The Nothing Phone's Big Gimmick Caught This Huge YouTuber's Attention
Carl Pei-owned technology startup Nothing has been prepping the launch of its first smartphone, the Nothing Phone (1), for a while now. Even though the device's official launch is a month away, Nothing has attempted to create a lot of buzz around the model using social media campaigns and influencer-backed content. Additionally, thanks to a steady stream of official leaks by the company, we now have a fair idea of what the Nothing Phone (1) looks like.
What we did not see until now, however, was a somewhat detailed overview of the phone. That is exactly what popular tech YouTuber MKBHD gave us on June 21 in his newest video. In the video, MKBHD shares his initial impressions about the design aspects of the phone. Interestingly, even though MKBHD says he is only allowed to show the audience the back of the phone, he does go ahead and show the front panel of the Nothing Phone (1) anyway.
What is evident from the video is that the Nothing Phone (1) has a lot of interesting design features centered around its rear panel. The most evident design element is the fact that the rear panel is transparent. In addition to this, Nothing has stacked as many as 900 LEDs on the panel that light up in tandem to serve various purposes.
The Glyph interface
Nothing calls the unique illuminated design pattern on the rear panel of the Nothing Phone (1) the Glyph interface. This interface, which can be controlled from within the phone's Settings menu, lets users customize the pattern and style in which the LED array on the rear panel reacts to various notifications from different apps.
For example, users can set the LED array at the back to light up in a specific pattern to easily identify who's calling. One of the more interesting use cases of the LED array at the rear panel on the Nothing Phone (1) is its ability to show how the phone is being charged. In addition to this, the LED strip also indicates the leftover charge in the battery. To display this, the LEDs closest to the USB-C port at the bottom of the phone light up when the phone is being charged.
For camera buffs, Nothing claims the LED strip on the rear panel is bright enough to be used as an illuminating light in low-light situations. The phone also sports a separate red-colored blinking LED that lights up and alerts others when the phone records a video. While the latest revelations do help the Nothing Phone (1) stand out from the crowd in terms of design, we still do not know what the rest of the hardware on the phone will be like. We will likely need to wait until July 12 — the official launch date of the Nothing Phone (1) — for the juicer details to drop.