The Nothing Phone (1) has finally made its way to the United States, but there's some important information to know about before purchasing the smartphone. Nothing launched its first smartphone, the Phone (1), in July 2022, with availability limited to Europe, India, and the UK. Fast-forward to December, and Nothing's CEO, Carl Pei, revealed it was working with carriers in the U.S. to bring its next smartphone to the region. He also revealed that the Phone (1) would be available in the U.S. via a testing program.
The Nothing Phone (1) is now available to buy in the U.S. through what the manufacturer calls the Nothing Beta Membership. Those who sign up for the membership will have to pay a sum of $299 to get the black version of the phone with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, and a Nothing Community Black Dot NFT, which provides access to the Nothing brand and special offers. The price of the phone in the US is significantly cheaper than its global prices of £399 (~$485) in the U.K. and €469 (~$503) in Europe.
Here's The Catch
The $299 price undercuts the competition, like the Pixel 6a and other mid-rangers. However, there's a catch that potential buyers should be aware of. The Phone (1) made available through the Nothing Beta Membership is the same variant as the international version but will be running a beta version of Nothing OS 1.5 based on Android 13. With any beta software comes its fair share of bugs and glitches. In this case, Nothing says that Google Wallet, Netflix, and YouTube may not function properly, and there will be carrier and network band compatibility issues.
The FAQ section on Nothing's website reveals that the Phone (1) only supports AT&T and Verizon's LTE bands and doesn't support the two carriers' 5G bands. AT&T's subscribers will also not be able to use VoLTE and VoWiFi, while Verizon users will have to contact their customer service to add the phone's IMEI to their database for it to work. While it supports T-Mobile's 4G and 5G bands, only two 5G bands – N5 and N41 – are supported.
Nothing says the reason behind launching the Nothing Beta Membership is to find out the needs of its U.S. users and incorporate their feedback in the development of its next device. Once a user purchases the phone, they will receive an email that explains how to sign up for the Android 13 Beta program. Nothing has a 14-day return policy as long as the phone is not damaged. The Nothing Beta Membership program runs until June 30th, so buyers have plenty of time to decide. The Nothing Phone (1) is a solid mid-ranger, and the company is certainly putting in the work to make a potential follow-up succeed in the U.S.
Source: Nothing