Nothing Phone 1 concept shows stunning see-through design

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This Nothing Phone 1 render fills in the blanks left by the announcement event

An unofficial render of the Nothing Phone 1, using an official screenshot of the display, on a red background
(Image credit: Ben Geskin/Nothing)

The Nothing Phone 1's appearance is still a mystery, even after Nothing's The Truth event earlier this week confirmed it's real. Fortunately, we have a new concept image by designer Ben Geskin to help us picture what this new device will look like, based on what we did learn from the event.

We know that the Phone 1 will use a Snapdragon chipset and the company's own Nothing OS, and you can see both of these in the image below. For the rest, Geskin took the teaser image of the Phone 1, made up of some seemingly unrelated lines and curves, and turned it into the design we see here.

An unofficial render of the Nothing Phone 1, using an official screenshot of the display, on a white background

(Image credit: Ben Geskin/Nothing)

The back of this concept uses a transparent casing just like the Nothing Ear 1 wireless earbuds that launched last year. Given how rare see-through tech has been over recent years, it would help set the Phone 1 apart from competitors and further establish Nothing's company identity.

It's assumed that the top-left stadium shape in the markings revealed by Nothing point to the rear camera module. It looks just the right size for two camera sensors to fit into, similar to the iPhone X or iPhone XS' camera blocks. Meanwhile, the round shape in the middle seems to fit around where you'd normally find a wireless charging coil on compatible phones, so perhaps that's what it's there to draw attention to.

How the front camera will look is debated. The basic assumption is a centered punch-hole camera, but there's hope the Phone 1 will use an under-display selfie camera. Yanko Design points to the virtual interface shown in the briefing to suggest this, and it would certainly fit in with Nothing's ambitions to offer a unique user experience. Except this could simply have been an oversight in the renders, since they were primarily meant to show off the software.

While we've seen that Nothing OS is going to be a fairly familiar-looking skin of Android, we don't know what type of Snapdragon chip Nothing will go for. It could select the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip found in the best Android phones right now, but it may also go for a 7 series or even lower-powered chip if it wants to save on component costs or prioritize software.

While we've got many gaps in our Nothing Phone 1 knowledge right now, they won't remain for long. The phone's apparently launching this summer, although we'd be surprised if Nothing doesn't pop up a couple more times before then to take more shots at Apple and the iPhone 13 or Samsung's Galaxy S22.

Richard Priday
Richard Priday
Assistant Phones Editor

Richard is based in London, covering news, reviews and how-tos for phones, tablets, gaming, and whatever else people need advice on. Following on from his MA in Magazine Journalism at the University of Sheffield, he's also written for WIRED U.K., The Register and Creative Bloq. When not at work, he's likely thinking about how to brew the perfect cup of specialty coffee.