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Nothing launched the successor to the Nothing Phone (1) yesterday. It’s called the Nothing Phone (2), obviously, and I think it’s putting the company on a knife edge.
I have one on the way and will be providing my full opinion in the coming weeks (by the way – Nothing, if you’re reading this, please let me know how we can work together to put your products in front of my audience faster!). But today, I want to talk about the challenge Nothing now faces.
Just like OnePlus, Nothing phones are creeping up the pricing ladder. I’m aware that a lot of people are making this comparison, but I’m afraid it is unavoidable – particularly when there is such a gulf in pricing between the Nothing Phone (1) and its successor.
What happens next is crucial for Carl Pei and Co.
Problem pricing
The Nothing Phone (2) starts at £579, which is a whopping £180 more expensive than the first version. That gets you 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Fully specced, it’ll set you back £699, which nets you 12GB of RAM and 512GB, and sends the Nothing Phone (2) directly into iPhone 12 and 13 territories at today’s prices.
Like many people, I absolutely loved the Nothing Phone (2). At £399 it was brilliantly priced and offered oodles of value over not just the low and mid-range Android competition, but devices far above its price bracket, including the iPhone.
Sure, the camera wasn’t quite as good as the flagships, but it did a perfectly good job. The internal specs were from the parts bin, but that didn’t matter – the Nothing Phone (1) was a great performer and Nothing OS was a tasteful rethinking of Android 12.
The flashing LEDs remain on the back of the Nothing Phone (2) – a gimmick but a justified one in a world of boring rectangular slabs of metal and glass. Why shouldn’t manufacturers have a bit of fun and make their devices leap off the page even if, in day-to-day use, those features fade into what is simply a great device?
It was the price that was the real winner for the Nothing Phone (1). And while I know these companies need to make a profit and that it’s tough to maintain low price points in a competitive, expensive market, that was the real differentiator for Nothing.
As noted by my Eight or Sixteen podcast co-host, Rob, the Nothing Phone (2) is Google Pixel 7 Pro money (if you shop around), and it can’t compete with that device. He also pointed out that the price difference between the Nothing Phone (2) and its predecessor is “a whole Pixel 6a if you shop around”.
With that in mind, it had better be good, right?
What do you get for your £579?
The Nothing Phone (2) has a larger display than its forefather (6.7” versus 6.55”), rocks the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip, and has a slightly larger battery (by 200mAh). There’s also faster wired charging and an improved Glyph Interface which now has 21 extra controllable LED zones.
The camera has received a relatively minor bump. The main shooter is still 50MP albeit with an upgraded Sony sensor. The ultra-wide is the same as last time but the selfie camera is now a 32MP unit with HDR capabilities (oh, and it has been moved to the centre of the display from the left).
Video recording capabilities have been improved with the Nothing Phone (2) capable of shooting 4K at up to 60fps.
Sitting at the heart of this device is Nothing OS 2.0 which is based on Android 13 and offers three years of upgrades, although it’s important to note that the Nothing Phone (1) will be getting an upgrade to version 2.0, too.
Super smart marketing
Nothing CEO, Carl Pei, is a smart guy. As one of the co-founders of OnePlus, he helped create a smartphone company that immediately caught the attention of bargain-hunting users who were fed up with rocketing device prices.
OnePlus did that by building devices that weren’t just pocket-friendly – they were superb performers, too.
Sound familiar?
The only difference between Carl’s latest venture and his last is that Nothing has benefitted from incredibly smart marketing. The name itself is a masterstroke; it’s weird, easy to remember, and sparks up conversation. That Glyph Interface, for all of its needlessness, acts brilliantly as an eye-catching marque for the brand. These guys know exactly what they’re doing and it has helped them ship nearly two million devices to date.
For the Nothing Phone (2) launch, Pei combined the company’s usual flavour of mysterious, cliff hanger drenched marketing tactics with the direct injection of the CEO into YouTube land (on both big and mid-sized channels). This was topped off with a collaboration between Pei and Nothing investor, Casey Neistat, where the YouTube superstar surprised the Nothing CEO with a rollercoaster ride before ‘teaching him’ how to vlog. What followed was a Neistat-infused vlog introducing the phone, presented by Pei himself.
As someone who worked for many years in marketing, I love this stuff. It’s far more interesting than the ultra-polished launches of devices like the iPhone, and it is, again, what sets companies like Nothing apart.
My concern is how long this approach can last.
What’s next for Nothing?
It’s crunch time. The Nothing Phone (2) cannot be classed as a bargain. And I know I haven’t tried it yet – but I don’t need to; at a starting price of £579, Nothing is starting to knock on the door of the more expensive competition. It’s playing in a different league.
The Nothing Phone (2) isn’t the no-brainer purchase the Nothing Phone (1) was.
Flashing LEDs and brilliant marketing won’t differentiate the Nothing Phone for much longer if its pricing continues to soar – no matter how much I’d love that not to be the case.
I’ll report back as soon as I have the Nothing Phone (2) in my hands.
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