Product test
Review: the Nothing Phone (3) is hot on the heels of top-of-the-range smartphones
by Jan Johannsen
Testing the Nothing Phone (1): the firefly of smartphones
4.8.2022
Translation: Eva Francis
Nothing Phone (1) stands out from the smartphone crowd with its transparent and flashing back. Aside from that, it’s proven itself to be an accomplished mid-range model.
There aren’t many significant improvements to make to smartphone hardware. So it seems only logical that Nothing is attracting attention mainly with the design of its first smartphone. The features also give no cause for criticism, but the camera system still has room for improvement.
Flash(ing)back: the Glyph Interface
There are ten light patterns for calls and notifications to choose from in the settings. You can also assign different patterns to different contacts, enable Phone (1) to switch exclusively to glyph notifications as soon as you place it on its display and use the lower LED strip as a battery status indicator when charging.
Nothing OS with no bloatware
Nevertheless, I’m very satisfied with the new OS. It has its own visual accents with the dot matrix and boasts a generally restrained design. Less is more again when it comes to the user interface design – just like Nothing’s hardware. In addition, there’s no annoying bloatware at all. Only the apps required by Google are pre-installed with Android 12. The camera and the recorder app are the only in-house developments.
Phone (1) is set to receive three years of Android updates and four years of security updates. That’s fine, but it’s not the longest-term promise among Android devices.
One dual camera is enough
The Nothing Phone (1) has two cameras on the back. That doesn’t seem like much, but it’s all you need for most subjects. There’s a 50-megapixel sensor behind both sensors. There are differences between the main and ultra wide-angle cameras in terms of aperture, sensor size and pixel size:
- Main camera: f/1.9, 1/1.56 inches, 1.0 µm
- Ultra wide-angle camera: f/2.2, 1/2.79 inches, 0.64 µm
The best smartphone camera! There’s no doubt about it after I took this cute photo of office dog Polly. I still took some more pictures to avoid solely relying on the good depiction of animal hair.
This photo ticks the box for natural colour reproduction and high level of detail on the Phone (1). However, a closer look reveals a tendency for blurring in the corners.
Strong contrasts are no problem for Phone (1)’s camera. The HDR software does a good job of balancing the differences between shaded and sunny areas.
There’s a range of perspectives offered by the ultra wide-angle camera, the main camera and the double zoom in the camera app. In theory, Phone (1) even offers a 20x digital zoom, but it’s so bad at 10x magnification that it’s not worth bothering.
There’s blurring again in the shots taken with the ultra wide-angle camera – take a look at the upper right-hand corner. And it can’t be explained by the fact that the trees are in the foreground and the background is in focus. In other areas, the leaves in the foreground are sharper.
Nothing’s Phone (1) displays a crescent moon in the viewfinder image in the dark. Clicking on this activates night mode. This doesn’t increase the average level of detail of automatic mode, but it ensures brighter images and slightly better balanced contrasts in very bright areas. However, other night modes do it better. For example, I’d expect to be able to read the destination display on the train on the bridge.
The main camera on the Nothing Phone (1) ranks between good and very good. However, the ultra wide-angle camera and the front camera lower the overall rating when taking photos.
No additional hardware required
With its equipment, the Nothing Phone (1) can’t and doesn’t want to keep up with the top smartphones, which are often twice as expensive. It doesn’t have to; it’s got everything you need.
The 6.55-inch OLED display is bright enough in sunshine. The maximum refresh rate of 120 Hertz corresponds to that of top models and the resolution of 2400 × 1080 pixels ensures a sharp image. The fingerprint sensor under the display unlocks Phone (1) reliably.
You can see how Phone (1) performs in Geekbench 5 compared to other good mid-range smartphones in the following table:
The Phone (1)’s 4500 mAh battery gets me through the day easily. Charging with the 45-watt power adapter, which Nothing offers as an option but isn’t included with delivery, isn’t super fast, but it’s still pretty quick. As with other smartphones, half an hour isn’t enough, but an hour should give you a full charge.
There are 128 or 256 gigabytes of internal memory on the Nothing Phone (1) and it can’t be expanded with a micro SD card. You can, however, insert two SIM cards to achieve the same effect.
A refreshing newcomer which needs to tweak its camera system
Design is always a matter of taste, and the same applies to the Nothing Phone (1). I’m happy about the variety it brings to the mass smartphone market. You’ll either love or hate the Glyph interface. The tidy Nothing OS is a big plus for me so far.
Jan Johannsen
Senior Editor
Jan.Johannsen@galaxus.deWhen I was but a young student, I'd sit in my friend's living room with all my classmates and play on his SuperNES. Since then I've had the opportunity to test out all the newest technology for you. I've done reviews at Curved, Computer Bild and Netzwelt, and have now arrived at Galaxus.de.
