Phones, earbuds, and much more

It hasn’t taken long for Nothing to be catapulted from its scrappy young startup status to a popular brand, boasting three smartphones, three pairs of earphones, and a series of odd experiments. And with the launch of its first affordable smartphone, Nothing is clearly gunning to go mainstream. But if you’re new to the brand or are just curious about Nothing’s growth over the years, here’s a quick rundown of everything Nothing has launched so far.

Nothing Ear 1

A transparent look into Nothing’s future

Before Nothing’s first phone, the company’s first product was a pair of true wireless earphones. The Nothing Ear 1 followed a series of pretentious hype-building exercises and concluded with the reveal of the brand’s design-first approach to tech. Design is subjective, but there’s no doubt that the Nothing Ear 1 was a head-turner purely for being different. The semi-transparent appearance of the earphones started from the drivers and extended all the way through the stalks. The contrasting white of the earbuds helped add some visual flair. The unique design extended to the case as well, which let you sneak a peak right through to the earphones.

Sporting 11.6mm dynamic drivers and an accompanying bass chamber, we found the Nothing Ear 1 to have a balanced sound with a penchant for sounding great with most genres. Moreover, the fit and light weight of the earphones stood out the most and made the earphones genuinely comfortable to wear over long durations.

Nothing did well by including ANC, even in its first attempt at making an audio product. While not quite as effective at all-around noise cancelation as more established alternatives, the Ear 1 did a decent job at dulling out low hums.

Of course, some omissions had to be made, and battery life was an unfortunate victim here. Four hours with ANC switched on isn’t terrible, but the Ear 1 clearly wasn’t designed for the avid jet-setter. Thankfully, like some of the best true wireless earphones on the market, wireless charging was included, making it easy to pop the earphones on a desk charger. Not bad at all for $99.

Nothing Phone 1

Nothing’s first phone delivered on the hype with its trendsetting design

While the earphones gave us a glimpse into the company’s transparent design language, the Nothing Phone 1 was the first peak in the company’s refreshing thought process for handling notifications. Hands down, the most hyped smartphone of 2022, the Nothing Phone 1, debuted in July 2022 with the Glyph interface, which has now become a brand staple.

A series of ten LED strips comprising over 900 individual LEDs, laid out in an aesthetic configuration, the Glyph interface added some much-needed pizzazz to the see-through back of the phone. It wasn’t a case of form over function either, and the LEDs could be set to flash in sync with ringtones, notifications, or app notifications. Additionally, the LEDs could be used as a video fill light, though it tended to lend a cooler tone to the final image. But hey, something is better than nothing. Nothing’s thinking behind the Glyph interface was to help users cut down screen time. However, in our review, we observed that blinking lights staring at you was just as distracting as a screen lighting up to notify you. No surprises there.

The rest of the hardware was fairly unremarkable, with the Nothing Phone 1 opting for a Snapdragon 778G+ chipset. A solid, if average, mid-range performer, the phone kept things running smoothly when paired with a light interface.

Like the performance, battery life was unremarkable at best — both in terms of hardware and real-world efficiency. At 4500mAh, the phone wouldn’t beat the best in the business, but five hours of screen-on-time was a respectable showing. Moreover, the phone was a rare example of mid-range hardware shipping with wireless charging support. The 33W fast charging support was excellent to have as well.

For a first attempt, Nothing’s software was certainly unique, albeit not necessarily going in the right direction. The company took minimalism to extreme levels, and we found it to be bare-bones in our review. A series of custom widgets and a fully matched skin completed the Pixel Launcher-like design. Thankfully, the company made major strides when it made significant improvements with the Android 13 update.

The phone didn’t bend the hardware status quo much, and the dual 50MP camera configuration wasn’t extraordinary. However, Nothing did decently with image processing, and daylight shots from the primary camera were rather good. The phone managed to capture well-detailed shots with accurate white balance. At launch, the ultrawide camera struggled to match the color tones of the primary sensor, but Nothing fixed that over time with subsequent updates.

Overall, the Nothing Phone 1 lived up to the hype by focusing on a well-rounded package and standout aesthetics at a reasonable price point.

Nothing Ear (Stick)

An affordable alternative

Leveraging economies of scale and locking in prices is hard for any startup, and by November 2022, Nothing was compelled to raise the cost of its first pair of earphones. So, it introduced a second pair of earphones at a lower price point. Dubbed the Ear Stick, Nothing’s second pair of earphones kept much of the same feature set but dropped active noise cancellation, transparency mode, and wireless charging to reduce the price.

The company also redesigned the entire case to give it a stick-like form factor. Easier to stow away and carry for sure, the case was equally susceptible to catching grime, dust and dirt. Clearly a case of style over function.

Unlike the Ear 1, the earbuds here sported no silicon extensions at all and were closer to the AirPods than the AirPods Pro in design. Noise isolation was, as expected, negligible. That said, the earphones delivered audio quality in spades and punched above their weight with rich bass and clear mids — as long as they stayed put in your ears. In our review, we found the earphones shifted a bit too much in the ear, more so if you lead an active lifestyle and needed to be constantly adjusted for an optimal fit.

Other downgrades were made, too. For example, the touch interface was swapped out for a squeeze-to-control system, which you may or may not prefer. Similarly, the earphones lacked multipoint connectivity. Despite that, the earphones kept their IP54 rating, making them a good choice for outdoor activities.

Overall, a solid product for anyone looking for a distinctive piece of hardware without breaking the bank.

Nothing Ear (2)

A solid successor to a great product

Why change what’s not broken? The company’s third product was yet another pair of true wireless earphones, and Nothing decided to stick with the tried and tested design language of its first pair of earphones.

While the first-generation earphones were meant to create a splash, the all-new Nothing Ear 2 focused on refinement. Sound quality got an upgrade with a focus on paring back the bass and refining the mids and highs.

Similarly, the touch controls in the first-gen were replaced with pressure-sensitive controls that allow you to squeeze the stalk to manipulate the controls. Elsewhere, the earphone gained multipoint support earphones, making it a great option to pair up with both phones and laptops.

Nothing also amped up the noise cancelation settings on the earphones with a new adaptive noise cancelation option to better balance battery life and isolation. However, in our review, we found flipping between the high setting and off, depending on requirements, to be the way to go. Additionally, that focus on battery life didn’t really pay off. Battery longevity was still the Nothing Ear 2’s Achilles heel and topped off at about four hours of use.

Priced at $150, the Nothing Ear 2 wasn’t quite the sensational product the first-gen managed to be. The design was distinctive, but the rest of the package was far from a standout winner.

Nothing Phone (2)

Second time’s the charm

The first-generation Nothing Phone achieved reasonable success thanks to the surrounding hype, but the pressure was on. The Nothing Phone 2 needed to deliver, both on design and performance. Predictably, the second smartphone from the brand was a higher-end play with refinements on all levels, designed to take on some of the best premium mid-range smartphones.

Starting with design, Nothing opted for a more premium look and feel with a larger display and curved glass back panel. Similarly, the rear aesthetic was largely similar to the Nothing Phone 1 with an updated Glyph layout and more individually controllable zones. In our review, we found the design fairly unchanged but striking. Moreover, the phone continues to be IP54-rated.

For its second phone, Nothing seriously amped up the performance quotient and equipped it with a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset and up to 12GB of RAM. While not quite the latest and greatest performance, the chipset was good enough to strike a balance between price and the performance that Nothing enthusiasts crave. The Glyph LEDs, too, got a bit more useful this time around and doubled up as a visual cue for a timer and a ride progress indicator for the Uber app.

On the camera side of things, Nothing focused more on processing than significant upgrades to the hardware. The combination of a 50MP primary sensor and a 50MP ultrawide sensor remained unchanged from Nothing’s first phone. Unfortunately, it wasn’t all perfect with high-contrast scenes unable to maintain consistent details across shadows and highlights. Moreover, we observed that shutter lag was still an issue, and even in excellent lighting, the phone couldn’t always nail the shot.

The Nothing Phone 2 didn’t improve on all fronts, and in a world of smartphones cramming in 5000mAh and even larger batteries, the Nothing Phone 2’s 4700mAh wasn’t quite as impressive. Still, the phone managed to clock six hours of screen on time in our tests, and the 45W charging speeds certainly came in clutch to top up the phone in a rush.

Overall, the Nothing Phone 2’s affordable $599 price point did much of the heavy lifting to upsell the phone’s value proposition. Sure, alternatives like the Pixel 7 deliver much better imaging performance, but there’s something to be said about the Nothing Phone 2’s distinctive design. There’s nothing else quite like it. Heh.

Nothing Phone 2a

An affordable smartphone with all of Nothing’s design ethos

Nothing’s latest piece of kit, the Nothing Phone 2a, is the company’s first entry into the affordable smartphone segment. Notably, the phone sticks to the transparent ethos that has become an intrinsic part of the Nothing line-up.

Available in three colors, the phone makes some predictable compromises to hit the price. For example, the Glyph pattern at the back is significantly pared back. The three strips of lights can still perform all the essentials, like displaying notifications, but aren’t quite as visually impressive as on prior models. The glass back has also been switched out for a full polycarbonate build, which, as we discovered, is a pretty terrible choice if you want to keep your phones looking pristine. The phone isn’t just a fingerprint magnet but also attracts a lot of lint and dust. You do, however, get an IP54 rating.

The cameras, too, appear to have been downgraded in terms of performance. While the phone still has dual 50MP sensors, we observed that the performance was very unpredictable, with blurry shots and elevated highlights being the norm rather than the exception.

Other changes include a switch from Qualcomm’s chipsets to a MediaTek Dimensity 7200 Pro chipset that promises excellent mid-range performance. In the Android Police Nothing Phone 2 review, we discovered that the chipset handily kept pace with daily tasks and even casual gaming.

Perhaps the most egregious omission here is in the band selection. Sure, the Nothing Phone 2a isn’t really meant for the North American market, but the lacking band selection means that those adventurous enough among you to import the device won’t really be able to push it to its limits. Add to that the iffy cameras and a back panel prone to catching dust, and the Nothing Phone 2a isn’t quite a stand-out winner. However, the long battery life, thanks to its 5000mAh capacity, clean software, and very distinctive design, ensure that, if you can look past the phone’s limitations, you’ll have one of the most unique phones around—a fact made even more appealing by its affordable $350 price.

A whole lot of Nothing

Beyond the hardware

Of course, no list would be complete without briefly mentioning Nothing’s experiments and failings with products outside the tech space. For example, in 2022, Nothing introduced its own beer in the UK. Yes, you heard that right. Brewed by Swansea-based microbrewery Freetime Beer Company, the light beer, rated at 5.1% ABV, boasted of being a dry, unfiltered rice lager with a “hint of pear.” The beer remains exclusive to Nothing’s website and the company’s store in Soho and retails at a pricey $24 for a six-pack.

Nothing’s other experiment, Nothing Chats, was a lot closer to home for the brand. In 2023, the company partnered with messaging app platform Sunbird to introduce a messaging app that could connect with iMessage users. Unfortunately, soon after launch, it was revealed that the rebadged BlueBubbles app leaked user texts, photos, and more. The unencrypted nature of the app made it a privacy nightmare, and Nothing quickly pulled the app.

Finally, in December 2023, Nothing lived up to its lifestyle-first aspirations by introducing a suitably out-there apparel range. Comprising of a labcoat that could pass off as high-fashion tech wear and a somewhat transparent cap, the apparel was launched as a limited edition drop.

With promises of more hardware and more experiments like the company’s take on apparel, it’s clear that the brand will keep things exciting in 2024 as well.