Nothing to spill nothing but ‘The Truth’ at March 23 event

By Andy Boxall Published March 9, 2022

On March 23, Nothing, the new technology company co-founded by Carl Pei, will hold an event called The Truth, where it will talk about what it has in store for 2022. To be clear, it doesn’t appear Nothing will actually launch any new products during this event, but rather give us a hint at what’s to come this year.

In addition to this, the event will be used to showcase a new round of investment into Nothing. Its Series B funding round has brought in $70 million, which will be used to push forward with the development of new products, plus it will help further establish Nothing’s new London Design Hub.

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Dig further into the press details about the funding, and you’ll find a further exciting hint at where Nothing may be headed with its product line. “The funding will be used to create new product categories in partnership with Qualcomm Technologies and its Snapdragon platform,” it’s written. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon range of processors and associated technology is most often found in smartphones, along with tablets and laptops.

Rumors of a Nothing smartphone have spread since the company’s formation, primarily due to Pei previously co-founding OnePlus, and also from it seemingly acquiring the Essential brand in 2021, but they have seriously gathered pace over the last weeks. Pei was photographed with several Qualcomm executives at Mobile World Congress and prototypes of a device may have been secretly shown during the Barcelona trade show, plus much has been read into a tweet of his saying simply, “Back on Android.” Rumors claim the first Nothing smartphone may launch as soon as April.

By calling its March 23 event The Truth, we can assume Nothing wants to put the record straight and set expectations for the coming year. This could be related to the continued rumors, and could reasonably go either way: That Nothing is building a smartphone, or that it’s not. Either way, clarification will be welcome. So far, Nothing has released one product, the Nothing Ear 1 true wireless headphones.

The event will be streamed on Nothing’s website on March 23 at 2 p.m. GMT, which is 6 a.m. PT or 9 a.m. ET. If that sounds a little early, then don’t worry, Digital Trends will have all the details ready for when you start the day.

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Senior Mobile Writer

Andy is a Senior Writer at Digital Trends, where he concentrates on mobile technology, a subject he has written about for…

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The Nothing Phone 1 won’t be coming to the U.S. after all

Official glimpse of Nothing Phone 1 with a parrot sitting on top of phone.

The Nothing Phone 1, the latest offering from former OnePlus chief Carl Pei, won't be coming to the United States this summer. Nothing confirmed the news to PCMag on June 22, shutting down any hope for a U.S. launch. Instead, the Nothing Phone 1 will be launching exclusively in Europe and Asia only, where the company's carrier partnerships are strongest. Nothing does plan to launch a phone in the U.S. at some point in the future, just not the Phone 1.

In a statement to PCMag, Nothing said the following:
While we’d love to bring phone (1) to the entire community around the world, we're focusing on home markets, including the UK and Europe, where we have strong partnerships with leading local carriers. It takes a lot to launch a smartphone as you know, from ensuring the handset is supported by the country’s cellular technologies to carrier partnerships and local regulation, and as we're still a young brand we need to be strategic about it.

We have big plans to launch a U.S. supported smartphone in the future. For now, a limited number of our private community investors in the U.S. will be able to get their hands on phone (1) through a closed beta program. In the meantime, if readers really want phone (1) to be available in the US as soon as possible, they should call their carrier to let them know about us.

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We’re going to meet the Nothing Phone 1 on July 12

Nothing, the technology company founded by OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei, will fully reveal its first smartphone on July 12. The Nothing Phone 1 is Nothing’s second product after the Nothing Ear 1 true wireless headphones, and it has already gathered considerable prerelease attention. The announcement of the date comes with a few additional details, but nothing new about the phone itself. However, the company has already shared a few snippets of information already.

Before we get to that, let’s confirm what we know about the event. It will take place in London on July 12, and there will be an accompanying livestream at 4 p.m. local time, which is 8 a.m. PT or 11 a.m. ET. The event's flyer shows the pixelated Phone 1 logo, plus the tagline Return to Instinct, which links to Nothing’s commitment to removing frustration from technology products, so it feels more like part of us.

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Carl Pei with Nothing OS teaser.

We’re new. We’re disruptive. And we’re going to make the consumer tech industry less boring. These are some of the claims that Nothing made during its highly-anticipated event last month. A brainchild of OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei, Nothing aims to disrupt the industry with its upcoming smartphone after launching a pair of noise-canceling earbuds last year.

The hype is real. Folks that have followed OnePlus’ journey over the years are familiar with Pei’s marketing tricks and business acumen. And that also explains why Nothing has also managed to rope in some big-name backers, which include familiar faces such as influencer Casey Neistat, Reddit CEO and co-founder Steve Huffman, Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin, and Web Summit founder Paddy Cosgrave. Even Google wants a piece of Pei’s Pie.