Nothing Phone (1) Android 13 Update Won't Happen Until Early 2023

Carl Pei's Nothing launched its first two products amid a sea of controversy and heated debates. Some felt that the Nothing Ear (1) buds fell one step short of delivering a truly unique design to the wireless earbuds market, while the Nothing Phone (1) has split camps on whether its Glyph gimmick was really worth the hype. Regardless of which side you're on, it's not hard to argue that Nothing is good at stirring up discussions that put it in the spotlight one way or another. The latest debate the company seems to have stirred up is regarding the first major update to the Nothing Phone (1), which its CEO and founder just confirmed won't be arriving this year in its final form.

Nothing was born from a desire to turn the mobile industry on its head, or at least that's how the official spiel goes. It set out espousing transparency and minimalism, both in terms of design as well as in business strategies. Coming from one of the key people behind OnePlus' success, there was definitely a lot of expectation riding on the company's inaugural products, especially the much-hyped Phone (1). Nothing basically promised to do better than other smartphone makers, and to some extent, it may have been able to deliver.

As far as mid-range Android phones go, the Phone (1) deserves some praise for its combination of price and features. But while it's a solid all-rounder, some feel that it doesn't live up to the promise of a revolutionary smartphone, especially in terms of design. Nothing's minimalist spirit is definitely palpable, but it seems that it won't be giving any advantage to how fast it can push out updates.

Because of a rather ambiguous tweet, the Nothing Phone (1) was accused of being abandonware, as the company wouldn't be able to support the device with timely updates. The reactions might have been exaggerated, but Carl Pei's subsequent clarifications might not inspire confidence, either. Yes, the startup has released bug fixes and minor updates to improve the experience of its first phone. No, it won't play the game of rushing to push the latest Android release out the door, especially when it comes at the expense of stability and usability.

In fact, the company's founder and CEO revealed that the Android 13 rollout isn't scheduled to happen until sometime in early 2023. That, however, only applies to its final stable release, with a beta happening before the year ends. Pei doesn't offer any explanation for its pace — other than not rushing things unnecessarily — but some suspect it has something to do with the custom Glyph interface that Nothing is heavily investing in.

Nothing OS itself is pretty bare and sticks closely to the vanilla Android experience. That would have been great in terms of rolling out upgrades faster, just like how the old Nexus phones could get updates faster as well. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case here because of the Phone (1)'s signature feature, and only time will tell if it would really be worth the costs.