Spring has arrived – and with it, that irresistible urge to get away (if it ever really left). It’s time to dust off your passport, start planning, and say yes to new adventures. Whether you’re booking a spontaneous weekend escape or mapping out something further afield, a little smart prep goes a long way.

From versatile luggage and bags perfect for quick getaways to must-have tech, beauty essentials, and clever hacks to outsmart travel’s usual health pitfalls, we’ve rounded up everything you need. The goal? To help you pack smarter, stay comfortable, look fresh, and – most importantly – keep things stress-free wherever you’re headed.

The Wallpaper* guide to spring travel essentials

Is it time to ditch the high-end phone and return to the middle ground? Three weeks in the company of Nothing’s defiantly different but strikingly uncompromised new Phone (4a) Pro raise questions about the validity of pivoting to the best, the fastest and most expensive when it comes to smartphones. We’ve already seen how the Phone (4a) makes do with less and yet doesn’t seem to be a lesser experience.

At a time when the fast-rising price of memory is really cramping manufacturers’ ability to offer year-on-year increases in performance and capability, and when nebulously defined AI feature sets are being touted as the latest in must-have technology, perhaps it is time to step back from the upgrade cycle.

Devices like the new Phone (4a) Pro are designed to do precisely that. Sufficiently different in form factor and interface to make a statement, while not requiring the kind of onboard silicon horsepower to drive through class-leading improvements in display, processor speed and performance, the (4a) Pro is a big phone with modest specs but high ambitions.

Available in three colours – black, silver and Nothing’s new soft pink colourway – the (4a) Pro makes a virtue of its thinness (it’s the company’s most slender device to date at a shade under 8mm). The design approach has also been massively simplified, with the all-body transparency familiar to fans of earlier Nothing devices now confined to the camera and Glyph module. The rest of the unit is plain, practically unadorned metal.

The imaging unit is led by a Sony main camera, the 50 MP Sony LYT-700C sensor to be precise. As well as optical image stabilisation, the sensor is larger and better able to deal with low light systems, as well as having a swifter autofocus. Computational photography (Nothing’s TrueLens Engine 4) has reached a new level of sophistication; a Night Mode shot, for example, involves merging seven frames into one to ensure exposure is balanced across the entire scene.

There’s also a periscopic telephoto lens. The digital zoom can go up to 140x, while the optical zoom is 3.5x. The (4a) Pro also introduces new editing options, styles and presets. The moving image is also well catered for. 4K video at 30fps comes as standard, with 120fps slow-motion video also available in HD.

The Glyph Matrix also continues to evolve. On the (4a) Pro it’s become larger and more of a display than that found on the Phone (3). The amount of things you can do with it has also expanded, with Glyph Tools that include a clock, battery indicator, the phase of the moon and path of the sun and a countdown timer, amongst other things. A huge suite of pixellated icons is available to assign to make notifications more personal.

The horizontal form factor of the 3D-contoured plastic camera bump mirrors the shape of the acclaimed Headphone (1). The whole unit is IP-65 rated (which theoretically means the (4a) Pro will survive full submersion for up to 20 minutes. The asymmetrical form of the bump also means the phone isn’t completely stable when set down on its back.

So far, so good. In daily use, the (4a) Pro hasn’t missed a beat, nor – crucially – has it felt like a major step down from Phone (3) or even Google’s most recent Pixel. The most glaring omission is the phone’s lack of a DisplayPort Alt Mode via USB-C – in other words you can’t run video from the phone to an external display or a pair of smart glasses – Google’s new Android desktop mode is a use case in point. It’s not a dealbreaker, but it’s the kind of added functionality that elevates a smartphone to a true do-it-all companion.

How much you make use of the tips, tweaks and widgets included in Nothing’s OS 4.1 – an overlay on top of Android 16 – is up to you. The native Nothing launcher screen retains its purity, with more customisation functions than before. It’s a curious mix of tweaker’s delight and a self-consciously stripped back interface with fewer distractions than the average smartphone’s screaming notification fest.

All in all, the Nothing (4a) Pro does practically everything all but the most power-hungry user demands. It’s an object lesson in how we can step back from the cutting edge to refocus on the finer things in life.

Nothing Phone (4a) Pro, from £499, Nothing.tech, @Nothing

These four new sets of headphones offer up different twists on the format, from unexpected colour and smartphone integration blended with low-budget innovation through to two premium options that sit inside and outside your ear. Read on to find your fit.

Nothing Headphone (a) – 135 hours of playtime

The Headphone (a) is Nothing’s new entry-level over-ear offering, introducing bold colours while simplifying the silhouette and design language of the Headphone (1). Despite the dialling down of material finishing (eg, plastic instead of aluminium), notable improvements have been made elsewhere.

Most impressively, there's a class-leading 135 hours of playtime, thanks to a high-capacity internal battery (and as long as you turn off active noise cancellation). The inclusion of Sony’s LDAC audio coding allows for high-resolution audio (although it halves your listening time).

In addition, Nothing’s cross-device integration continues through a system that allows you to use the physical controls on the (a) to take photos and videos on your Nothing phone.

Nothing Headphone (a), available in black, white, pink and yellow, £149 / €159, Nothing.tech, @Nothing

Soundcore Space 2 – a travel-friendly choice

Also making waves in the value stakes are the new offerings from Soundcore, the audio brand created by charge and accessory specialist Anker.

The new Soundcore Space 2 headphones are worth a look for their very travel-centric approach, including noise cancelling that’s been specially tuned to ‘help combat the low rumble during a commercial flight’.

Battery life isn’t quite up to the capabilities of the Headphone (a), but 70 hours without ANC will accommodate plenty of long-haul trips. Just five minutes with a high-capacity charger will boost the listening time by an additional four hours. The Seafoam Green finish also makes a welcome alternative to sober black and white.

Soundcore Space 2, available in Linen White, Jet Black and Seafoam Green, £129.99 / £129.99, Soundcore.com, Amazon.co.uk

Meze Audio Astru – an unobtrusive wired option

For a more unobtrusive route to high-end audio – with a price to match – Meze Audio has introduced the Astru in-ear monitors. These ergonomically shaped wired IEMs use a single driver (with a manufacturing process that includes applying layers of gold and titanium), housed within a CNC-machined titanium shell with a satin finish.

The Romanian firm includes a high-quality balanced cable in the Astru kit, complete with 4.4mm jack (and 3.5mm adapter), as well as a range of ear tips and two different kinds of carry case.

The Romanian firm includes a high-quality balanced cable in the Astru kit, complete with 4.4mm jack (and 3.5mm adapter), as well as a range of ear tips and two different kinds of carry case.

Astru by Meze Audio, £819 / $899 / €899, MezeAudio.com, @MezeAudio

Grado Signature S550 – premium materials meet quality sound

Another high-grade wired offering comes courtesy of Grado Labs, the Brooklyn-based family-run manufacturer that is successfully bridging the gap between handmade high-fidelity audio and the demands of mass-market audiophiles.

The Grado Signature S550 headphones feature a handcrafted housing made from sustainably sourced Brazilian walnut, which gives each pair a unique look whilst also informing the acoustic characteristics of the tone. The company’s proprietary detachable cable system is also included.

Despite the combination of premium leather on the headband and high-grade stainless steel fittings, as well as Grado’s long-standing commitment to quality, the Signature S550s are the company’s most affordable over-ear headphones to date.

Grado Signature S550, £995 / $995, Grado.co.uk, @GradoLabs

Have we reached peak smartphone? Certainly, if you consider the hugely competent mid-range phones that have been released over the past few weeks – the Google Pixel 10a and Apple iPhone 17e, for example – a picture starts to emerge.

There’s a levelling going on between what we need a phone do and what we’re told it can achieve if we raise our aspirations. In short, do we really need flagship costing twice as much as these do-it-all devices that – increasingly – have very few compromises?

There will always be a culture of early adopters in search of the latest and greatest chipset or phone module, the biggest storage and brightest screen. But since the advent of AI, a lot of the physical technical prowess that goes into a phone has been overshadowed by the extent of AI’s integration and involvement. Sharp algorithms, not sleek aluminium finishes, seem to matter more.

If you’re not fully signed up to the idea of a phone as an all-singing, all-dancing AI-enabled device, then perhaps it’s a good thing to step back from the technological arms race at the top of the market and start to look at the state of the mid-range. Those options just got a lot more attractive with today’s release of the Nothing (4a).

The launch event, held at Central St Martins in London, where the brand could make an even bigger song and dance than Apple made out of the MacBook Neo, while also basking in the glow from the adjacent design school, made Nothing seem more youthful.

The brand certainly knows this and continues to leverage its upstart/outsider/challenger status as much as it can (Apple, however, probably wouldn't have Elton John and Victoria Beckham lookalikes stalking through the crowd).

Step aside from the hoopla, and the burgeoning cult of personality around founder Carl Pei, and you appreciate the effort that has gone into making the Nothing name. The company might claim to be ‘driven by rebellious creativity', but a standout design language is only one part of the story: there's a massive behind-the-scenes effort to build a supply chain and the necessary manufacturing and distribution set-ups to support a million-selling company. This has been an unqualified success: Nothing is the fastest-growing independent smartphone company over the past two years.

Still, the majority of the attendees here are mainly interested in how a phone looks and what it can offer that other brands can’t. Content is being created, terabytes of it, amid surroundings that have been dressed up to resemble a vast version of Nothing's self-consciously scattergun London studio, all quasi-industrial metal racking, grey plastic crates and quirky tech vignettes, old and new.

It's this embrace of the best retro style, with its mix of science fiction-esque trappings, nostalgia for the obsolete and the fetishisation of the apparently messy guts and multiple layers of tech aesthetics that ensures Nothing stands out.

There are signs that other makers are taking elements of its meticulously conceived yet apparently ad-hoc stylings to heart and starting to mimic the approach. For the time being, the company's status as a left-field challenger to the tech industry's entrenched economics and aesthetics is still paying dividends.

Is the Nothing Phone (4a) any good?

So is the new phone any good? Of course it is, even by the high standards the industry has currently set itself. It comfortably bests the benchmarks set by the previous Phone (3a) and nudges ever close to the Phone (3), which is where the peak phone issues start to appear: why bother going for the flagship?

With a design language that evolves Nothing’s transparent look, with Pink, White, Black and Blue casings, without stepping too far away from what currently defines the brand, the (3a) is still distinct from the majority of its competitors. On the back there are three cameras, offering a maximum of 3.5x optical zoom (the (3) goes to 6x) and a cut down Glyph interface now known as the Glyph Bar.

The latter isn’t nearly as flexible as the circular Glyph Matrix display but can still show notifications and recording lights and other ways of getting info from your phone without having to pick it up. According to Nothing's research, we check our phones on average 96 times a day, so any ways to manage this addiction are welcome. The new casing is stronger than its predecessor, with IP64 dust and water certification and a large Gorilla Glass 7i screen measuring 6.78 inches.

With the new Nothing OS 4.1, subtle enhancements like a magic eraser function in the photo gallery, joined the more obvious AI-powered suite of ‘Essential’ apps. Pei reckons the smartphone will remain the most important device in the AI era, 'although the intelligence will live across devices', from earbuds to watches. 'Software is going to turn personal,' he predicts, pointing to Nothing's vibe coding-style Essential Apps feature, which allows you to create widgets and apps with basic functionality via simple spoken commands.

To be fair, Nothing's AI application feels a little less intrusive than its rivals, less reliant on slop generation and dubious agentic interventions. There’s a genuine desire to push Nothing as a more culturally- and creative-minded endeavour, creating content and also co-creating (like the Community Editions) products with the incredibly rabid brand followers.

Also introduced at the event was the Headphone (a), a more accessible version of the Headphone (1), and the new (4a) Pro. The latter is an ‘almost flagship’, incorporating the same circular Glyph interface as the (3) but serving as a middle ground between the two.

Both Camera module and Glyph Matrix sit within what Nothing calls the 'window', essentially a reduced-transparency element sitting on a plainer aluminium back. The Pro is also the company’s thinnest phone to date and comes in the same pink as the (4a). Notably, this is explicitly not a replacement for Phone (3), which will remain the flagship device for the rest of the year.

As phones get better and better and pinched wallets and strangled supply chains make annual upgrades ever less practical, settling on an accomplished mid-range phone has never felt less like a compromise. After all, it’s boring and time-consuming changing phones every year. An upgrade is a choice, not a mandate, and with the Phone (4a), Nothing is inspiring loyalty and longevity like never before.

Nothing Phone (4a), available now from £349 (8GB + 256GB) to £399 (12GB and 256GB), available from Nothing.Tech, @Nothing

The idea that a dedicated mobile store needs to be a sleek temple of minimalism or a blinking cavalcade of streaming media has been kicked to the curb by Nothing. The self-consciously iconoclastic London-based phone brand has opened its first store in India, picking the country’s tech capital, Bengaluru, as the best place to showcase its wares.

Nothing Store Bengaluru is arranged across two floors in a building on 100 Feet Road, in the heart of the city’s Indiranagar district. The company describes the 5,000 sq ft store as being inspired by ‘1970s factory assembly lines and workshops’, with a combination of industrial-grade furniture and fixtures, bold pop colours – especially Nothing’s signature red – set against the raw concrete interior of the building.

There’ s another element that sets the Bengaluru store apart from a conventional phone shop, which is a space for customers to personalise their own Nothing products – a big draw for a cult brand that already has a winning line in developing community editions with its burgeoning fanbase.

Another section of the space is given over to a studio, where content creators can record unboxings and other contemporary aspects of the tech-consumer eco-system. It’s also intended as a community ‘hangout zone’, with seating areas and a scattering of displays and even claw games to encourage people to stick about. Cultural and community activities will also be taking place in the store.

A coffee shop is another draw, further helping the brand get in sync with Bengaluru’s burgeoning creator community. All this will be available alongside the latest Nothing products – which include the upcoming Nothing Phone (4a) – as well as merchandise and products from the sub-brand CMF.

Other design elements tap into the bustling Indiranagar streetscape, such as the illuminated façade signage, red lighting and prominent insect sculptures inspired by the brand’s recent commercial imagery. It’s an appropriate spot for the brand’s first Indian outpost and only its second store after the original London store in Soho, which opened in 2022.

Future openings will see Nothing expand its retail presence in New York and Japan, all part of an aggressive expansion programme as the design-led company transitions from idiosyncratic small player into a serious contender in the crowded personal tech space.

Nothing Store Bengaluru, 660/1, 100 Feet Road, 1st Stage, Indiranagar, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560038 India, Nothing.Tech, @Nothing, @CMF.Tech

The holiday season is fast approaching, and when it comes to gift-giving, people usually fall into one of two camps: those who delight in the hunt for the perfect present, and the rest of us. Buying for a design lover – notoriously tricky, given their knack for finding the most elegant solution to everything – can, in fact, be surprisingly rewarding.

Here, we present Wallpaper’s gift guide for the design-minded individual: a considered edit of beautiful objects that marry form and function with effortless ease. Skip the chaos of tinsel-clad shop floors and instead scroll serenely through our curation, a selection guaranteed to charm even the most discerning (or humbug) recipient.

After a little something? Browse our perfect stocking fillers.

The Wallpaper* gift guide for design lovers

Over-ear headphones may still offer the richest, most immersive listening experience, but there are moments when scale and circumstance demand something smaller. Enter the new generation of wireless in-ear headphones: compact, precisely engineered, and increasingly sophisticated in both form and function.

It’s been nearly a decade since Apple’s first AirPods ushered in the era of untethered listening – an innovation that transformed how we move through the world with sound. Early iterations were imperfect, often prone to sound leakage and inconsistent audio quality, but the category has since evolved dramatically.

Today’s leading models pair airtight comfort with advanced noise cancellation, refined acoustics and smart design, though their diminutive proportions still impose practical limits – namely battery life, with most offering under eight hours of continuous playback before a recharge is required. Silicone and foam tips now deliver a more tailored fit and impressive sound isolation, though some listeners may still find prolonged wear less than effortless.

What we’ve tested

In this article, we’ve tested a selection of the best in-ear headphones, looking at elements such as comfort, sound quality, design, charge case, performance, software, and compatibility; every product has undergone extensive testing, and meets a quality benchmark that means we’re happy to recommend them to you.

Running Spotify Premium on the latest Android and iOS devices, we’ve tried out the following in-ear headphones:

• Apple AirPods Pro 2
• Bang & Olufsen Beoplay Eleven
• Bose QuietComfort (2nd Gen)
• JBL Tour Pro 3
• Nothing Ear
• Sony WF-1000XM5

Whether you’re looking for the highest degree of comfort, a secure fit, ultimate sound quality, or the most effective active noise cancelling (ANC), these in-ear headphones provide an excellent choice, whatever your needs.

Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen)

Apple AirPods Pro 2

Bang & Olufsen Beoplay Eleven

Sony WF-1000XM5

JBL Tour Pro 3

Nothing Ear

As Nothing’s ‘budget’ brand, CMF offers contemporary tech with bold styling and surprisingly affordable prices, enabled by the trickle down of manufacturing, tech and materials innovation developed by the parent brand. We’ve admired CMF’s Phone Pro 2 and Watch Pro 2 in the past, and now there’s a new category, the Headphone Pro.

As the name suggests, CMF Headphone Pro are over ear wireless headphones. Unlike Nothing’s techy, quasi-transparent design approach, CMF is more about colour and form. The Headphone Pro is available in Dark Grey, Light Grey and a fetching Light Green, with a modular design approach that offers interchangeable ear cushions.

The design is bulbous and friendly, oversized in an almost cartoonish way with soft-touch surfaces, a well-padded headband and glossy earpieces that contrast with the matt pads. A full array of controls is spread between each ear, including a dedicated Action Button that can be customised to provide a shortcut to the Spatial Audio settings or an AI smart assistant.

As with all such devices, Spatial Audio is very much a matter of taste. There’s a choice of Concert Mode or Cinema Mode, both of which add a layer of synthesized ‘space’ via digital reverb and directional tricks. Most of us prefer to hear music reproduced the way it was intended to be heard, so Spatial is bit of a gimmick. Helpfully, the Headphone Pro adds a slider control for bass strength – a throwback to similar controls on Walkman-type players.

Volume is controlled via a Multifunction roller on the right earpad, which can also be used to switch between different levels of noise control (ANC) and the playback controls. In addition to this, the Action Button and the Spatial Audio system are all controlled via Nothing’s straightforward Nothing X app, an effective control centre for all of the company’s audio wares. Sound quality is really pretty good, helped by the strong isolation provided by the oversized earpads.

Headphone Pro is compatible with hi-res audio streaming and the Nothing X app also allows you build a ‘Personal Sound’ profile, which uses a short test program to calibrate your hearing response and frequency reception. This profile is then stored on the headphones but can also be transferred to other audio devices. There’s also deep integration with CMF’s watch and smartphone.

Nothing is claiming a maximum of around 100 hours of playback, providing you don’t have ANC switched on. Endurance halves if you’re taking advantage of the adaptive noise cancelling, but around five minutes of charge can supply another four hours of listening. Power can be transferred from a compatible smart phone, while a full charge takes two hours.

The Headphone Pro is also well equipped for voice calls, with three HD microphones and an Environmental Noise Cancellation system that cuts through background noise to keep your own voice clear. Finally, there’s an aux socket for regular wired listening should you so desire.

If the vaguely Dr Seuss-style form factor appeals, then the amount of functionality baked into the CMF Headphone Pro is truly remarkable for the price.

CMF Headphone Pro, £79 / €99 / $99 USD / $179 AUD, available from nothing.tech, @CMF.tech

Remarkably, it’s been over four years since Nothing arrived with a (slightly) new paradigm in electronics design. The Nothing Ear (1) were earbuds without fripperies, as well as a clear identity and a transparent commitment to simplicity and sound quality.

The original product is now in its third iteration, and the company has lost none of its panache and pocket-friendliness. The new Nothing Ear (3), available in black and white, will be instantly familiar to fans of the brand, with the transparent charging case and earbud stem all present and correct, along with the trademark flashes of red.

What sets Ear (3) apart from its forebears – and its rivals – is the addition of what Nothing calls the Super Mic. This dual-microphone system sits within the charging case and serves as a primary microphone to boost hands-free call quality to hitherto unreached levels.

The new mic system incorporates an ambient-filtering technology that focuses specifically on voice, stripping away extraneous noise for a clear delivery regardless of what’s going on around you. The addition of a new TALK button triggers the new microphone when you’re on a call.

There’s also a secondary function to TALK; for users of Nothing OS, pressing the button opens up Essential Space, Nothing’s picture, note-taking and voice memo app, allowing you to easily mention something you might rely on later. To date, I’ve found Essential Space is usually triggered accidentally, leading to an intriguing selection of weird screen grabs, odd photos and awkward snippets of conversation. Hopefully Ear (3)’s added functionality will give the app new life.

The earbuds themselves also have upgraded microphones, with three directional mics in each bud and a special ‘bone-conduction Voice Pick-up Unit’, or VPU, which translates vibrations from the jaw and ear canal into electrical signals. Nothing has also trained its noise-cancelling using AI, with no fewer than 20 million hours of real-world audio being pumped into the algorithms to create the most responsive software.

Sound quality is undeniably excellent, and the earbuds are comfortable for long periods of use. The tiny battery inside each bud has also been improved, with ten hours of listening time (without noise cancelling) that can be extended to 38 hours using a fully charged case. Pop the phones into the case when it’s plugged in via USB-C and you’ll get ten hours of use in just ten minutes of charge time.

In addition to the pairing with Essential Space, Nothing app users can also access ChatGPT’s conversational mode via the earbuds, should you want something to talk to. The Ear (3) looks set to be another winner from Nothing, which is continuing with a relentless product roadmap.

This year’s Phone (3) took the brand into the premium space for the first time, and the recent Headphone (1) is a bold mix of aesthetic innovation and audio perfection. Ear (3) continue this long-running winning streak.

Nothing Ear (3), £179 / $179 / € 179, nothing.tech, @Nothing

That pre-holiday packing panic? It hits every time. What makes the cut and what gets left behind? With strict baggage limits and an overload of must-have options, it’s easy to feel like you’re missing the mark. Whether you’re planning a weekend away or a long-term escape, the Wallpaper* edit of travel essentials – spanning tech, beauty, and style – is your passport to packing smart and impeccably.

The Wallpaper* guide to travel essentials

A trusty companion

A pocketable friend

A melodic companion

A perfect multitasker

A personal choice of sunglasses

Revitalising goodness

A clever hack

A romantic notebook

A stylish writing instrument

Printed matter

As Nothing eases into its new role as pioneer and not simply a disruptor, the company has also announced its first true ‘flagship’ Android smartphone, the Nothing Phone (3). Launched in London alongside the new Nothing Headphone (1), Phone [3] takes the tech brand into territory occupied by the likes of the Google Pixel 9, Samsung S25 and iPhone 17.

According to Nothing’s Carl Pei, the company built Phone (3) ‘to show that there is still room for joy and creativity in the tech we carry everyday’. An evolution of the design language developed for Phones (1), (2), (2a) and (3a), the Phone (3)’s design follows an abstract approach derived from ‘turning the internal logic of the phone into something visual.’

Describing the design as something that ‘brings rhythm and structure to the layout,’ Pei says that Phone (3) is ‘an object that deserves to sit on your desk’, all part of the mission to make Nothing the most instantly recognisable device brand in an era of identikit black mirrors.

The rear of the phone features a tri-column grid, based on the location of the PCBs below. Into this grid goes three camera units and a new display, the ‘Glyph Matrix’. Developed from the arrangement of light on the rear of the original Nothing phones, the new Matrix is a secondary display with a pleasingly low tech pixellated screen.

As Pei notes, the company found that 8/10 users enabled the old-style Glyph interface when using their devices, describing it as a ‘a calmer and more expressive way for you to stay connected.’ The Glyph Matrix goes further, serving as an abstracted second screen that’s intended to lower screen time whilst also adding a dose of functionalism and fun.

Apps that can take advantage of the Matrix include a stopwatch and pixellated selfie screen, along with alerts, notifications and battery indicator. As well opening up the Glyph SDK to developers, Nothing worked with its community team to develop two throwaway fun ideas, a Magic 8 Ball and Leveler toy. There are further playful ambient experiences such as Spin the Bottle and Rock, Paper, Scissors. As Pei notes, ‘we believe that fun also deserves a place in tech.’

The fun is provided alongside some serious horsepower. Phone (3) comes with a generous 6.67” AMOLED screen, protected by Corning Gorilla Glass and powered by a Snapdragon 8S gen4 processor. The crucial camera upgrades include a suite of four 50MP cameras, including a 1.3” sensor on the main lens, along with optical image stabilisation. The Periscope telephoto lens has a 3x optical zoom and a 60x AI-enhanced digital zoom – it can also double as a macro lens.

The ultrawide lens has a 114-degree field of view, while on the front there’s a 50MP selfie camera, up from 32MP on Phone (2). Another neat touch is the square red filming light on the back, an element that was once simply decorative given a useful function. Photos can be edited using the new Nothing Gallery app, including presets and filters created in collaboration with professional photographers.

Another innovation is Essential Search, a new AI-powered on device search function. ‘Nothing is taking a different approach to AI,’ Pei explains, ‘We think the smartphone is the place for consumer AI in the foreseeable future. No other device has better context on you. AI gives us a real shot to redefine the software experience, but it has to be useful. Essential Search uses AI to give you answer directly in the UI. Over time it’ll surface more personalised suggestions, depending on how you use your phone.’

All this is powered by a larger battery that’s capable of being fast-charged from 0 to 50% in just 19 minutes. Coming soon is Nothing OS 4.0 – for the time being the new apps and features run on Nothing OS 3.5. We’ll have a more complete report on the ins and outs of Phone (3) in due course.

Nothing Phone (3), available in black and white, £799 / $799 / €799 for 256GB storage, £899 / $899 / €899 for 512GB storage, available from nothing.tech, @nothing

The new Headphone (1), alongside the brand-new flagship Phone (3) were revealed to the Nothing faithful at a sweltering event near London’s 02. It’s clear that the company is building cultish momentum. The show wasn’t quite on the same scale as Apple’s momentous, headline-making keynotes, but it was a serious step up from the modest-scaled company’s other product launches.

Carl Pei, who founded Nothing in 2020, took to the stage to talk through the feature set of both products, but not before re-stating the company ethos. ‘Tech today feels more like a trap than a tool,’ Pei told the assembled media. ‘We’re still stuck on tapping on apps, on screens… smartphones have become engines for doomscrolling. Tech is doing the opposite of making us feel creative.’

Nothing was established to counter this image, starting from the premise ‘what if tech could feel exciting again?’ ‘We started with design – creating products that were iconic and could be recognised from 10m away,’ Pei continues. ‘We then translated our hardware design language to software. In just four years we’ve built a product eco-system that spans smartphones and headphones – we’ve created a brand that stands out in a sea of sameness.’

It’s a fairly remarkable story, taking a tech start-up from, well, nothing, to over $1 billion in revenue in just five years but it’s worth remembering that Nothing has just 0.2 per cent of the market. The major players aren’t going anywhere soon. However, the huge scale of the market does give Nothing scope for expansion, especially with its rare and dedicated focus on community, design and longevity.

‘All our earlier products were in mature categories like smartphones and earbuds,’ Pei admits, ‘Now we’re taking more risks, first with ear (open) then with our own Essential Space AI. Now it’s time for us to shift from being followers of the market to being innovators. We have to focus on software – it goes hand in hand with hardware.’

Pei describes these two launches as Nothing’s ‘two most ambitious products to date’, a pair of high-end headphones and the brand's first true flagship smartphone. ‘With Headphone (1) we wanted to create something radically different,’ Pei says. ‘It’s a new expression of transparency, with the circle devices represented [by] the acoustic chambers.’ With a bold use of aluminium, quirky details and geometric touches, Headphone (1) presents what Pei describes as ‘a showcase for architectural precision’.

Another departure for the Headphone (1) is the reliance on clear physical controls. As well as a central ‘Button’, fully customisable in the Nothing X app, there’s also a Roller control for volume and switching noise-cancelling on and off and a Paddle for navigating. ‘Controls are guesswork on most headphones today,’ Pei says. ‘We wanted to make it a lot more intuitive with Headphone (1).’

Tactile, easy to find and fully programmable, the controls give swift access to virtual assistants, different audio apps and event ChatGPT. There’s also Essential Space, Nothing’s new voice memo, which can be triggered with the Button.

‘With Headphone (1), we set out to create something that doesn’t just sound great, it feels different the moment you pick it up,’ said Adam Bates, head of design at Nothing. ‘From the tactile controls to the transparent construction, every detail is intentional. Interaction has become an afterthought [with headphones], so we’ve done the opposite, with controls that are right where you expect them to be.’ The KEF partnership is also significant.

‘We’re new to this category, so we wanted to treat sound with a lot of respect,’ Bates explains. KEF’s 60-plus years of experience were put to use honing the headphone acoustics. The result is a custom 40mm driver, with dimensions that are larger than normal to be more precise and responsive than competitors. AI-powered active noise cancellation scans the environment to dynamically adapt in real time to external sounds.

Other features include hi-res audio support and spatial audio, creating a shifting 360-degree soundstage. Old-school users will appreciate the inclusion of a 3.5mm jack, while the Nothing X app allows for eight-band EQ tweaking as well as custom presets that have been tuned by KEF. In total, Headphone (1) can provide up to 80 hours of listening without ANC, or 35 hours with noise cancelling engaged. It takes five minutes to provide 2.4 hours of playback.

Sound quality is fantastic and the physicality of the buttons and even the headphones themselves makes for a welcome change from the regular form factor. Nothing’s ‘transparent’ aesthetic is still an acquired taste for some, but the company has consistently paired its innovative design language with hardware and software that really delivers, usually at an impressive price. Five years after the company was founded to divert and disrupt the tech industry, it’s pleasing to see that Nothing is still able to surprise.

Nothing Headphone (1), available in black and white, £299 / $299 / €299, nothing.tech, @nothing

Few things encapsulate the modern era than the act of unwrapping a new mobile phone. From breaking the seal on the outer box to sliding out the inner case, admiring the sub-millimetre tolerances of the paper engineering, to opening the lid and removing the device itself from its crisp protective sheath, the process is a highly fetishised journey into the worlds of desire, consumption, technology and delight.

It’s even better when there are two phones to unwrap. That’s the case with the new Nothing (3a) Series, which comes in two distinct flavours, the Phone (3a) Pro and standard (3a). As you’ll know from our exclusive design preview of the Phone (3a) Series, these new phones are all about the cameras, all three of them.

Aside from the surprise debut of an additional model straight out the gates, the (3a) Series has another trick up its sleeve. The mysterious new button on the side, beneath the power switch, is revealed as the ‘Essential Key’. The focus of much design debate and iteration, in order to distinguish it visually and physically from the phone’s other buttons, the Essential Key provides one-step access to the (3a)’s AI-based note-taking system.

You also have the Glyph interface, the innovation debuted with Nothing’s first ever mobile, with ins and outs that are worth learning if you want a next-level way of interacting subtly with your device without anyone knowing what you’re doing – different callers can have their own light pattern IDs for example. The interface also serves up message notifications and a timer function.

Nothing’s graphic-intensive UI, Nothing OS 3.1, sits on top of Android 15. It isn’t for everyone, but unlike many other mobile companies that simply re-skin Android with a hollow but lesser version of Google’s software, Nothing OS feels very different. You can opt to use the stock Android settings, where the distinctive Nothing icons look a little out of place, or go all-in on Nothing’s visual style. In total, there are over 50 bespoke custom sounds, widgets and apps on hand.

Leave everything to Nothing and you’re greeting with a sleek monochrome home page adorned with a scattering of geometrically precise icons. Nothing newbies will have a new visual language to learn, for the company’s iconography is abstract and defiantly un- skeuomorphic. Widgets have a retro, dot-matrix feel, with dedicated boxes for footsteps, screentime and a compass, alongside more familiar ones like clocks and weather. Nothing’s near-monochrome approach is also more conducive to mindful phone use (having the screen time indicator right there on the home screen also helps).

A word about Nothing’s presentation. From the graphics to the packaging, even down to the way the press kit and imagery is set up, there’s an attention to detail that never feels less than stellar. Perhaps it’s the relative size of Nothing’s team to other corporate behemoths, but there’s rare evidence of devoted care and craft. This might go some way to explaining Nothing’s rabid community following. Apple might encourage us to think different, but the real stand outs in the smartphone market come from outliers, not colossi.

The Phone (3a) Series is led by its updated camera unit. As with all contemporary smartphone photography, you’re aware of the computational heavy lifting behind the scenes, the algorithms that polish the focus and manage the exposure. Comparing like for like with one of the current smartphone photography champions, Google’s Pixel 9 Pro, and the Phone (3a) Pro shows slightly more aggressive sharpening at the extremities of the optical zoom (up to x6) and beyond (digitally driven up to x60), especially when dealing with subjects that benefit from AI-powered enhancement, like text.

The (3a) Pro’s Macro mode really excels, however, as does its Portrait mode, with a rich software-powered depth of focus adding pop and detail to headshots and still lives. All smartphone photography suffers from the juxtaposition of seeing your images on the device’s screen versus a laptop or even as a physical print. The Phone (3a) Series’ Full HD+ AMOLED screens are 6.77” and give your photography and films an impressive glow-up, thanks to their brightness and smooth refresh rate. When taken off the device and given a bit of unwelcome compression (as seen here), the camera’s results are still impressive, perhaps more so than rivals.

The Pro model’s periscope lens does the heavy lifting here. With a Sony sensor, the periscope camera has optical image stabilisation and a very fast aperture, helping with low light situations as well great portrait performance. Video is 4K, naturally, with the ability to capture slow-motion imagery at 1080p and 120 frames per second.

All this is powered by a Snapdragon 7s Gen3 chip, with a speed boost that’s tailored to cope with the other most significant (3a) Series innovation, the Essential Key. This provides access to Nothing’s Essential Space, an enhanced note-taking hub that hosts everything from screen captures to voice notes and saved posts. Pressing the Key captures the screen; holding triggers a voice note, which is automatically analysed and transcribed.

The Essential Space will be expanded over the coming months, with AI-driven and context aware functions like the ability to add voice notes to photographs, schedule reminders and group notes and images according to project or interest. It’s the kind of AI-driven amalgamation of multi-app functionality that the likes of Rabbit and the (now-defunct) Humane tried to hive off into separate devices. Having everything contained within your phone makes much more sense. Time will tell as to how essential the Essential Space will end up being, and how it is integrated into other Nothing hardware like the Ear series of earbuds.

Thus far, Phone (3a) Series delivers a new user experience as promised. It’s not a radical departure by any means, but it is sufficiently different to lure users who might be tiring of the current smartphone hegemony. Nothing’s legions of fans should be pleased by the camera updates which place the company at the top tier of mobile photography providers.

Physically, too, Nothing hasn’t deviated from its mission. As we noted earlier, there’s been a shift from plastic to glass, as well as an evolution of the quasi-transparent structural approach to the phone’s back. Now frequently imitated by third party case makers, Nothing’s take on undressing tech is heavily stylised but aesthetically sophisticated, becoming more and more like a fine-art or sculptural vignette within a case.

A lot of effort has gone into cutting the Phone (3a) Series’ carbon footprint with a corresponding increase in recycled material across board, not just aluminium but also tin and steel. That seductive packaging is 100% plastic free. According to Nothing’s calculations, the (3a) Series has a lifecycle carbon footprint of 51.3kg CO₂ equivalent (CO₂e) (Apple’s new iPhone 16E comes in at 52kg CO₂e for the equivalent 256GB model).

Nothing (3a) shares many, if not all, of its pricier sibling’s characteristics, missing only the Sony periscope lens of the Pro which makes it a shade lighter. It also has a slightly lesser front-facing camera and lacks eSIM support. Photography minded buyers should direct themselves towards the Pro, thanks to the new camera module’s performance and physical expression.

So is the Phone (3a) Series another winner for Nothing? It certainly consolidates the brand’s modus operandi, proving once and for all that it’s a serious global player on a mission to do things differently. The camera upgrade on the Pro takes it to another level while Nothing’s Essential Space has huge potential as an actually useful and practical deployment of AI. For those that have held out on trying the brand until now, the Phone (3a) Series is a perfect place to start.

Nothing Phone (3a) and (3a) Pro, available now from Nothing.tech, @Nothing

Technology can be very easily divided up into wants and needs. Spend too much time thinking about it, and the latter category can easily shrink down to nothing. For 2024, we’ve rounded up a selection of new and established offerings that bridge that divide; these are desirable devices that won’t get discarded soon after the thrill of unboxing. They’ve either proved indispensable in my own day to day life, or they’re the kind of thing that would seriously enhance my technological arsenal.

Ruark Audio x Fred Perry

Ruark Audio have released some fine products in 2024, but we’ve chosen to go with these limited edition MR1 speakers, designed in collaboration with Fred Perry. This pair of compact bookshelf speakers have discrete FP branding in gold, integral Bluetooth for quick pairing with your smartphone and full connectivity to embed them in the heart of a compact hi-fi set-up.

Fred Perry Limited Edition MR1, Ruark Audio, £375, FredPerry.com, RuarkAudio.com

Duke & Roy turntable and speakers

If you’d rather splash out on an all-in-one system, we recommend Gadhouse’s new combo, consisting of the DUKE turntable and ROY speakers. A hefty slab of oak provides the turntable with weight and warmth, while the compact speakers should slot easily into any bookshelf.

Duke & Roy Turntable and Speakers by Gadhouse, $990, Gadhouse.com

Nothing Ear(a) earbuds

Of all the earbuds I’ve used over the past 12 months, the ones I reach for most often are Nothing’s Ear(a). There’s nothing low-rent about these extremely affordable and completely capable earbuds, which combine long battery life, excellent sound quality and ultra-simple pairing.

Nothing Ear(a), £69, Nothing.tech

Teenage Engineering OP-XY sequencer

A wishlist item for the ages, the new piece of music tech from Teenage Engineering will no doubt top the charts for many musicians. Designed from inside out with typical precision, the OP-XY is a sequencer, synthesizer, and sampler that pairs its considerable style with endlessly deep function.

Teenage Engineering OP-XY, £1,899, Teenage.Engineering

Korg nanoKey Fold keyboard

Ultra-portable music-making devices are something of a passion, and Korg’s new nanoKey Fold has gone straight to the top of our wishlist. This tiny phone-sized MIDI keyboard opens up to become a control surface for the synth, DAW or even app of your choice.

Korg nanoKey Fold, £110, Korg.co.uk

Connex connectivity tool

A classic stocking filler suitable for anyone short of a cable, the Connex is a Swiss Army Knife-style connectivity hub that does away with a tangle of wires. Up to eight different charging combinations are available from the folding device, which includes Apple’s Lightning connector standard as well as USB-C and USB-A.

Connex, £29.99, KraftedTech.com

Leica M11 camera and Noctilux lens

A Leica won’t make you a better photographer, but it’ll certainly hone your technique and transform your attitude to image-making. This new glossy black edition of the M11, together with a matching Noctilux lens, continues the legacy of the company’s M-System cameras, with a rich finish that responds to use with a gently developing patina, classic good looks and an exceptional lens.

Leica M11 in glossy black, £7,900, Leica Noctilux-M 50 f/1.2 ASPH lens in glossy black, £6,900, Leica Online Store, Leica-Camera.com

TYCH+ camera by Alfie Cameras

At the other end of the scale is the new TYCH+ from Alfie Cameras, a tiny half-frame 35mm camera that squeezes double the number of photographs onto a standard roll of film. The rotary lens board offers four different lenses and there’s an auto option as well as full manual control, with a built-in light meter for the latter.

TYCH+ camera, £499, AlfieCameras.com

remarkable Paper Pro and Type Folio

Another heartfelt personal recommendation. Yes, the Paper Pro is pricey and if I’m being completely honest, its new colour screen technology doesn’t have quite the same paper-like quality as the original reMarkable 2.0. But the excellent interface, synching and handwriting recognition make this my current favourite gadget.

remarkable Paper Pro and Type Folio bundle, £779, reMarkable.com

espresso 15 display and stand

espresso Displays have extended their range of portable monitors with the new espresso Display 15 and Stand+. This Australian company has mastered the art of delivering slender 5.3mm thin secondary displays that’ll double up your laptop size or let you stream straight from a smartphone. The magnetic Stand+ is designed to elevate the screen above your laptop.

espresso Display 15 and Stand+ bundle, £259, UK.espres.so

Nothing continues to push the boundaries of what a tech company can do with the launch its first ‘co-created smartphone’. A limited-edition version of the acclaimed Nothing Phone (2a) Plus, just 1,000 examples of the Phone (2a) Plus Community Edition will be made available via Nothing’s website. The project stemmed from an open invitation to the Nothing community to suggest and shape every facet of the phone, from the OS to the packaging.

Interestingly, the Community Edition emphasises something that Nothing has tended to overlook – the unboxing process. This one-shot event is a big deal in certain tech circles, buoyed by the sharing of the ceremony on social media. Up until now, Nothing devices have come in minimal cardboard packaging with a seal broken via a pull-tab, like a wedge of processed cheese. The Community Edition adds another step to this process, with the inclusion of a new glow-in-the-dark finish.

To experience this, the phone now comes in a larger, heavy duty cardboard box with a magnetic clasp and the all-important UV torch. The company issued careful instructions to those keen to get their own take on the process, including the suggestion that ‘content is filmed in a dark room’. If this is your thing, we’d like to direct you to Nothing’s social channels.

There were over 900 entries into the open competition to shape the phone. The winners were Astrid Vanhuyse and Kenta Akasaki, Andrés Mateos, Ian Henry Simmonds and Sonya Palma, all of whom were invited to work with Nothing’s London design studio and creative teams. In addition to Vanhuyse and Akasaki’s UV sensitive, green-tinted phosphorescent paint, which was refined in collaboration with Nothing’s design director Adam Bates and CMF designer Lucy Birley, Mateos was responsible for the new suite of six wallpapers. These build on the signature inside-out Nothing aesthetic.

Packaging graphics were guided by Simmonds, who was also able to incorporate the glow-in-the-dark elements seen on the phone itself. Finally, there was the sauce that brought everything together, the marketing. The ‘Find your light. Capture your light’ tag campaign was conjured up and steered by Sonya Palma.

Phone (2a) Plus is a powerful mid-range smartphone, a device that stands apart from the conventional Apple/Android hegemony with a fresh custom operating system and hardware design. If you miss out, don’t worry – more community projects are on the near horizon.

Nothing Phone (2a) Plus Community Edition, £399, strictly limited edition available via Nothing.tech and at London’s Soho Nothing Store, 4 Peter Street, London W1F 0AD, Nothing.tech, @Nothing

It seems like only yesterday that Nothing was considered a new kid on the block in the tech space. Several offbeat but excellent smartphones later, as well as a collection of well received earbuds, the London-headquartered company has firmly established itself as a key alternative to the tech industry’s various established players.

Next up in the Nothing ecosystem is this, the all-new Nothing Ear (open), an over-ear headphone design that does the exact opposite of snug-fitting, noise-cancelling earbuds. As the name suggests, Ear (open) is about transparency, but not the digitally filtered and processed kind. The device loops over each ear for stability, with speakers that hover just millimetres from your eardrum.

Although it’s hard to discern with the naked eye, there’s a ‘Sound Seal System’ at work here, along with very directional speakers so as to minimise sound leakage for those around you. Those same people will relish not having to wave their arms around to attract your attention. Pinch controls on the body of the earpieces handles call answering, play/pause and volume adjustment.

Ear (open) is positioned as a more engaged listening experience, something that works especially well when cycling or running, and for things like podcasts and audio books, where subtle nuances of production or instrumentation aren’t quite so important. What makes the new device even more attractive is the signature Nothing design, starting with the lozenge-like charge case.

Ultra slim, it still packs a bigger battery than usual to add up a total listening time of 30 hours. On their own, the buds themselves should be good for up to 8 hours of audio. The earpieces themselves retain Nothing’s transparent aesthetic and are neatly packaged in the case to make removal and stowage incredibly straightforward.

Other features include being able to integrate ChatGPT into your Nothing ecosystem (phone and earbuds) as an alternative to Google Assistance, while the Nothing X app also offers a more advanced sound equaliser function, as well as a bass enhance function. Voice calls are handled by two integrated microphones, carefully placed to avoid excessive wind noise. A game mode reduces lag, while Ear (open) can also be connected over Bluetooth to two devices simultaneously.

That carefully balanced system, as well as the lightness of the buds themselves (8.1g each), make Ear (open) almost imperceptible when worn. The result are headphones that keep you cued in as to what’s going on around you. It’s very much a personal choice, of course, but anyone who leaves their earbuds firmly installed even once the music has stopped will be familiar with just how much real life is blocked out.

Nothing Ear (open), $149 USD / £129 GBP / €149 EUR, Nothing.audio, @Nothing

Nothing’s phone line-up has expanded rapidly. We’ve been keeping close tabs on the London-based tech company, now too old to be dubbed a start-up, and noted how the relative scale of the operation – compared to behemoths like Apple and Samsung – allow it to be nimble and responsive. The original Nothing Phone (2a) is a case in point, distilling all the greatest hits of the stripped down Nothing aesthetic while taking advantage of faster processors and more advanced camera modules to deliver a premium experience at a mid-range price.

Under the skin of the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus

The arrival of the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus was an inevitability, as the company can now parlay innovation into new product at a surprising rate. So what are the differences? The most important is under the skin, and the introduction of a new brain, the MediaTek Dimensity 7350 Pro 5G processor. There’s also a dedicated graphics processor, and the two units bring 10 per cent and 30 per cent improvements in their respective computing tasks. Phone (2a) Plus also comes with up to 20GB RAM.

Powering all this is Nothing’s largest battery, supporting 50W fast charging systems that’ll give you a day’s worth of power in around 20 minutes. Nothing even claims the (2a) Plus can last for an eight-hour gaming session, although that’s beyond most adult’s level of endurance to test. The phone’s dedicated Game Mode will reduce incoming calls to a pop-up window – if you desire.

Externally, first impressions are shaped by the two new colour ways, Grey and Black. The now much-imitated ‘X-Ray’ style aesthetic is further heightened by the metallic finishes of the two new colourways, the result of carefully layered printing process combining with nano-coating and special inks.

It’s a bit of high-tech theatre, and always has been, but we especially admire the focus it gives to the Phone (2a) Plus’s different components, from camera to battery and charging coil, with the company’s trademark ‘Glyph Interface’ (another component with plenty of counterfeits in the field) wrapping itself around all these elements.

The camera is another point of enhancement, chiefly down to the inclusion of an upgraded 50 MP selfie camera. Yes, it’s all about you, and Nothing has given its photographic portrait algorithms a make-over as well in order to make you look your best. The main sensor is also 50 MP and is paired with an ultra-wide 50 MP sensor with a 114-degree field of view, giving the phone its distinctive robotic face.

Smartphone photography is very much a digital dance between lens module and computational algorithms that can tweak, enhance and accentuate elements through software. Nothing has its TrueLens Engine, which adds an ‘AI Vivid Mode’, Ultra XDR and smooth, electronically stabilised 4K video at up to 120 frames per second.

All this comes through a 6.7in AMOLED display, with Nothing OS 2.6 laid on top of the latest Android build, Android 14. We've always admired the way that Nothing's OS improvements are distinctly different from Google's aesthetic, with a distinct look and feel to its own widget library that feels tightly integrated into the hardware.

As with other Nothing phones, the (2a) Plus has baked in ChatGPT to drive its search functions. Speaking of AI, there’s also the new News Reporter widget, an AI-powered aggregator that digests the day’s top stories and produces up to eight audible one-minute summaries. It’s an idea that appears ripe for amusing, or not so amusing, AI-enabled missteps. Overall, however, Nothing has managed to walk the line between entertainment and innovation with style.

Nothing Phone (2a) Plus, £399, from Nothing.Tech, @Nothing

Tech brand Nothing continues to power ahead, discarding the start-up moniker and establishing itself as a serious player in the realm of smartphones and earbuds. Nothing ensured it is covering all bases by launching a sub-brand, CMF, in autumn 2023, bringing together the design acumen of the parent company with a more affordable, playful approach.

CMF’s debut product line included the CMF Buds Pro, CMFWatch Pro, and a dedicated charger, followed by the CMF Buds and Neckband Pro earlier in 2024. Now the company has launched its first mobile phone, the CMF Phone 1, along with the second-generation CMF Buds Pro 2 and CMF Watch Pro 2.

Meet the CMF Phone 1 and Watch Pro 2

We’ve taken the updated watch for a spin, as well as delved into what makes CMF Phone 1 so different and appealing. Carl Pei, Nothing’s CEO, describes the CMF range as a ‘mark [of] our commitment to inject fun into a boring industry’.

First up, CMF Phone 1. Based around a new MediaTek Dimensity 7300 5G processor, co-engineered with Nothing, and housing a 5000 mAh battery, the phone purports to offer a two-day battery life, almost unheard of in a modern smartphone. There’s up to 8 GB RAM on board as standard as well as a Sony 50 MP rear camera. The 6.67in Super AMOLED screen refreshes at up to 120 Hz, so the quality of components and specification can’t be knocked.

The design of this phone feels special too. Nothing has already shown us what it can when it deviates from the established smartphone template, but the far more affordable CMF offers up elements like exposed screws, bright colours, a prominent camera module, and an OS that feels perfectly dovetailed with the industrial design.

There’s also a diversely styled collection of accessories, including battery packs, swappable back plates and cases. The phone runs Nothing OS 2.6, which we’ve experienced to be fast and reliable, blending the best bits of Android with a pared-back front screen and simple customisation.

The CMF Watch Pro 2 is something of a revelation when it comes to endurance, with a battery capable of delivering up to 11 days of use. The watch itself hasn’t been on our wrists for that long, so we can’t attest to this, but after five days of constant wear, the fully charged battery had only gone down to 72 per cent. Apple Watch users can only look on enviously.

Admittedly, the Watch Pro 2 isn’t nearly as feature filled as its Apple, Google or Samsung equivalents, but it still does everything a modern smartwatch should be able to do, with 120 different sports modes, as well as the ability to monitor heart rate, stress level, sleep quantity and blood oxygen saturation.

Although it’s very slightly on the chunky side, there are interchangeable bezels (you can swap between a soft- or hard-edged look) and straps. There’s a Newson-esque fluoro tint to the palette, as well as the adoption of other familiar smartwatch elements like the digital crown and AMOLED display. Out of the box, CMF will be offering over 100 different watch faces to choose between.

Other functionality includes the ability to make calls over Bluetooth and control your phone’s music player or camera, with apps and widgets available to track footsteps, weather and much, much more. Not only is the CMF Phone 1 far more affordable than the excellent Nothing (2a), Watch Pro 2 demonstrates that effective and enduring technology doesn’t have to be premium priced.

CMF Phone 1, from £209, CMF Watch Pro 2, £69, CMF Buds Pro 2, £59, intl.cmf.tech, @CMF.tech

Nothing’s newest audio package includes not one but two pairs of earbuds. As the must-have accessory to the brand’s distinctive Nothing (2) and Nothing (2a) smartphones, the Ear range has always punched above its weight, combining distinctive design with feature rich audio playback and a keen price point.

First up is the freshly simplified Nothing Ear, which takes the form factor and case shape of the original Ear (1) and Ear (2) and gives them an injection of new technology. As the flagship audio product of the range, Ear offers over five hours of listening time (eight hours without the powerful Automatic Noise Cancelling); pair it with a fully charged case and you should be able to get 40 hours of sound out of the package. 

Nothing Ear

The Nothing Ear case can also be wirelessly charged. The earbuds are equipped with the latest version of Nothing’s Clear Voice Technology, as well as a newly developed ceramic diaphragm, Nothing Ear is more powerful, with a new ‘Bass Enhance’ algorithm and personalised equalisation.

This involves using the updated Nothing X companion app and running the Personal Sound Profile, a set of tests that ensures you’re using the best fitted ear tip (small, medium and large are included), as well as a complete hearing test. Once these parameters have been established, Nothing Ear can compensate for your hearing discrepancies in real-time, creating a personal profile that can be shared and stored.

Nothing Ear (a)

Ear (a) is a more playful offering, marking the first time Nothing has branched away from its signature black, white and red palette. Available in white as well as vivid yellow, Ear (a) makes an unmistakable visual analogy with the iconic Sony Sports Walkman range, first introduced in 1984. Our recent tour of Nothing’s London studio revealed one of these distinctive personal cassette players in amongst the team’s accumulation of inspirational electronics, old and new.

The smaller case means that wireless charging isn’t offered, but otherwise the Ear (a) is very much on a par with the dearer model. Both earbuds feature the 3.0 version of Clear Voice, with AI-powered noise reduction and both pairs include Nothing’s ‘Find my earbuds’ feature, along with the ability to pair up with two devices at a time.

The slim stem is where the action is: a combination of pinches and holds can be customised to pause and start playback, answer calls, and cycle through the levels of noise cancelling. If you’re in the market for no-nonsense earbuds, Nothing’s newest offerings will do very nicely. 

Nothing Ear, £129 / $149 / €149, Nothing Ear (a), £99 / $99 / €99, Nothing.tech, @Nothing

Today marks the launch of the Nothing Phone (2a), the newest and third handset from the UK-based tech start-up and an indication of how much the brand has matured in a short space of time. After examining the handset’s design and engineering approach in our Nothing Phone (2a) preview, we’ve now had a chance to get our hands on the phone and dive into the device, which we review below. We also took the chance to look at the new Punkt MC02, a simple smartphone with an added layer of privacy – read on and take your pick. 

Nothing Phone (2a) review: a smarter phone than ever

Nothing’s hardware design certainly makes the phone stand out, and the switch to a tough plastic rear cover gives the (2a) a lighter feel without compromising too much on quality. Nothing’s OS operating system, now on v2.5, is swiftly powered by a custom Dimensity 7200 Pro, instead of the Snapdragon processors used in Phones (1) and (2). With the same 6.7in screen as the Nothing Phone (2), but a slimmer bezel, the new (2a) presents a meticulous face to the world. This is heightened by the design of the OS, which features Nothing’s carefully developed black and white icon set and geometric widgets for time, calendar, pedometer, compass, media player, and so on.

It all makes the stock Google Android system look rather cartoonish and – crucially – gives the device a welcome sense of simplicity that goes some way to lowering the dopamine-driven addictive qualities of the modern smartphone. Other enhancements include Nothing’s ‘Smart Clean technology’, a background process that tidies up the onboard storage to keep the phone feeling snappy as it ages. Nothing only offers three years of Android support (Google now offers seven years for its latest Pixel 8 series), but the company’s strong commitment to reducing and recycling – as seen in its packaging – seems to carry more weight.

Phone (2a) also comes with a larger battery, not only capable of lasting longer than its predecessors, but also more efficient in the way it uses power. Up to 12GB of RAM is available, along with a standard 256GB of storage. The three cameras – 50MP main, 50MP ultra-wide and a 32MP front (‘selfie’) camera – deliver much better results than on earlier models, with a new image signal processor bringing increased low-light ability.

Nothing has matured its offering without losing the edge that makes it stand out. As a self-described ‘mass premium’ offering, the Phone (2a) is a welcome alternative to the smartphone hegemony. Little touches like the Glyph composer for constructing custom ringtones really speak to the nimbleness of a small, diverse design and hardware team and their interests and influences.

Punkt MC02 prioritises privacy over complexity

Also new to market this spring is the latest handset from Swiss electronics company Punkt. The flagship device in an eclectic line-up of minimal technology, the MC02 is the first smartphone to run Apostrophy OS. The company, which came to prominence with its deliberately Luddite MP02 non-touchscreen smartphone and also makes beautiful, post-Braun electronics like the AC02 alarm clock (both devices were designed in collaboration with Jasper Morrison), favours a more mindful attitude to electronics. 

While the MC02 is a fully featured Android phone, the inclusion of Apostrophy’s bespoke operating system gives it an added layer of data privacy and simplicity. Apostrophy OS sets up internal barriers for its bespoke Email, Calendar, Contacts, Notes and Storage apps, maintaining your info in Switzerland with its extensive data privacy laws, out of the hands of invisible monetisation courtesy of the big tech providers. It’s a subscription-only service - you’re effectively paying not to be advertised to – with 12 months free included in the price of the phone.

In addition, the MC02 has ‘Digital Nomad’, your own personal VPN for secure, location-agnostic browsing, plus the ability to monitor the privacy implications of apps installed via Google Play (as well as see their energy impact). 

Punkt stresses that the MC02 isn’t about blazing speed or cutting-edge specs. Petter Neby, the company’s founder and CEO, says that they ‘disagree with the modern idea that privacy is nothing but the ability to hide secrets – and that this is a fairly recent misnomer. Alongside many other rights, the right to privacy is a fundamental human value, is nuanced and context matters,’ he says, adding, ‘We feel this makes for a better relationship with tech and mental wellbeing.’

The screen is 6.7in, the main camera is 64MP and the onboard memory extends to 6GB. Punkt’s camera system has much more aggressive image processing than Nothing, and although the blacks are darker, image crispness is down to the software sharpening up the edges of objects, rather than the quality of the lens.

To this end, the MC02 also goes for a monochrome approach, albeit with far less abstract icon design than Nothing. Punkt’s visual style evokes the personal organisers of the 1990s, all part of the company’s ‘intentional consumer electronics’ approach. Straight out of the box, it’s fully functional and if you’re intent on using Apostrophy’s abilities to the full, you’ll never need to dip into the Google Play store.

Read our review of the new Nothing Ear and Ear (a) earbuds.

Nothing Phone (2a) is now available from Nothing.Tech, @nothing

Punkt. MC02,  £599, Punkt.ch, @Punktdesign

The Nothing Phone (2a) is, as its name suggests, a more evolutionary step on from the original Phone (1) and its successor, the Phone (2). However, the London-based technology company is not resting on its laurels. Still content to be a relative minnow in the colossal smartphone market (well over a billion handsets will be sold in 2024, as they have been every year for the past decade), Nothing uses its size to be hyper-mobile, with a direct pipeline from design to prototype to manufacture that’s simply impossible to manage in a global multinational.

That’s not to say that the company, founded by Carl Pei in 2021, is remotely parochial. Teams in Taiwan and Shenzhen support the London HQ, benefitting from being at the cutting edge of component production and manufacturing. The company is still building capacity, with a team of industrial designers, engineers and technologists working together across a couple of open-plan floors of a converted King’s Cross warehouse, with prototyping machinery sitting alongside workstations, a small recording studio, and an enviable suite of Teenage Engineering’s modular Field desks, the brand being a close collaborator.

Shelving is awash with tech bits old and new, from discarded prototypes to a veritable arsenal of gadgets and gizmos from Teenage Engineering, and vintage electronics ranging from a Sports Walkman to a Gameboy. You’ll even find a Sinclair C5, apparently a gift from Teenage Engineering to the Nothing team.

‘[The C5] captures the optimism of tech,’ says Nothing’s design director Adam Bates (a Dyson alumnus). Working alongside Industrial Design lead Chris Weightman, Bates is not only steering Nothing’s innovative aesthetic, but building up the company’s capability for in-house prototyping. ‘We want to be able to hand over more mature ideas,’ he explains. ‘Making things is important to us – it’s a big part of our process.’

As well as 3D printers, there’s a proper CNC milling machine that can fabricate in materials as diverse as foam and aluminium, as well as a spray booth and laser cutter. All this kit is necessary to iterate the many stages of a mobile device. While final, finished prototypes are typically made by specialist model makers, Nothing reckons it’ll be able to get ‘very close’ in due course.

On the table before us is a spread of dummy devices, representing the evolution of Phone (2a). A natural break in the line-up shows where the team diverted their energies elsewhere before returning to the project. It also marks the point where the (2a)’s distinctive dual camera ‘eyes’ made their first appearance on the design, eventually evolving into the friendly anthropomorphic object you see before you.

As before, the new phone has a very different approach to case design. Nothing’s signature transparency adds another layer of ‘design’, not quite laying bare the internal electronics, but indicating a schematic of how and where the phone’s components are arranged. ‘We want to be a company that does things differently,’ Bates says. ‘We’re looking to find how Nothing expresses itself in all these different areas.’

To date, alongside its two phones, Nothing also makes the excellent ear (2) and ear (stick) in-ear headphones (and from 18 April 2024 the Nothing Ear and Nothing Ear (a) earbuds). Phone (2a) is the Nothing expression of an ‘affordable flagship’, industry shorthand for a high-spec model that exploits falling component prices and pairs them with less expensive finishes to open up a new price point. 

The new phone is especially notable for its high-density polycarbonate rear, complete with what Nothing calls a ‘triple anti fingerprint coating’. Unlike its glass-backed predecessors, the use of polycarbonate allows for a more rounded and smooth finish, which is turn has durability benefits. Inside, the circuitry is arranged on a 100 per cent recycled aluminium midframe, a fiendishly complex but entirely hidden component that epitomises the industrial designer’s challenge: how to express progress and values even when something is concealed from view. 

‘The aesthetic is really driven by the engineering,’ says Chris Weightman. ‘The design ideas were about getting under the skin of the device.’ As we previously noted, one of the original inspirations behind the Nothing aesthetic was the 1972 New York Subway map by Massimo Vignelli and Bob Noorda. 

‘Our top aspiration was that we show the bare engineering,’ Weightman says, noting that while somewhat stylised, the elements beneath the transparent case highlight the location of the camera module, the charging coil, and the ribbon connectors that link the various components together. Bates adds that ‘we try to capitalise on idiosyncrasies where we can – we’re always balancing things. If the engineering is right, then it’ll look right.’

Creating anything new is rarely a case of starting with a blank sheet of paper. While the specs have yet to be revealed, Phone (2a) builds upon Nothing’s established eco-system of suppliers and manufacturers; there is a world of complexity within this compact object and the design process has to reflect this. ‘It’s a bit of a chicken and egg situation when it comes to designing the aluminium chassis,’ Weightman admits. Other elements, such as experiments with a slightly milky finish of the polycarbonate and splashes of Nothing’s signature red, were also honed and refined throughout the prototyping process.

Once the design was finalised, the company sent out around 500 units for a relentless internal testing process. Over a period of months, the hardware and software is given a thorough going over. The latter is no less important. The newest version of Nothing’s operating system will power the (2a), dovetailed precisely with the hardware.

Elements like the light-up rear ‘glyphs’, a signature part of the Phone (2) look, have been refined, along with the ringtones that trigger them. There’ll also be a full suite of Nothing-specific apps that make good use of the company’s refined design language. The packaging, which features a colour render of the phone within, has also been stripped back and remains plastic free as before.

Nothing’s ethos and approach are refreshing in an industry spearheaded by trillion-dollar companies and usually cloaked in a thick veil of secrecy. By comparison, Nothing feels nimble and dynamic, with a playful aesthetic to match. Phone (2a) should strengthen the brand’s hand and show that diversity and difference can still exist in such a high-stakes industry. Bates acknowledges that things like component costs and build slots are all trickier to secure in the face of the industry behemoths.  ‘You have to work in a different way when you’re small, and that makes you more creative,’ he concludes.  

Read our review of Nothing's new earbuds.

Nothing Phone (2a) will be available from Nothing.Tech, @nothing 

Almost a year to the day, Nothing replaces its debut handset, the Nothing Phone (1) with – unsurprisingly – the Nothing Phone (2). We get hands-on with this evolution of the esoteric company’s latest device, noting its key features and the ways in which it diverges from the smartphone standard. 

The Phone (1)’s big point of difference was its disavowal of shiny solid materials in favour of a transparent look that revealed the (artfully arranged) inner workings of the device. Phone (2) is more of the same: once you’ve torn into the plastic-free packaging (which also tells us that 53 of the phone’s parts are made from sustainable materials) and shunned the hollow unboxing ritual, you’re greeted with a ‘naked’ device, with layered elements delineated by Nothing’s ‘Glyph’ interface. 

Nothing Phone (2): our hands-on review

The latter is a series of hieroglyphic-style lights that serve multiple functions in the Nothing OS 2.0, including caller ID, notifications and the intriguing Glyph Timer function, which turns the phone into a very high-tech egg timer. There’s also an experimental feature that uses the case lighting to countdown the arrival of an Uber or food delivery, as well as a Glyph Composer app for creating custom ringtones and notifications. Essentially a stripped-down beat sequencer, it reveals the creative synergy between Nothing and another glitch-tech pioneer, Teenage Engineering.

There are other advantages and features in Nothing OS 2.0, a jazzed up and re-skinned version of Android that ensures the Nothing ethos and aesthetic are mirrored across phone and software. The main screen is now monochrome and muted, removing the ‘crutch of colour cues’, in Nothing’s words, in order to focus the mind and detract from the chocolate box array of tempting app icons that so often lures us into wasted time. 

To this end, the new OS also features a number of custom widgets, effectively compartmentalising your most used apps into tiles you can check at a glance, without having to open them. These can also be put on the lock screen, further minimalising the need to fire up the phone. 

We were also impressed by the Phone (2)’s camera system, which has not only been upgraded with new filters, a document mode, and the ability to record 4K video at 60fps, but delivers impressive levels of detail and colour via the Advanced HDR function. This digital blend of eight varying degrees of exposure (up from three in the Phone (1)) creates vivid, crisp photographs, albeit with that sheen of processed perfection we’ve come to expect from our smart devices. The front camera sensor is also doubled in capacity. The screen size has also crept up (6.7in vs 6.55in) – this is not a small phone, by any stretch. 

Should you upgrade? Phone (1) fans will find more of what they love in the (2), but their enthusiasm might be tempered by the thought of replacing a perfectly good device with something so shiny and new; sustainability and transparency are central to the Nothing ethos. Amongst other initiatives, the company publishes the carbon footprint of its devices, giving the Phone (1) a figure of 53.45kg. This 8.6 per cent less than the first phone, and around 10kg lower than the figure Apple issued for its iPhone 13 back in September 2021.

These calculations are notoriously subjective. Of more importance are the levels of recycled materials used in the device itself (the frame is 100 per cent recycled aluminium, for example), and what happens at the end of a product’s lifecycle. If you’re attracted by Nothing’s ongoing journey to minimalist tech, the Phone (2) is a perfect place to get on board. True believers might want to hold on to their original device for a while longer, particularly as the Nothing OS 2.0 update will apply to all the company’s phones. 

Nothing Phone (2), available in both white and dark grey, 8GB/128GB (£579 GBP, €679 EUR), 12GB/256GB (£629 GBP, €729 EUR), and 12GB/512GB (£699 GBP, €849 EUR)

Available to buy at Nothing.tech

Since this article was published we have also revealed an exclusive Nothing Phone (2a) preview

The tech start-up Nothing hit a couple of home runs with its first two strikes – the neat Nothing Ear (1) earbuds and the Nothing Phone (1). The company’s latest product is the Ear (stick), launched this week, a sleek set of affordable, AirPod-style in-ear devices that perch ergonomically on your ears. Following the brand’s mantra of ‘Tech you can’t feel’, the Nothing Ear (stick) does a fine job of feeling transparently light and unobtrusive, all the while delivering crisp and detailed sound.

The Ear (stick) has been designed to work best with Phone (1) – there’s no need for a separate app, just use the phone’s Device Details and all the features can be customised and accessed right away, as well as the ability to find a lost earbud or even select a special gaming mode that minimises Bluetooth’s slight latency.

If you’re using another Android or iOS phone, then you need the new Nothing X app, which also gives you access to an equaliser and ways of customising the tap functions. When worn, the earbuds genuinely feel like they are barely there, which is both comfortable and occasionally alarming when you’re trying to find them.

The (stick) comes in a cylindrical clear plastic charge case, complete with USB-C connection for charging. In total, a fully charged case provides up to 29 hours of listening time, and you can wirelessly charge the (stick) on the Phone (1) when a little extra boost is needed.

Nothing has a packaging problem, but only in the sense that its paper boxes are a tactile delight and yet can only be opened once before they’re good for recycling. Featuring a refreshing absence of plastic and reminiscent of high-end pharma packaging design, they’re part of the company’s drive towards true carbon neutrality, which includes being transparent about the carbon footprint of all its products. 

The earbuds themselves use Nothing’s signature transparent design language, helping set them apart in both style and substance. 

Nothing ear (stick), £99

Nothing.Tech

As of 18 April 2024, the company's latest audio products, the Nothing Ear and Ear (a) earbuds have been released and are available to buy for £129 and £99 respectively at nothing.tech

We’ve been following Nothing’s journey into the mobile realm – culminating with the unveiling of the Nothing Phone (1) today – with fascination. The London-based start-up has masterfully managed its inception and ethos from the start, clearly setting out its stall as a tech company that does things differently. CEO Carl Pei, working closely with design director Adam Bates (ex-Dyson) and designer Thomas Howard (also vice head of design at cult Swedish audio master Teenage Engineering), set out to make a phone that doesn’t so much as disrupt, but divert. 

It would be a stretch to claim that the new Nothing Phone (1) is the salve that soothes and banishes all these very contemporary problems, but it's the first time a new device feels like a step in the right direction, not merely an object built to placate the gods of consumption.

Nothing Phone (1): clearly different

As you can see, the Android-based device takes a different design direction to 99 per cent of its competitors. Gone is the inscrutable sheen of a glass, metal, or plastic body, and in its place is a transparent Gorilla Glass back cover that lays bare the remarkable packaging of a modern consumer technology project.

Woven around these components is a graphical light interface, the ‘Glyph’, a multifunctional display that’s embedded in the Phone (1)’s operating system.

The Glyph isn’t the key selling point, but it’s a refreshing way of doing things differently. When you place your phone face down on a flat surface, the Glyph can be programmed to display different light patterns for different contacts, subtly alerting you to calls that need to be taken and those that can be safely ignored. The 900 LEDs emit a fair dose of brightness and can be used in place of the built-in camera flash for a softer, more enduring light, while the individual lights also have their own associations. The ‘G’ -like primary element indicates the conductive charge pad, for example, which not only charges the phone but allows you to charge the company’s acclaimed Nothing Ear (1) earbuds simply by setting them atop the device. 

Another light curves around the twin lens camera set-up, and the diagonal slash indicates the position of the antenna. Finally, there is the bottom ‘exclamation mark’, which roughly corresponds to the location of the cable socket and doubles up as a charge indicator. A separate red LED is also mounted on the rear, lighting up to indicate when you’re filming, camcorder-style.

A streak of retro puritanism runs through all of Nothing’s hardware, graphic identity, and bespoke interfaces and apps. Their dot matrix font logo is faithfully reproduced on screen, and even elements like the bespoke ring tones have a gritty, 8-bit sound that evokes Teenage Engineering’s Pocket Operator series of synthesisers. 

Other details impress. The bespoke Recorder app has a similar aesthetic to the cult OP-1 synthesiser’s recorder screen, or the ‘Tape’ function of the OB-4 ‘magic radio’, although it’s missing the transcription function that has become an essential element of this kind of app. Otherwise, the phone’s eco-system and bespoke apps and wallpapers showcase the linear graphics, clear icons, and smooth animations that Nothing hopes will become synonymous with its brand.

Most importantly, the Phone (1) feels different. It’s lighter than its competitors, and – despite having relatively high-end specifications – it’s aggressively priced to undercut the increasingly premium models from Samsung, Apple, Google, et al. The frame is forged from 100 per cent recycled aluminium, whilst 50 per cent of the plastics used are also recycled. Packaging is paper, and the company promises at least three years of software updates to lengthen its lifespan. 

Eschewing the fashion for adding extra cameras, the Phone (1) makes do with two excellent ones from Sony and Samsung, both 50 megapixels and the latter offering a wide-angle view. The selfie camera has 16 megapixels and nestles at the top left of the 6.55in OLED screen (capable of displaying a billion colours). By not going for the latest and dearest tech, Nothing has hit the sweet spot between price, performance, and efficiency. The Snapdragon chipset is responsive and fast, and although the screen might not stretch to the far corners of the device, the bezel is crisply and satisfyingly equally weighted all the way around (a detail that took some major engineering to achieve).

New hardware always brings out the early adopters, eager to have the fastest, smoothest, and most sophisticated machine in their sweaty paws. Nothing’s approach is rather different – what if the latest device isn't all about speed or power, but about the simplification of your smartphone life?

The Phone (1) pares back the digital cruft, the sheer weight of data and the inescapable feeling that we are somehow being completely ruled by the innocuous black slab in our pockets. For one thing, if you’re paying less than four figures for a phone, you feel somehow less beholden to constantly marvel at the device.

The Phone (1) was unveiled before an audience of tech influencers, expert unboxers, corporate investors, and the odd crypto bro, alongside the usual industry media, Pei offered up a modest launch spiel, mirroring the quiet confidence oozed by the device itself (the phone’s own cameras were used to shoot the video).  

Nothing’s ambition has always been to build an ecosystem of products, although the range currently stands at a grand total of two. Like the Ear (1), Phone (1) mixes quality tech with competitive pricing, all wrapped up in a package that shows real attention to detail. Will sufficient numbers of Nothing nuts emerge to keep the company aloft for long enough to make it a bona fide challenger? Perhaps. Phone (1) is a likeable and competent device, an object that looks and feels like a lot of thought has gone into it. It might not be a radical tech revolution, but it demonstrates that light sprinkle of imagination is all you need to make a difference.

INFORMATION

Nothing Phone (1), available in black or white

128GB storage, 8GB memory, £399

256GB storage, 8GB memory, £449

256GB storage, 12GB memory, £499

Available at nothing.tech

Nothing admitted it was working on a phone back in March this year, with a mooted launch date at some point during summer 2022. The London-based start-up is predicated on the bold ambition to transform our relationship with tech, or ‘making tech fun again’, rather than the epitome of overbearing corporate omnipotence that it seems to have become in recent years. The company’s first product, the Ear (1) earbuds, was well-reviewed and is exceeding expectations in the marketplace. Building a Nothing phone, however, has exposed the team to the challenges of design, engineering, and supply like never before.

Nothing Phone (1): what to expect

We spoke to CEO Carl Pei and head of design Tom Howard about the forthcoming Nothing Phone (1) and what customers might expect.

For a start, the phone is expected to follow the aesthetic approach established by Ear (1), with a translucent case that reveals the device’s inner workings. ‘When you look inside almost any Android phone, they’re almost all exactly the same,’ Howard notes, ‘Of course, the industry is optimising everything they do, year on year, trying to squeeze the most performance they can out of the smallest space.’ 

Taking a new approach wasn’t straightforward. ‘From a design perspective, we really wanted to bring the inside out, and that meant working with the engineers to start from first principles,’ Howard continues. ‘There are over 400 components in a smartphone, assembled in layers. We wanted to celebrate the “good ones”, the things we thought were really interesting to emphasise.’

These included elements like the camera and the wireless charging coil, but practically every avenue the design team explored turned into a journey all of its own. ‘From an industry perspective, you’re looking at components that the end user normally never sees, so you almost have to overhaul the entire manufacturing process in order to highlight them,’ he says.

Howard describes the resulting process as a ‘jigsaw puzzle’. To help visualise how they were going to lay bare the innards of the device, his team looked at a classic diagrammatic reference point, the 1972 New York Subway map by Massimo Vignelli and Bob Noorda. ‘This did a really, really good job of organising a very, very complex system and figuring out how to illustrate that in a beautiful way,’ Howard enthuses. ‘We looked at a lot of other subway maps as well.’

There’s a circularity at play here. The progenitor of all modern transit maps is the 1933 London Underground map created by Harry Beck. Beck was a technical draughtsman and his original map – drawn in his spare time – was partly inspired by the schematic view of electrical circuits, emphasising the importance of connections and clarity above all else. 

So will the Phone (1) redraw our mental perception of what a phone is and how it works? For Nothing, the unifying power of design is a crucial part of its brand.

‘One of the issues we saw with the tech industry was that nobody had a consistent way of designing products,’ says Pei. ‘Apart from Apple – you can see their coherent vision. But if you had a table full of products from another manufacturer, you don’t really see that. From the very start, we wanted to have a very distinct and iconic design language of our own.’

The launch of Nothing was preceded by a period of intense research into visual and creative language, with the design team studying everything from cinema to fashion design. ‘Phone (1) and Ear (1) will clearly be from the same family,’ Pei enthuses, ‘and as we fill in the rest of our product portfolio, we will maintain the same philosophy.’

Howard believes that one key USP of Nothing’s approach is the intrinsic beauty and intricacy of consumer electronics. ‘Our philosophy is that products should be simple at a glance, but the more time you spend with them, the more they give back.’ 

The Phone (1) will run Android on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon mobile platform, not least because the ecosystem is mature, polished, and familiar to a substantial chunk of the market. ‘We believe Google is already doing a great job,’ Pei admits, ‘but we’re focusing on the underlying connectivity, so your phone becomes a control centre for your digital life.’

That’ll also include bespoke wallpapers, widgets, and sounds, giving ‘Nothing OS’ a distinctive feel that dovetails perfectly with the hardware. ‘Part of our job is to tell the story of how things work,’ says Howard. ‘I think a really strong principle that we have is that design is not just ornament but that there needs to be marriage between form and function.’ 

On top of everything else, there is the question of not just how we use our devices, but how we dispose of them. Perhaps by lifting the veil on the inner workings of something we’ve learnt to take almost entirely for granted, Phone (1) users might be encouraged to take better care of their device, treasuring it for the myriad complexities within.

Nothing is staying fairly tight-lipped about how it’s approaching this increasingly essential aspect of tech design, save for the fact that the Phone (1)’s frame will be made from recycled aluminium to reduce its initial carbon footprint. Watch this space for more details.

Since this article was first published the new phone has been launched. See our Nothing Phone (1) review here

INFORMATION
Nothing.tech

There’s much ado about Nothing, the newest low-key high-tech brand in a crowded market. Nothing is debuting with the Ear (1) earbuds, a product that’s ten a penny these days. Will the brand’s fresh approach be enough for us to sit up and take notice? When we spoke to Nothing’s Thomas Howard, Jesper Kouthoofd and Carl Pei, about their ambitions for the new brand, they flagged up the Concept 1 earbuds as proof of a different direction.

Now that concept has become a reality, and Nothing Ear (1) earbuds are available to buy. 

Nothing Ear (1): clearly different

So what makes the Ear (1) different? There’s a ferocious amount of engineering that goes into an object as small as a pair of Bluetooth earbuds, most of which we take entirely for granted. Nothing’s point of difference is transparency and simplicity. This approach is obvious from the moment you tear open the pared-back packaging, slide open the silver box and remove the clear plastic charge case.

Although relatively conventional in appearance – there’s not a lot of wiggle room in this particular form factor – the Ear (1)’s industrial design lays bare the constituent parts of this ubiquitous object. You can see the PCB, the magnets, the microphones, all revealed beneath the transparent shell. There’s a jewel-like delicacy to these hitherto invisible components, and the Nothing team hunted high and low to find the best examples of each element to ensure it looked just right, whether it was magnets or even adhesive. 

Comfort is a key part of the earbud experience, and at 4.7g each, the Ear (1) is lighter than its Apple equivalents. The liquid silicon tip is designed to be softer in the ear, while the stems have a flat surface to make touch controls easier to deploy. The transparent case ends the hassle of wandering off without the actual earbuds themselves, as well as incorporating a fast-charging unit; ten minutes in the case should get you 90 minutes of listening time.

On their own, the Ear (1) buds will run for four and a half hours with noise cancelling switched on, or roughly six hours without. Oh, and you can sling the little case onto a charging pad to make the whole process completely wireless. Finally, there’s Bluetooth 5.2 to improve the range and battery life and the Ear (1) is also sweat- and water-resistant.

The low-key packaging and branding, from the dot matrix font to the disposable protective wrapping, conceals a very premium set of materials. There’s also nothing basic about the sound quality. The stems of the earbuds contain a big chamber for better bass performance: Teenage Engineering did all the acoustics as well as bring the industrial design know-how. There’s a bespoke app to help you tune Ear (1) to suit your own preferences, although they give pure, precise tones straight out of the box.

The app is also crystal clear in terms of layout and approach, with a ‘find my earbud’ feature as well as options for the three-stage noise cancelling, driven by three microphones and tuned to cut through background noise and foreground speech during calls. The Ear (1) is the first in a promised series of products from Nothing, building up to an eco-system of simple devices that will guide its fans away from tech fatigue towards a better-sounding and more intuitive future.

INFORMATION

Nothing Ear (1), £99

nothing.tech

As of 18 April 2024, the more recent Nothing Ear and Ear (a) earbuds have been released and are available to buy for £129 and £99 respectively at nothing.tech

This is the Concept 1, the first fruits of the recently announced partnership between Swedish synth specialists Teenage Engineering and the enigmatic new consumer tech company Nothing. It comes off the back of the news that TE’s Vice Head of Design, Thomas Howard, is now Head of Design at Nothing, and the company is also a fully-fledged partners in the new venture, with Jesper Kouthoofd joining Nothing’s CEO Carl Pei. The company is already thinking big, even if this – their very first conceptual product – is still some way from being realised.

We spoke to Thomas Howard, along with Jesper Kouthoofd and Carl Pei, about their boundless ambitions.

Nothing’s stated aim is to create a ‘future where technology is so advanced and seamlessly integrated into our lives that it feels like nothing’, removing the ‘barriers between technology and people to create a seamless digital future.’ A pair of transparent earbuds is just a tiny step on what could be a lengthy journey. ‘Tech is everywhere but also nowhere at the same time,’ says Pei, one of the original co-founders of OnePlus mobile at the turn of the decade. ‘Today you end up having an app for each device you own. It’s a mess.’ Howard, who has been with TE for nine years, continues. ‘Instead, we have this vision that’s all about ‘nothingness’, he says, ‘but it’s a 20- or 30-year vision. So we had to ask what was the first step we could take.’
Concept 1 is an obvious place to start, for right now the world demands tangible, desirable objects and what could be more universal than a pair of earbuds? ‘At Teenage Engineering we really like the tactile world,’ says Kouthoofd, ‘if we wanted to broaden that to smart devices, then Nothing is the perfect partner.’ Even so, Concept 1 only offers hints of what Nothing could become. Kouthoofd speaks of a modular technological toolset that could take a decade to realise, while Pei evangelises about eco-systems without barriers, all unified by universal software. Together, all three want to put engineering at the forefront of Nothing.

‘We have grand visions, but we also want to be extremely practical. We’ll start small and evolve,’ Pei says. ‘You have to combine vision with reality,’ Kouthoofd agrees, ‘we want to add an extra dimension.’ ‘Technology has lost its touch – it all looks the same,’ Pei continues. ‘From a consumer perspective, our approach to industrial design is really exciting. It can be different and desirable at the same time.’ The Concept 1 is a glimpse into this new approach. ‘For us, the idea of removing barriers really stood out,’ says Howard, ‘A transparent outer shell seemed obvious – removing the superficial decisions that designers make about colour and branding. It frees us up to think about what’s really important, which is the engineering.’

The no-brand approach, together with a combination of physical limitations and boundless ideas is what will shape the first product collection. ‘At Teenage Engineering we have this raw technological feeling. But you also have to have warmth,’ Howard explains, ‘this concept tries to ground this idea of raw technology.’

As well as the products themselves, which will start with a conventional family of devices but gradually evolve into a whole new eco-system, Nothing wants a new approach to materials. ‘The world of highly recyclable materials and materials made of post-consumer waste is really interesting to me,’ says Howard, ‘I’ve always tried to visualise our products with surface details and defects, as if they’re two or three years down the line. What’s the point of hiding the history of a material? Instead, we’re open to celebrating it.’

There’s also the question of packaging, something the tech industry has taken to ludicrous extremes in the past. ‘There are two things to look at. Can you not give packaging a life and a function outside of the two minute unboxing process. The other thing is to look at the whole system of shipping and selling products,’ Howard says. ‘But we prefer not to talk too much and just show. This concept was actually a first sketch from our engineers, and we’ve built it off that. It’s a first step in our journey in many ways.’ The team is deadly serious about doing Nothing the right way.

INFORMATION

teenage engineering

nothing