Beyond the lights. Does the for the techies approach work?
Nothing isn’t for the techies, its for people who think they are techies but actually they are middle managers who like apple but have a shred of self-respect.
They’re OK phones but tbh making an OK phone in this stagnating landscape is not exactly rocket science. The lights are cool, I guess. The current landscape basically has everyone trying differentiators to get sales from people who have a 5+ years old phone and are pushed to upgrade by software. Samsung is going on screens, apple has their walled garden and everyone besides the giants needs to figure out something that will keep them relevant in a sea of latest snapdragon chips and high-res Samsung or LG screens. Lights are that for Nothing.
I’ll just add this post to our weekly discussion links too next time. Kinda want to get the buying guide done first so we can get more cool people here.
Here’s why I bought the Phone (2):
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Didn’t want to buy a Chinese smartphone because of privacy issues, shitty UI, bloatware, ads, update policies and the lack of any brand value really. I know Google isn’t any better but tackling a single devil is easier than two. OnePlus, RealMe, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, Motorola are out.
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Pixel with GrapheneOS looks ideal but the G2 chip has some serious thermal efficiency issues leading to poorer battery life. I’ve seen my friend’s phone stop video recording due to overheating lol. Heat aside, it isn’t even powerful enough to beat the older 8+ Gen 1, let alone competing with Apple’s A-series chips. Plus, no 120Hz or LTPO.
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Around this budget, you’ll get Samsung’s A73 not their flagship S-series. Apart from the plasticky back, a snapdragon 788 processor?! No 4k 60 fps recording? Ads and bloatware?! Sorry.
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Went with Nothing because it checked all the right boxes for me. Good software, good build, good hardware, good update support, some party tricks. Degoogled it the old fashioned way. It’s something different and a head turner. They’ve really managed to create that brand value somehow in such a short time. I’ve had 3 people ask me to check my phone in just a week.
They’re really nothing. If it wasn’t for the marketing, there’d be nothing of interest. I’m honestly tired of hearing about this brand all the time.
Want to make a phone for techies? Make one with a relockable bootloader, documented hardware features, available spare parts, removable battery and SD card.
fairphone would be so good if it had a headphone jack. but it seems really weird to me to launch a “sustainable phone” without a jack
Sorry to tell you but the headphone jack is dead. You can plug headphones into USB C if you don’t want batteries.
Personally, I think that one standard port for everything on every phone is a good thing. That way everyone’s efforts for development and optimization are bundled.
It’s literally just the OnePlus business model from scratch and people are eating up like it’s new as if they won’t be hating the brand 5 years from now. The founder is even the exact same guy. I don’t get how people are falling for it a second time.
i don’t think that’s necessarily falling for it, it’s appreciating it for what it is. i personally don’t see the nothing as equivalent to oneplus[1], but if it was the modern equivalent to the op1 or op3 i think it’d be worth getting. i have no brand loyalty to 1+ (i doubt i’ll ever buy another 1+ phone) but damn if the op1 wasn’t the best value for money phone i ever bought.
the only similarity is the “close-to-stock” rom as far as i can see, and oneplus didn’t even do that until all the issues with cyanogen ↩︎
It’s not for techie people, and the price isn’t either cheap. In my country, the price differences between Nothing 2 & S23 ultra 256GB are ~$100.
