Nothing Phone (1) got into a serious controversy shortly after its launch,

By: Deepak Maggu

Of course, Nothing Phone (1) is not a flagship killer or an iPhone killer according to the hype and claims, but what sets it apart from the competition is the glyph interface, transparent design, LED lights, and wireless charging that none of its original competitors offer.

Nothing Phone (1) got into a serious controversy shortly after its launch. A YouTuber, Prasad (@prasadtechintelugu), accused Nothing Phone (1) of discrimination and said that the company has not sent a review unit to YouTubers in South India. But his way of saying it was like a prank. Prasad made a fake unboxing video in which instead of the phone, there was a letter. It was written in the letter "Hello Prasad, this is not for the people of South India". Following this, the hashtags #DearNothing and #BoycottNothing began trending on social media, particularly on Twitter. Nothing Phone (1) has been the centre of attention since his announcement. The company had placed "Nothing Phone (1)" on the market by calling it a flagship killer and a unique product. The tech industry even went so far as to say that the Nothing Phone could be an iPhone killer. But if we look at the figures, then it is not able to justify its hype and claims.

Nothing Phone (1) was out of the flagship killer race when it used an average mid-range Snapdragon 778G+ processor. However, if we compare the performance of Nothing Phone (1) according to its hype, then it is not able to compete with the iPhone 13 (A15), Samsung S22 (8Gen1), OnePlus 10 Pro (8Gen1), and Mi12 Pro (8Gen1) anywhere. Flagship processors have been used for performance in these flagship phones. Apart from the hype, if we talk about reality, then the real competition of Nothing Phone (1) is from the Samsung Galaxy S22 FE, iQOO 9 SE, OnePlus 10R, Realme GT2 and Poco F4 5G. However, in terms of value for money, Nothing Phone (1) falls short of its competitors, with the price of 33,000 for the base model costing it a bit. But as the company said, today's phones have become boring, and Nothing Phone (1) will come up with a different concept. So it has lived up to that to a great extent. The design is not out of the box but makes it feel quite different and fresh as compared to the competition, which will be its USP.

By the way, Nothing Phone (1) has created a ruckus as soon as it comes, the first positive and the negative on the launch day. But due to this controversy, the attempt to spread regionalism and linguism in the Indian tech community is a dangerous trend. A lot of people tried to make this dispute into a South vs. North and Hindi vs. regional language dispute. This case is purely commercial in which two traders are involved (YouTubers and Nothing Company). Both should take care that no one's interests should be harmed. On one hand, some YouTubers were harmed by this controversy, while Nothing also had to face backlash. No company would like to be boycotted, that too on the day of its product launch.

Of course, Nothing Phone (1) is not a flagship killer or an iPhone killer according to the hype and claims, but what sets it apart from the competition is the glyph interface, transparent design, LED lights, and wireless charging that none of its original competitors offer.