Nothing Phone (1) - 8GB RAM + 256GB, Glyph Interface, 50 MP dual camera, Nothing OS, 6.55” 120Hz OLED display, White

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As for performance, this is precisely what’s to be expected of a modern mid-ranger. In the Geekbench 5 test, the Nothing Phone (1) achieved broadly similar single-core and multicore processing results as its rivals. There’s a lot to like when it comes to speeds – it’s just that the comparison graph isn’t all that interesting to analyse.

It’s a design feature so distinctive that Nothing also opted to use the system on the newer Nothing Phone (2). Proximity Sensor, Light Sensor, Gyroscope Sensor, Accelerometer (G-Sensor), Magnetometer, Motion Sensor, Fingerprint Sensor

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Meanwhile, the Phone (1)’s wide-angle camera produced mixed results in testing. If you’re blessed with plenty of natural light there’s not much to complain about, but as the sun begins to set the visual noise creeps in. The camera adds a warm hue to these low-light images as well.

Video doesn’t seem to have been much of a focus for Nothing here, as the feature-set is minimal. You can shoot in 4K up to 60fps with a fairly standard level of stabilisation and that’s about it. Five separate light bars flash and pulse in time to sound and vibration patterns for 10 different ringtones and notification sounds, and show the charging status when the phone is plugged in. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian The Nothing Phone 2 uses the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 mobile platform from Qualcomm. That was the best chipset Qualcomm offered in late 2022, but at the beginning of 2023 the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 2 chipset showed up in phones like the OnePlus 11 and the Samsung Galaxy S23. Connectivity: It may be a mid-range handset, but Nothing certainly didn’t skimp on the Phone 1’s connectivity suite. There are the expected sub-6Ghz 5G bands, but the Phone 1 also supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 for some significant and welcome future-proofing.

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Inside the Phone (1) is a 4500mAh battery and during my time with the phone, it has never failed to get me through the day. Particularly busy days have called for the lowering of the screen to 60Hz, but for the most part, this is a device you won’t be worrying about charging before you leave the office. However, the phone doesn’t last quite as long as the OnePlus Nord 2T – so that’s probably a better choice if you’re keen on getting as much juice from a charge as possible. There’s no bloatware, with only the usual selection of Google’s first-party applications. That said, it’s worth mentioning that there’s currently an experimental feature in the phone’s settings that allows you to connect to your Tesla – you can monitor air-con levels and remotely open your boot, among other things – and an NFT wallet app is scheduled to be released via a future update. You can customize ringtones with the glyph lights, and you can set different lights for different people, or different types of notifications. That’s kind of useful, but I could have a simple sound effect do the same thing. You can use the lights as a fill lamp for the camera, but it isn’t powerful enough to light up your subject unless you’re fairly close. For charging, I used an Anker charger capable of up to 65W, much more than the 45W charging that Nothing Phone 2 offers. Nothing says this phone can charge to 100% in 55 minutes and I can verify that claim. I got to a full battery in under an hour. Unlike OnePlus, Nothing isn’t touting the Phone (1) as a flagship in terms of performance. In fact, the spec list here is very modest. If a top-tier Qualcomm chipset or ridiculously fast charging is a must-have feature, you might be better off looking at something from Realme or Xiaomi – or even the newer Nothing Phone (2).

I’d like a persistent light, and something larger than just the smallest bar at the bottom of the glyph. Why not embrace the glyph with everything we’ve got? Like other aspects of the phone, the battery and charging treat the glyph as less than a feature, and more like an annoyance. The Nothing Phone (1) is a remarkable first effort for the fledgling company. With a unique design, quirky LED lighting effects, a clean installation of Android and a sublime screen, the Phone (1) is well and truly on the way to becoming a hallmark of the mid-range scene. I fired up some HDR videos on YouTube and they popped with brightness, while the screen can hit just under 500 nits of brightness in everyday use. This is enough to cope with brighter days and the Nothing Phone (1) managed to avoid becoming unusable in direct sunlight. There is one aspect of the Nothing Phone I’ve entirely glossed over though. If you put it face up and side by side with one of the best iPhones, it’s quite hard for the average person to tell the difference. Those who know will be able to spot it but the Nothing Phone’s dimensions, outer frame, curvature and even its size are really quite close to an iPhone. After putting it next to my wife’s iPhone 14 Pro Max though, there’s one thing that Nothing did better than Apple: the phone’s volume and power buttons are slightly lower which makes them easier to reach.There are still a few software issues that need to be ironed out in future updates, however. The Glyph Interface menu doesn’t allow you to set notification sounds and lighting effects to specific applications – instead, you’re forced to do this in the settings of each individual app. I also encountered a few app crashes during the course of my review. Nothing Phone (1) review: Cameras A good test of a camera I always find is snapping a pic of my dog and seeing whether the phone can pull enough detail out of the fur without resorting to heavy sharpening in post-processing. The Nothing Phone (1) does a good job here, presenting a clear image with good fur detail without looking too processed. Detail in the fur is good

I have been using the Nothing Phone 2 as my exclusive smartphone for both personal and work purposes for the last couple of weeks before this review was published. I use it for everything I do with my smartphone, from messaging to gaming to photography to getting work done.

The phone supports wired charging speeds of 33W, which in my tests delivered 50% charge from zero in just over 30mins. Wireless charging is rated at 15W, with accompanying support for reverse wireless power delivery – although this is rather slow at just 5W.