Nothing teases phone (1) design ahead of next month’s launch – TechCrunch

It’s exhausting to get a thrill from glimpses of unreleased smartphone {hardware} lately, given the baked-in maturity of the cellular market and the overall kind and performance sameness of the sticky rectangles we people routinely spend hours poking at and peering into every day.

However this rear-view design-teaser (under) of a forthcoming handset made by {hardware} startup Nothing may simply offer you slightly tingle: Meet the minimally named phone (1), in all its pure, deconstructed, ‘analog’ glory — parrot not included, presumably.

As design aesthetics go, it’s roughly akin to if The Atypical made electronics. Which is to say clear, minimalist, useful wanting, even scientific, as if to counsel it’s purged of performative frills — besides that first-glance stark distinction is the performative visible thrill this sort of look is capturing for as a differentiator so there’s loads of contrivance at work.

In phone (1)’s case, by stepping away from the shiny, hermetically sealed look that iPhone maker Apple is so fond of — and scores of Android gadget makers have so keenly copied — Nothing is delivering some good, instantaneous visible differentiation vs. the premium competitors.

On its web site, it sums up its strategy with phone (1) as: “Designed with intention. Full of heat. And pleasure.” Which suggests the parrot is there to symbolize all of the enjoyable stuff you are able to do with the stripped-back bit of cuttlefish-bone-white cellular equipment it’s having a (staged) beak at.

As we’ve famous earlier than, Nothing is a dab hand at teasers. Albeit, founder Carl Pei’s tweet about this pre-launch reveal claims the startup’s hand was pressured by leakers ahead of next month’s official unboxing. (However for those who consider that, nicely, I’ve a really wholesome Norwegian Blue parrot to promote you.)

A earlier Nothing teaser of phone (1) confirmed what appear like illuminated mild strips on the again of the gadget — a strikingly contrasting characteristic to the in any other case utilitarian look being revealed right now. So all might not be as purely useful because the phone’s analog look may suggest on first look, because it appears to sprinkling slightly enjoyable into the design combine too.

Pei has beforehand mentioned Nothing’s debut smartphone will pack a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip, rock wi-fi charging and run a skinned model of Android (aka NothingOS) — which its advertising suggests will layer one thing “daring” and “heat” atop Google’s hyperfamiliar smartphone platform. So if the person interface doesn’t — someway — characteristic snazzy plumage we’re going to be dissatisfied.

The remaining of phone (1)’s specs are TBA however Nothing will formally reveal all on July 12.