ❤️❤️❤️
most underrated comment.
Remind me the 1st oneplus 1 price long time ago..now oneplus is overprice.
LED's on the back of a phone that you don't see for 99% of the time using your phone - nothing exceptional and a waste of money.
No head phone jack - have to buy wireless headphones....oh look they sell those too - nothing exceptional yet we have to pay more
No charger brick - oh look we sell those as well - nothing exceptional yet we have to pay more.
They're literally doing what other companies are doing - shafting the consumer, albeit under a different guise.
@@rambledogs2012 for half the price tho
@@saftsimon Half the price of what?
The notification led was a cool feature. I miss having it on my old xperia ion. Why don't companies add it back at least using the always on display? Like some ppl turn AOD off to save battery. A little circular blinking dot at the corner (preferably you could choose the location) of the screen would do the job perfectly
True. Ever since my first bezel-less phone, I miss the little dot for notifications. There's one 3rd party app i found about a year ago but i think it's so crappy that I had to uninstall it.
Samsung has that already
iPhones LED torch flashes with notifications if you want it on.
@@OfficialSamuelC that's just when a notifiaction is received, the notification LED is to see if you got a notification when your phone is laying screen up on a table and you've been focused on something else or gone for a few minutes.
@@kearifan How do I activate it?
The only extra use I see on this phone is using the glyph light instead of flash when taking pictures of ID or laminated file/pictures. Won't get that big ole glare
That dark version looks so sleek. I don't know why nothing decided to have the white one be the one used in promotions. The design itself is steller for that price point. I hope the Nothing (2) gets customizable rgb led on the back to make it more usable as a notification indicator.
Yes !! like the old blackberries which had rgb
I agree the black one looks super sick and sleek. I think they went with the white one for marketing though because it sticks out more. Almost all phones now are black or doing pastel/frosted colors, or are doing punchy colors like the Red iPhone. But there's not many white phones currently. So i think they just wanted to capitalize on how attention grabbing the white one is. But i do think the black one is sexier.
White+light feels more futuristic and that's the style they tried to glaze
White goes well with those empty white rooms that they use to market phones.
The white one makes the lights invisible
RGB notification LED were one of the most useful and underrated feature that sadly got abandoned eventually.
Honestly, this phone seems like a great buy. It does some things different. It’s good looking. Uniform display bezels. There’s no major red flags. I’m digging the hell out of it.
I like the features. Hope to see the phone again in the future with the extra possibilities added. Might consider one then.
This is exactly what I was waiting for as a OnePlus fan. I totally understand Carl Pei his decision to leave OnePlus. OnePlus had my attention since the very first version and my first OnePlus is the 6T which I'm still using currently. But as most of us know, OnePlus went in a different direction which killed the original OnePlus vision. Thanks to Nothing I have my hope back for the future of real innovation and best user experience.
What was there vision? I knew of them and was interested but then they went quiet.
@@brentparker1665 They went from Flagship Killer status to literally a flagship in terms of price to value scale. Plus their brand moto was Never Settle which meant never settle or choose those chinese ROMs which are heavy, filled with useless features and what not, but now OnePlus basically are contradicting themselves.
as a oneplus fan u were waiting for a phone with looks over performance?
@@goblinslayer5404 exactly...
As a OP5 user waiting for upgradation..
I was disappointed by nothing phone 1..
I need performance rather than gimmicks...
@@harshmohanh2268 than buy a flagship, buy a samsung 22 ultra. That's top performance, but you have to be ready to pay 1000$+ for a phone... a phone! C'mon, that's just ridiculous.
I really missed the notification LEDs when I switched to a phone without them. I so wish a company would release an update to use the always on lock screen functionality to have a few pixels in the corner emulating a blinking LED.
Burn in would become a problem unfortunately if the dot was always in the same spot. There are apps to make that happen though if you really want to do it. Samsung also has an option where the always on display only appears when a new notification arrives which seems like a decent compromise
@Engi1729 - have a look into Holey Light, it's a brilliant app which safely recreates a notification light around the camera hole punch
Xperia's all have notification leds still :D
Honestly the specs it does have for the price seem pretty good. Oled with 120hz refresh and wireless charging in a mid tier is nice to see
Except wireless charging both of those are very much common nowadays even in a budget phone around $250~
Wireless charging is the most useless feature out there. Wastes electricity and isn't any more convenient than wired charging.
@@evila9076 not until the charging port gives out lmao
@@fxjh21 i upgrade phones every 2-3 years and never managed to break a charging port. Idk how you guys do that. Sure the older pre type c connectors were flimsy and would get loose. But that isn't the case anymore.
@e vila I've never broken a type c or a micro b cable. So I don't see how people do it either. As far as convenience, wireless is definitely more convenient. No argument. You just place the phone down and it charges. As opposed to plugging in a cable and then placing it down. And that's if the cable didn't fall down behind the table first. The same wireless charger can be used by both Android and Apple phones. And when you want to quickly use your phone, just pick it up. Don't have to unplug it. Now if the convenience isn't enough for you, that's different, and totally understandable. But it's definitely more convenient for all those reasons
I was waiting for the pun at the end of the video and MKBHD didn't disappoint.
3 best things about this are the screen with the even bezels all the way around, a clean reliable user experience and nice asthetic overall. I think they found a great niche.
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THE COMMENT ABOVE ME IS A BOT, DO NOT GET SCAMMED BY IT, IT WANTS TO SHOW PEOPLE FALSE INFORMATION THAT MKBHD IS A BAD PERSON BUT ACTUALLY ISNT, SO I REPEAT, DO NOT GET SCAMMED BY THIS BOT
btw im talking about the reply not the comment itself so if the reply gets deleted then just know im not talking about the main comment
2:00 seeing that see-through cassette, is as nostalgic as it could ever get 😍
I love the same sized bezel all around, really makes it look modern.
If the leds changed colour and made sense by their placement, I’d 100% buy.
Just a few things need a change. Hopefully (2) will be groundbreaking.
This raises a good point. Why have all the RGB notification LEDs disappeared, the colour coding of different notifications is really useful.
It reminds me of my Essential phone that I loved. Both try to use novel materials and features to differentiate themselves. Hopefully they don't have the same problem that Essential had of over-promising. Their decision to stay overseas is a good sign from that perspective. Essential was killed by poor signal quality in North America, mostly Tmobile. It was why I had to stop using mine. I hope Nothing can continue to grow and become a real player, in a market that is becoming overly consolidated with little real competition. Also that black one looks awesome! I prefer it to the white.
I also had an Essential PH-1 with T-Mobile, and I had a good experience. By the way, Nothing acquired Essential in February 2021!
T
Looking past the hype, the Nothing phone (1) is just another average Android smartphone. That being said, it has the coolest design among its competitors 🔥
I mean its a 399 phone tho. As long as the integration of the software is good idm the price point for the specs. Sure there will be tons of redmi, xiaomi and whatever other Mis are there at the same price with better specs but again specs doesnt make a phone.
@@Lord_ofcinder For me it does. Yes, this phone looks cool, but those Chinese phones are much, much faster. If I'm spending this much money, I'm going to be focusing on the specs. This phone doesn't stand out in any areas sadly.
@@vaff69420 again I am not saying those phones are worse but if the integration with the hardware is good enough then this phone is better. I remember when the iPhone XR came out people kept shitting on it for its display being sub1080p and they kept saying how xiaomi and redmi have better display at a cheaper price. Having higher numbers on the paper doesn’t matter if the quality is shite. iPhone XR display is still one of the best at the range it is in and beat every shitty display from those Chinese phones. Not saying they are bad but higher numbers on paper doesn’t make a phone good. As long as nothing (1) can provide good support, better integration with the hardware and cheaper price, I think this would go big
Average, therefore it justifies the mid tier price. This is another Nexus 5 experience now in 2022, and that was a fantastic phone. If the Nothing Phone nails the reliability and simplicity of that phone, and the build and UI quality exceeding the trash build and tacked on OS of the cheap Chinese phones, they are onto a winner.
@@Lord_ofcinder iPhone XR was a monster I bought 2 of them for $800 and it’s still the greatest phone I’ve ever owned hands down. If they had not offered me $800 trade in per phone I would not have upgraded 😁. That lcd panel was amazing and it’s even hella cheap to fix and repair. I never once actually had an issue with the display.
When it is eventually ported, it would be cool to see how the Pixel camera app works on this phone.
They really should release this in the US, someone other than Samsung needs to make a $400 phone for the US. Follow the same strategy as OnePlus, just sell it online unlocked.
The pixel 6a is gonna be around $400
Are you Eren Yeager's brother?
@@SkullKnight1 are u ali baba's brother?
@@RarePotatoHD lmao
@@RarePotatoHD I am Osama's brother, better watch your mouth next time boy!
Based on what Nothing's design language has been in both products, they should definitely make a Watch. Looking forward to more devices from them. The Phone(1) felt like a great successor to the Pixel 4a that I still love using.
I don't believe it's better than pixel 4a
I read your comment from the screen of Pixel 4a btw! Agree with every word 👍
@@shreyash6495 Why not? Lol.
There's an actual successor called pixel 6a which comes around at this price. Apart from high refresh rate I believe that to be a superior experience. Better performance, better camera
@@vedaryan334 they're 2 different phones for different target markets. If you want a better performance and 4 years of OS updates, the pixel 6a might be better.
But if you want a larger 120hz screen, a metal/glass body, better screen protection, a unique design, and faster charging at the cost of a slightly weaker performance, then the Nothing phone is better
4:25 "I don't get that many calls" Same Marques, same.
At launch, Nothing advertised the Nothing Phone (1) as being capable of reaching 1,200 nits when viewing HDR content. Considering the smartphone's price, this would have been an impressive feature, if it were true. Now they changed their pick brightness 1200 to 700.
Thank you MKBHD for this video. Could you please tell us if you're planning on doing an in depth review of the Pixel 6a before it comes out ?
He hinted at it when he said he just tested one of the best cameras on a phone 🤫
@@murroyb Thats not it brother, he was talking about the xiaomi 12s ultra which he did a video on.
he still hinted on it, by sayin it is like the pixel 6a (prizewise)
@@murroyb that's Xiaomi
The Review we are all waiting for. . Thanks MKBHD
Good gods that's a gorgeous phone! I feel like the corners could be a little less chamfered to differentiate from the iPhone's profile... But overall it snaps into that cyberpunk aesthetic I truly adore. Now, if there was a feature like e-ink over the skeletonized components and under the gorilla glass so you could have a custom set of graphics under the glass, that would make that a must-have for me.
Your review is really good! You adopted a clear neutral unbiased and fact based review that also provides a manufacturer with a lot of advice as to what the consumer wants. Well done! Great review
For all of its flaws, I actually really like this phone, and am seriously considering it. An unintended plus I just realized of the phone too is just how useful these glyph lights can be for those with hearing impairments. If you can’t really hear a notification, you can now see it. I’m anxiously awaiting more customization options for it!
Bruh me too, I have a top line iPhone 14 and its awesome but... boring... for my next phone yes it would be a downgrade - but its cool as f*ck
definitely buying this, just because all the features they packed in this high-mid tier phone. Which no other phone has got
It's a pretty unique product that tries to do things differently in an VERY oversaturated market.
You may like it or not, but you must give credit to this phone for being able to stand outside the crowd.
nothing always comes with a new concept, absolutely love it. they don't charge exceptionally high for something you already can expect when buying a phone. Half the money is just for the fame and aesthetic and because "everyone else is buying it". I hope nothing goes far to compete with brands that charge insanely high for looks.
I think "always comes with a new concept" is a big statement for a company that has 2 products, one of which hasn't released yet.
"nothing always comes with new concept" lmao what, this is literally their second product 💀
@@NotTheRambo concept, not product
Such sick lights, not just aesthetic but also functional. Definitely separating them from the bunch.
you are *nothing* but a bot
Love that there is nothing in the frame on the back wall at the start of the videos 😂, nothing in the glass , nothing on the shelf and at 1:15 the letters on the table spell NOTHING
Nothing on his shirt
Great review. I think this phone does everything just enough for the average user, and honestly we can't expect more from a smartphone today as we've seen everything they have to offer. Notification LEDs should come back, but at the front of phones.
I agree the notification light should be on the front. As much as i dislike phones with curved edge screens. Some of them use the curve to display notification side lights, so i appreciate that functionality. I know it's physically not possible yet, but the front bezel of the Nothing phone being the LED strip notification light would be sick.
You can’t expect more from a smartphone? Are you okay? This is a mid range device with average ass cameras The iPhone and Samsung are way more Unique than this device And you can’t use price as an excuse because Samsung and Apple have old phones more capable than this crap
Nevermind notification LEDs, just have the phone use a small spot of the OLED pixels to achieve the same result. The phone could even move the notification light around to reduce a risk of burn in.
@@edragyz8596 good point
@@edragyz8596 this, there is an app that lets you put a halo around the camera hole and it looks very nice
This is a very polite and respectful review of one of the first products from Nothing
Kudos to you Marques 😃😁
i just know mkbhd should make movies in near future ! damn these videos are dope !
this is actually the first android phones that i'd consider buying, love the design and that beautiful back, too bad the glyph interface isnt very customizable
I'm buying this thing, user experience it's great!!!!
@@flaviomulatojerkin Nice, enjoy it. I just got an iphone 12 last month for myself 😁
@@raz9800 nice bro, hope you like it 👏
@@flaviomulatojerkin yeah, switching from a 5s, the difference was mind blowing, i love it 😂
@@raz9800 do you use:
1/ Always On Display
2/ Split screen
3/ Dual app mode
How do you feel about back gestures on Android: don’t you feel it is easier ?
It’ll evolve into something awesome with time, this is just their launch model, they had to come out first and be known,then next launch will probably have a Pro and Max options with more amped specs. We’re likely to see maybe a watch or a few tech things from them. Let’s pray they don’t give us so much hope then after they just don’t go down & quiet like Red Hydrogen phone.
Looks promising! If I wasn't primarily an iOS user, I would definitely try the device. For now, it seems like a cool option for a secondary phone.
switch
I actually love the Nothing Phone 1, I appreciate what the user experience looks like it’s going to be, I appreciate the symmetric bezels and the great flavor of Android, near-stock that is.
Pretty cool! Neat cyberpunk feel. It's more for everyone else seeing you with it, than your own utility. That's not my style, but for people wanting to be seen with a cool phone at a mid level price, not bad!
I would love a hybrid analog smart watch from Nothing. Clean design aesthetic, analog face but vibration and lights to indicate notifications and messages. Nothing insane, but clean and simple
i used to have a Sony Xperia SP between 2013 and 2016 and i looooved so much its rgb light bar, that worked as a notification light and also followed any song rithym
Seems like a decent phone.
Decent specs, decent functionality, some interesting quirks and gimmicks that might appeal to some people.
And a fairly good price.
It's no flagship, but it's a solid phone and I do like the aesthetic and the lights (even if the functionality is a little flawed).
@@vp5429 it's literally android 12, it might as well be a pixel phone.
I'm trying to decide between buying the nothing or a standard Pixel 6.
What would you recommend?
I sure would love the camera on my 6P to be put into this phone in every other way. Much better design, better size, symmetrical bezels, flat screen, brighter screen, faster charging, and I'd imagine it doesn't get nearly as hot as the Pixel does in general use.
I realized you were talking about the 6 Pro. At first I thought you meant you were still holding onto a Nexus 6P, lol.
@@eamonob84 Damn me too! I was like wow and I thought I held onto that one way longer than I should have, this dude's got me beat LOL
@@eamonob84 wait.. what 6 Pro?
@@akt8985 pixel
I'm trying to decide between buying the nothing or a standard Pixel 6.
What would you recommend?
Very interesting idea imo which came to mind was dimmable back panel, sth like it was with OnePlus "Invisible camera" concept back in time. For instance u could switch btw more common design and this extravagant.
yo now that i think about it, that would be really fucking crazy. Imagine showing your friends a normal black phone and then the back glass goes transparent and they can see the internals.
@@Brainman_2331 yep
The first that brought my attention isn’t even the review, but the intentions in the set design. From the frame, to t-shirt-using different shades. The gradient of gray, white and black. This is real attention to details here. And I believe many people will pay for you to design their UA-cam studio. Great work!
very nice touch there with the transparent stuff laying around :), i am a fan of a good design and functions over specs.
Great work there.
Its pretty cool to see a new brand do something fresh in design, great optimization, decent enough specs, good battery life and a nice display. The Glyph features are honestly just a marketing gimmick in my opinion. They are really cool and makes the phone stand out especially with the transparent back and the fake 'internals', but the Glyph lights are just not useful enough. Seems like a missed opportunity to not include features we might want, like expandable storage or a more useful LED display on the back (even a small one such as the one on the first Samsung Z Flip).