The Nothing Phone 1 launched earlier this year as an affordable iPhone SE-rivaling 5G device with an eye-catching LED design, but it was available only in Europe and the UK. Now the phone is coming to the US, though as part of an internal testing program, so don’t expect it to grace store shelves just yet.
The Nothing Phone 1 will arrive on American shores as a “testing program” for the Nothing OS 1.5 Beta, the company’s custom version of Android 13, CEO Carl Pei tweeted. It’s unclear how people will be able to request a Nothing Phone 1 or whether they can purchase or retain it beyond the testing phase. Nothing didn’t respond to a request for comment by time of publication.
Despite launching the phone outside America, Pei, who co-founded OnePlus before leaving to helm Nothing, had repeated his interest in bringing the phone to the US market. Nothing had been in early conversations with US carriers to launch the Nothing Phone 1 in the states, but the company needed more time and technical support to configure the software tweaks carriers required, Pei told CNBC earlier this month. These early talks could lead to a future device launching in the US, he said.
It’s unclear if this testing phase will be tied to those carrier negotiations.
