Pre-orders for the Nothing Phone 1 are currently defying expectations – and this should have other Android phone makers worried…

Carl Pei has plenty of chops when it comes to launching a brand new phone brand. With OnePlus, Pei grew the brand rapidly, taking it from a relative unknown to one of the most visible and well-known phone brands on the market in the space of a few years – and he did all without spending billions of dollars on marketing.

Samsung by contrast did the exact opposite: it essentially spent its way to the top. Not that this detracts from the quality of its products. But it is a well-known fact that during its formative years making phones, Samsung spent more on advertising than Apple and Coke Cola combined. Of course, this MASSIVE investment paid off in the end – Samsung is the biggest phone brand on the planet right now.

Nothing Phone 1 Pre-Orders

But Carl Pei does things differently. The guy has an eye for detail, both with respect to design and also in how his products are marketed. Take the Nothing Phone 1, for instance. Pei has relied, more or less, on creating a word-of-mouth kind of hype train. He leveraged social media and forums, as well as news blogs, to pique interest in his new company’s first phone. And then he went quiet, creating mystery and intrigue…

During the past six months or so, Pei has teased details about the Nothing Phone 1, revealing aspects of its design, how it’ll work compared to other Android phones, and its pricing (although this was pretty vague). And this, in turn, lead to thousands of speculative blog posts from tech sites, both large and small, about the phone, what it means for the phone market at large, and whether Pei can do, once again, what he did with OnePlus.

Pre-orders for the Nothing Phone 1 are looking incredible. To date, over 100,000 people have signed up to pre-order the Nothing Phone 1. That is a huge amount of people. What makes it even more impressive is that no one really knows if the Nothing Phone 1 will be any good – they’re all just banking on the fact that Pei knows what he’s doing.

And this is very telling. We know the phone will be positioned as a mid-range Android phone. That means you’ll pay less than $500/£500 for one, placing it alongside phones like the Poco F4 and the Pixel 5a, and Pixel 6a. In order to make the phone viable, however, Pei will have to do something a little different – and running an invite-based pre-order system is only half the battle.

“For years now, it felt like all the artists had left the industry. All we’re left with are cold, unexciting, and derivative products. It was time for a fresh take.” said Carl Pei, CEO and Co-founder of Nothing. “phone (1) was designed out of instinct, making a product for ourselves and more importantly that we would be proud to share with our loved ones. Can’t wait for people to start experiencing it.”

“Nothing is a disruptive brand at the forefront of current culture. Our shared commitment to removing barriers and driving innovation is at the core of our continued collaboration,” said Deena Bahri, StockX’s chief marketing officer. “At StockX, we aim to empower everyone to connect to culture through their passions. Partnerships like this provide our customers exclusive access to products that are not only tech-forward but also designed with self-expression in mind.”

The Nothing Phone 1 will need to be a solid performer, have a brilliant camera system, and its software – a custom skin called Nothing OS – will need to not only be very good but also get decent support from the company. First gen phones have a habit of being, well… a little glitchy, so Nothing’s support and firmware updates will need to be very much on point. Nothing ruins a new phone’s launch more than wonky software and/or software bugs.

The Nothing Phone 1 will get official on July 12 with a release date following on July 21. The Nothing Phone 1 is expected to retail for less than $500/£500, although this has not been confirmed just yet. Either way, whatever happens with this phone, we don’t have long to wait to see if Carl Pei can deliver on his promises…