Want CNET to notify you of price drops and the latest stories?
X
CNET logo Why You Can Trust CNET

Our expert, award-winning staff selects the products we cover and rigorously researches and tests our top picks. If you buy through our links, we may get a commission. Reviews ethics statement

Nothing to Launch Phone 1 With Latest Qualcomm Snapdragon Chip This Summer

Carl Pei's tech company is branching out into phones.

katie-collins_1.jpg
katie-collins_1.jpg
Katie Collins Senior European Correspondent
Katie a UK-based news reporter and features writer. Officially, she is CNET's European correspondent, covering tech policy and Big Tech in the EU and UK. Unofficially, she serves as CNET's Taylor Swift correspondent. You can also find her writing about tech for good, ethics and human rights, the climate crisis, robots, travel and digital culture. She was once described a "living synth" by London's Evening Standard for having a microchip injected into her hand.
Katie Collins
screenshot-2022-03-23-at-14-26-21.png

Nothing will launch its first phone this summer.

Screenshot/CNET

Carl Pei's tech company Nothing will unveil its first smartphone, the Phone 1, this summer, the entrepreneur announced at an event on Wednesday.

The phone will run on Nothing OS, which the company said will distill "the best features of pure Android." If you're interested in getting a glimpse, a first preview of the OS will be available via its launcher, which will be available to download on select smartphone models from April. It will come with three years of OS updates and four years of security updates.

At Wednesday's event, Pei said the company wants its products to help dispel "skepticism" and "apathy" about tech. He said he hopes the phone will be the "wakeup call" that the industry needs. He promised the phone will look like nothing we've seen before.

Advertiser Disclosure
Advertiser Disclosure
This advertising widget is powered by Navi and contains advertisements that Navi may be paid for in different ways. You will not be charged for engaging with this advertisement. While we strive to provide a wide range of offers, this advertising widget does not include information about every product or service that may be available to you. We make reasonable efforts to ensure that information in the featured advertisements is up to date, each advertiser featured in this widget is responsible for the accuracy and availability of its offer details. It is possible that your actual offer terms from an advertiser may be different than the offer terms in this advertising widget and the advertised offers may be subject to additional terms and conditions of the advertiser which will be presented to you prior to making a purchase. All information is presented without any warranty or guarantee to you.

Nothing, which launched last year, unveiled its first product, the Ear 1 headphones, last July. Already the company has shipped half a million units, said Pei. But, he added on Wednesday, "we are not an audio company." Nothing has big plans to move into many different product areas, with Pei expressing his ambition to challenge Apple.

The London-based company has some big backers, including Nest founder Tony Fadell, as well as co-founder and CEO of Reddit Steven Huffman and GV (formerly Google Ventures), Alphabet's investment arm. The company also now has over 300 team members, Pei confirmed Wednesday, adding that its supply chain is ready to go.