Carl Pei believes phones are boring, and hopes the Nothing Phone (1) will excite people
Nothing’s founder said that he “used to watch all the launches”, even “stayed up until midnight or 4 AM to see what was coming out”. That’s no longer the case, though. He often skips keynotes, and relies on recaps to stay on top of things. He added that he’s not the only one who feels that way, though. “When I talk to consumers, they are also quite indifferent”, he added. Carl Pei even said that consumers believe smartphone brands are holding features back intentionally, to save them for future launches. Carl Pei highlights that’s not true, but still, if consumers feel that way, something’s wrong. He believes they feel bored, and that’s not exactly surprising. Smartphones have become carbon copies of each other, more or less, when it comes to design. Some phones do manage to differentiate a bit, but for the most part, they’re all similar. Nothing really pops out anymore, as it used to in the past. That’s where the Nothing Phone (1) comes in. As we’ve seen in a ton of content thus far, it will certainly look different, as long as you look at it from the back. Those notification LEDs on the back are also rather interesting.
Most smartphone OEMs get the same market research data, which is kind of a problem
Now, during this interview, Carl Pei also mentioned that all smartphone OEMs do market research, as they should. They tend to find out the same things, and then adapt to that. That’s kind of the problem, in his mind, though. He said: “Everybody’s using the same data and everybody’s using the same analysis. So if the input is the same and the method is the same, the output is more or less the same as well”. That makes sense. That’s what he wants to do differently with the Nothing Phone (1), offer something noticeably different than the competition. He said that the inspiration behind this design comes from a concept his team describes as “raw technology meets human warmth”. The Nothing Phone (1) uses transparent glass, through which you can see the device’s wireless charging coil, heat pipes, notification LED strips, and more. “I think one thing we’re trying to accomplish is to bring people back in time to when they felt more optimistic about gadgets,” said Carl Pei. There are actually over 900 LEDs included on the back of the phone, which is interesting. The Nothing Phone (1) comes out on July 12, and if you’d like to read Carl Pei’s entire interview, click here.
