OnePlus co-founder makes Smartphone Comeback with a Quirky iPhone Competitor

Carl Pei, the co-founder of the Chinese Smartphone startup OnePlus, has returned with a new device, but this time it’s with a different business that is, figuratively speaking, named Nothing. After months of clues and teasers about the design of the handset, Pei’s oddly titled startup finally unveiled its first Smartphone on Tuesday. The business has just released its second product, which is called Phone 1.

Pei founded Nothing in 2020, with its headquarters in London. The company released its first product, a pair of wireless earphones dubbed Ear 1, last summer and has already sold 560,000 copies. Phone 1 appears to be identical to Apple’s most recent iPhones. Along with conventional technology you’d expect in a mid-range Smartphone, such Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 778G+ CPU, the phone runs Android and has a dual camera with two 50-megapixel sensors and 5G mobile connection.

The phone features a translucent back that reveals a distinct pattern of “glyphs,” or patterns and lines. The business claims that a modernist rendition of the New York City subway map created by Italian designer Massimo Vignelli in the 1970s served as its inspiration. The phone also has the peculiarity of really lighting up when you get a call or an app notification. When you receive a call, the device’s 900 tiny LED lights flash erratically and a variety of robotic-sounding ringtones start playing.

The Chinese-Swedish tech entrepreneur claimed that Apple, which revolutionised the globe with the release of the first iPhone in 2007, had “slowed down a lot” on innovation and that contemporary hardware seems “cold. “The Phone 1’s operating system is the most recent iteration of Android. Thanks to a collaboration with Elon Musk’s electric car company, it features a function that allows Tesla owners to unlock their car’s doors among other interactions.