Nothing's First Smartphone Now Has A Launch Date

In March 2022 there was a flurry of social media chatter surrounding the launch of the first smartphone from Nothing, the promising technology startup led by former OnePlus founder Carl Pei. Through its social media channels, Nothing hinted at the possibility of revealing its first smartphone to the world via a launch event on March 23. Unfortunately, the event turned out to be a massive disappointment after Nothing chose to only showcase an Android launcher. Nothing did, however, use the occasion to give enthusiasts an early peek at its Android-based operating system — Nothing OS — that will power its future smartphone.

Carl Pei also took the event as an opportunity to make lofty claims about Nothing OS. He claimed that the operating system will "capture the best features of pure Android, distilling the operating system to just the essentials, where every byte has a purpose." First glimpses of the Nothing Launcher, however, seemed to indicate that Nothing OS borrowed a lot of stock Android elements — albeit with stylized fonts and UI colors.

Two months since that launch event, Nothing seems to have made significant progress on developing its first smartphone. So much so that the company, earlier today, sent out invites for its launch event scheduled for July 12, 2022. The company had earlier revealed that its first smartphone would be called the Nothing phone (1).

With almost every company coming up with different themes for their product launches, how could Nothing be left behind? The launch event for the Nothing phone (1) bears the theme "Return to Instinct." This phrase likely has as little to do with the actual contents of the event as your average Apple event invite, which notoriously gives very little in the way of clues about final products.

As was the case with its March 2022 event, Nothing seems to be leaving no stone unturned to hype up the launch of the phone (1). Taking a dig at the current players in the smartphone space, Nothing' invite claims that the phone (1) will help tech enthusiasts "unfollow and unlearn what the industry has taught (them)."

With a little over a month left for the July 12 launch event, we are still unsure as to how different the Nothing phone (1) experience could be compared to existing Android devices. Nevertheless, if you are interested in catching the event live, you can get notified of the event by signing up for alerts surrounding the launch on Nothing's website.

For a long time now, Nothing has been talking about its collaboration with Qualcomm. This was enough to establish that the phone (1) will almost certainly use a flagship-grade Qualcomm Snapdragon chip. On March 30, Nothing's Twitter account also posted a summary of all the publicly available information surrounding the phone (1).

From the tweet, we can establish that the Nothing phone (1)'s mid-frame will be made of recycled aluminum. However, the most striking aspect of the phone could potentially be its transparent rear panel — a design theme carried over from its wireless earbuds: the Nothing ear (1). Nothing has also confirmed that the phone will support wireless charging and that it will have a very insignificant chin.

While the company stopped short of announcing the Snapdragon processor it intends to use on the phone (1), chances are high we would be seeing the device launch with the brand new Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip that was officially announced just a few days ago.