Hot and hyped: contained in the unusual launch of the Nothing Phone 1

There was lots driving on Nothing’s Phone 1 launch this week. For months, the corporate’s CEO Carl Pei, who rose to prominence as one of many co-founders of OnePlus, has been making large guarantees about Nothing’s first smartphone. “Consumer tech, how did we let it get so boring?” the CEO requested rhetorically during a livestream back in March. “We’ve all experienced the gap between the future we were promised and the one we’re living in now.”

The implication, then, is that Nothing would be the one to shut that hole. Indeed, in its invitations for this week’s launch occasion in London, the corporate characterised the occasion as “an invitation to unlearn everything the industry has taught us.” In a recent interview, Pei mentioned Nothing is aiming “to bring people back in time to when they felt more optimistic about gadgets.” No strain then.

It’s a degree of promise that I’m unsure any system may dwell as much as, however I’ll be damned if I used to be going to be the one who missed out if Nothing succeeded. Sure, previous to the occasion, there have been already indicators that we have been about to see one thing much less like “a consumer tech revolution” and extra like “a smartphone”— a midrange one, actually, that wouldn’t even be offered within the US. But possibly the in-person occasion would shed extra mild on Nothing’s revolution.

That’s what led me, on one of many hottest days of the yr, down a sequence of nondescript alleyways in London looking for the inauspicious location the place Nothing had determined to carry the in-person portion of Tuesday’s launch. When you’re promised a revolution, your ideas would possibly flip to very large stadiums, the Brandenburg Gate, or maybe a Parisian café. Nothing’s revolution would happen at its London design studio in Camden.

If Pei’s good at one factor, it’s taking each alternative to create “edgy” advertising and marketing. Ahead of the launch, Nothing plastered varied European capitals with avenue posters that sat alongside ads for native gigs and festivals. The implication? This is extra of a cultural occasion than a easy telephone launch. I even noticed a number of in my suburb of south London, whereas throughout Twitter, individuals posted photographs of posters showing in Paris and Berlin (all helpfully retweeted by Nothing’s social media staff).

As I strategy the occasion, I stumble upon one other attendee, who it seems is certainly one of Nothing’s a number of thousand group buyers, who between them have plowed tens of millions of {dollars} into the corporate, according to funding platform CrowdCube. That’s along with extra conventional institutional buyers like Alphabet’s GV and different notable names in tech, together with “father of the iPod” Tony Fadell, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, and YouTuber (typically) Casey Neistat.

Nothing’s relentless dedication to hype has attracted some spectacular movie star buyers. And, extra impressively nonetheless, the involvement of those buyers has gone on to create much more hype across the firm. In complete, CrowdCube experiences that Nothing has attracted over $150 million in funding throughout seven funding rounds. Not unhealthy for an organization that, so far, has solely launched a pair of kinda okay earbuds.

The Nothing investor declined to inform me how a lot he’s put into the corporate (he would solely say that it’s lower than £10,000 and above £2,000) and is open about the truth that his Nothing shares are simply one of many investments he holds. “There are certain things it’s very hard to get investments into,” he says. “How often do you have a new phone brand launched with quite good people behind it?” But regardless of placing a major chunk of cash into the corporate, he appears comparatively cool on Nothing’s merchandise themselves. He admits he hadn’t purchased the Ear 1 earbuds final yr and mentioned he’d most likely choose up a Phone 1 however solely as a second system.

Image: Nothing

I stroll via the gang to the occasion area itself and see Nothing’s workers mingling about. There’s Adam Bates, the previous Dyson design lead who now serves as Nothing’s design director, and Teenage Engineering’s Tom Howard, who’s additionally engaged on Nothing’s design staff — names that introduced Pei’s firm numerous consideration within the run-up to the launch. They’re all dressed trendily however casually, and though there are one or two individuals in button-down shirts in attendance, they don’t appear to be Nothing workers. Younger attendees mill round, decked out in excessive trend streetwear, whereas the tech journalists within the crowd costume to delicately toe the road between trying skilled and avoiding overheating within the solar.

I head inside and attempt to set myself up for the Phone 1 presentation however shortly discover out that there’s no public Wi-Fi within the area. I’m informed that that is crucial to avoid wasting the bandwidth wanted for the livestream. It additionally turns on the market’s no AC, and the warmth outdoors signifies that it in a short time turns into extremely sizzling and humid within the design heart that Nothing has repurposed for its launch. Someone mentions an air-conditioned room upstairs that individuals needed to vacate earlier than the occasion began. If the intention was to get them into this backside room to make it look good and busy for the livestream, then it’s labored — it’s heaving.

Even other than the shortage of AC and Wi-Fi, the occasion area is uncommon for a lot of causes. There’s no stage and no seating other than a big field fabricated from uncovered wooden within the heart of the room. The total forward-facing aspect of the field is occupied, in order a compromise, I sit dealing with the rear of the room. It means I don’t have to the touch sweaty pores and skin with any strangers, however in alternate, I get to crane awkwardly to see the video display screen behind me.

Finally, the second of fact: the massive alternative for Nothing to point out Something. The occasion begins. The video display screen switches to displaying a video of Pei sitting in a café, and… he monologues about how the tech business has misplaced its means. He recites his now-familiar mantra: shopper tech was once thrilling (true) — now it’s boring (debatable). The Nothing Phone 1 hopes to vary that, we’re informed. Its again is fabricated from clear glass, and we’re proven the now acquainted strips of sunshine that may act as hi-tech notification indicators. So far, so much like what we noticed final month in a hands-on from YouTuber Marques Brownlee. (Incidentally, you need to completely learn my colleague Allison Johnson’s hands-on expertise with the telephone). As the pre-recorded video continues, I begin to marvel if Pei goes to be in attendance at his personal smartphone launch.

Image: Nothing

Pei continues. The Phone 1 runs Nothing OS, an Android pores and skin whose design attracts inspiration from the type of synthesizers that design accomplice Teenage Engineering has used to make a reputation for itself. There’s an integration with Tesla vehicles and an NFT gallery. Its body is fabricated from aluminum moderately than metal, and each its back and front are fabricated from Gorilla Glass 5. Meanwhile, within the design studio, I can really feel my again beginning to sweat.

Eventually (shock!), Pei emerges within the studio, and the pre-recorded launch turns right into a dwell occasion. “It’s humid and hot,” are his first phrases to the livestream’s host. Pei is being interviewed amongst the gang, who preserve having to shuffle round to make room for the digicam crew. The lack of a stage means it’s laborious to truly watch the interview, and there’s no lively video feed being proven on this crowded room that I’m capable of watch. People are taking their very own movies of the occasion, and out of the nook of my eye, I preserve recognizing a journalist narrating proceedings as he movies the occasion for his (presumably) foreign-language viewers. I take into account leaving the room to look at the interview on one of many large screens positioned across the occasion area, hoping that the space would possibly make for a greater spectacle.

After Pei, there’s an interview with a Qualcomm exec and one other with somebody from Indian retailer Flipkart. The means the livestream’s audio is being re-pumped into the occasion whereas the interviews are occurring makes it unattainable to listen to what’s being mentioned, even if you’re simply ft away from the content material being recorded. It appears different persons are struggling to listen to as nicely if the quantity of stressed chatter I’m listening to round me is something to go by.

I hand over on watching the interviews, and after recognizing Nothing’s head of promoting Akis Evangelidis within the crowd, I peel away to ask him how the occasion’s going. He asks if we will step outdoors to get away from the warmth, however in any other case, he appears completely happy. Close to 100,000 individuals have tuned into the livestream, the previous OnePlus vice chairman says. He’s reassured by that, he says, particularly when a lot of the Phone 1’s design and options have been pre-announced in current weeks. This, he says, is as a result of Nothing needed to have the ability to make the reveals “on our own terms” moderately than danger it occurring by way of leaks.

“I’ve been in touch with a few leakers out there,” Evangelidis says. “It’s quite advanced; they know their stuff.” As we speak, occasion employees stroll round sporting white wristbands. An announcement tells attendees that these wristbands imply that employees members have a Phone 1 that individuals can check out for themselves, like roaming demo stations. It appears to work lots higher than the crowded tables seen at most tech launches, and folks aren’t struggling to get hands-on time with the telephone. The occasion is permeated by the shrill, synthy ringtones constructed into the Phone 1 as individuals check out certainly one of its spotlight options.

After talking with Evangelidis, I begin to marvel how I’d really feel in regards to the Nothing Phone 1 if I hadn’t adopted each minute step of the hype cycle earlier than immediately. Imagine if, out of the blue, you heard that an obscure new shopper tech firm led by OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei with a former Dyson designer amongst its employees had introduced its debut smartphone. At £399, it’s cheaper than an iPhone SE and runs an interesting-looking Android launcher crammed with retro synth touches from design collaborators Teenage Engineering. Oh, and it’s acquired a neat set of sunshine strips on its again that function a contemporary, upgraded tackle the notification mild. It’s cohesive, it’s enjoyable, it’s charming.

But, in fact, this week wasn’t the primary we heard of the Phone 1. Instead, Pei and Co. have been slowly ramping up the hype for months via lengthy interviews and an indulgent 20-minute livestream in March when Nothing laid out its grand plan for what it hoped to realize with its smartphone — with out really saying a smartphone. We had its design revealed a complete month in the past, and its options and specs trickled out over the next weeks alongside large guarantees that this would be the firm to ship the sci-fi future we’re all ready for however no firm has but to ship.

Nothing has been within the headlines week after week because it has introduced comparatively minor facets of its telephone. People have clearly been within the daring guarantees the corporate is making. Remember that it is a firm that’s only a yr and a half outdated, saying simply its second product and really first smartphone. That alone is exceptional.

So it felt like a letdown this week to attend what was in the end a midrange Android telephone launch. Not the beginning of a shopper tech revolution, not the beginning of a journey “to make tech fun again,” and never “an invitation to unlearn everything the industry has taught us (unless what “the industry has taught us” is to “expect air conditioning and Wi-Fi”). If the favored maxim to win over clients is to under-promise and over-deliver, Nothing has risked doing the other.

As I go away the occasion, I’m wondering if that is the double-edged sword of hype. As a recent new firm, Nothing has needed to promise the world to get consideration and funding. But, after all of us dutifully confirmed as much as watch it ship on these guarantees, we have been greeted with a glass and aluminum rectangle that goes blink blink blink. An interesting-looking smartphone, certain, with considerate design touches and a few new concepts. But the savior of contemporary shopper tech? Please.