Jay Nothing, stone, 1

Product Information

These lights all ring and flash in tandem with the Nothing Phone (1)’s unique library of notification sounds, a set of snickety-snackety pings and whistles that are utterly unlike the gentle digital chimes of more boring phones.

The phone has a flat screen, but uses a flexible OLED panel to “tuck” the bottom edge of the display underneath itself, creating extra room along the bottom of the phone. The phone is also super-lightweight and feels secure in the palm, with clear attention paid to the placement of antenna bands and the machining of buttons and speaker grilles.Of course, both of these tricks can be achieved on any phone simply by leaving it face up on the table, so you can see the screen. Charging is quick however, and Android software should be capable of squeezing more efficiency out of hardware as the phone learns and adapts to your usage patterns. We tested the Nothing Phone (1) in the weeks leading up to the phone’s launch, as well as using the phone regularly ever since. The back of the phone is transparent, revealing not only the phone’s apparent innards, but a configuration of segmented white LEDs that can be illuminated in all sorts of ways and in concert with the notifications appearing on the phone. The largest is a ring light surrounding the wireless charging coil, which hovers above an exclamation mark by the charging port.

Out of the box the software experience feels squeaky clean and fuss-free, and we like the option to tweak things such as the sizes of icons in the settings tray and of folders on the home screen. phone, the cameras aren’t here to compete with super high-end flagships, but they’re functional enough thanks to a pair of 50MP sensors. The brand is now best known for its premium flagship Android devices, but OnePlus was once a disruptive outsider infamous for producing super-optimised, smartly designed phones costing a fraction of the competition.As anyone should have guessed, behind all of the revolutionary bluster, the Nothing Phone (1) is just a phone. The glyph interface can be used as a makeshift ring light when shooting in portrait mode, and even features a blinking red recording light when filming, just in case you ever find yourself in the early 1990s tracking down a witch in the woods. With heavy usage throughout the day – gaming, filming, looking at dogs on TikTok – the phone would run out of juice well before we could make it back to the bedside charger.

There are so many gift-giving occasions these days that we're all inevitably going to run out of ideas at some point.We paid close attention to its standout features and custom Android software, testing the camera in a range of lighting conditions and putting the battery through its paces, using high-drain gaming apps. The phone is powered by a cheaper and older generation Snapdragon processor and starts with a just-about-adequate 8GB of RAM.