Carl Pei led electronics manufacturer OnePlus from being a scrappy brand for tech enthusiasts offering affordable phones to one that produces multiple lines of devices, including flagship phones that challenge Samsung and Apple. He is running a similar playbook with Nothing, a five-year-old, venture-backed hardware startup that just launched its most ambitious device, the Phone (3), earlier this month. The phone, priced at $799, is intended to compete with devices from Samsung and Apple.
While OnePlus focused on providing value-for-money specifications and experience in its early days, Nothing focused on design and software as a differentiator to stand out from other phones. The startup produces eye-catching devices with a transparent design that draws attention.
As my former TechCrunch colleague Brian Heater said, Nothing Phone (1) was cool, and the Phone (2) was a robust mid-range device while maintaining the novelty. The Phone (3), while maintaining the transparent design ethos, invokes mixed emotions towards its design.
The phone has a lot of asymmetric elements on the back, including the strangely arranged camera module. If you look at the reactions on the internet, some people liked it because it is not like other phones, while some hated it. If you can get over the asymmetrical arrangement, you might like the device.
Nothing also took away the glyph LED arrangement that was prominent in previous Nothing phones. This arrangement made devices stand out even more when they illuminated to indicate an incoming call or a message. Over the years, the company made it more customizable, allowing you to assign different patterns for different contacts. It even created an SDK for developers, which didn’t take off.
Image Credits: Brian Heater/TechCrunch Image Credits:TechCrunch/Brian Heater
With Phone (3) the LED arrangement is substituted with Glyph Matrix, a circle-shaped second screen in the top right-hand corner to display more information. It can display basic information such as time and battery level when you press the button on the back.
The company has also included mini apps such as spin the bottle, a stopwatch, and rock, paper, and scissors. This is more of a fun gimmick that you might use to show off your phone.
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Image Credits: Ivan Mehta
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