Nothing Phone 2 Will Reportedly Arrive in the US Later This Year, Says CEO Carl Pei

Nothing Phone 1, the first smartphone from the UK brand, led by OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei, was unveiled in global markets except the US in July last year. The successor, Nothing Phone 2 will reportedly get an official US release this year. Nothing CEO Carl Pei in an interview has said to have confirmed that Nothing Phone 2 will arrive in late 2023 and the company is looking at the US as a priority market. The upcoming Nothing Phone 2 is teased to be a premium offering than the Nothing Phone 1 and software will be a big focus area for the company, says the report.

In an interview with Inverse, Carl Pei has reportedly confirmed that Nothing's next smartphone, the Phone 2, will be getting an official US release sometime this year. “We decided to make the US our No. 1 priority in terms of markets,” Pei reportedly said. “When you make a smartphone for the US you need to work with the carriers on certification and adapting some of their features into your OS" he explained adding that “We didn't have the resources for that before and now we do.”

“We couldn't do it earlier because we were only in our second year and our hands were tied building the team as we were building the products. Now as we're on a more solid footing, we can take a step forward” he said.

Pei reportedly stated that the company had grown from 200 people in 2021 to 400 today and they have more resources to work on carrier certification, quality assurance, marketing, retail logistics etc. He claims that revenue has surged significantly from $24 million (roughly Rs. 196 crore) in its first year to $200 million (roughly Rs. 1,633 crore) in 2022.

The Nothing Phone 1 didn't get a US release, but the company announced a beta programme recently for American buyers that allows them to test out the handset in the country. Participation in the programme costs $299 (roughly Rs. 24,400) and includes a black version of the Nothing Phone 1 with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of onboard storage. T-Mobile is the only carrier that supports 5G on the handset, while AT&T and Verizon users will have limited 4G connectivity.

Nothing currently offers its TWS earbuds in the US and the country accounts for one-third of the sales. Pei opined that by not launching our phone in the US, the company is potentially leaving a third of the volume on the table.

Nothing Phone 2 is teased to be a more premium offering than Phone 1. Pei said the company is investing heavily in software for the Phone 2. “When we started Phone 1 we only had about five engineers on the mobile team so a lot of the work had to be done by other companies,” he said. “Now our team is close to 100 people on software, and I brought in a lot of people that I used to work with before in my past life.” The upcoming model could feature a more premium build and a new SoC compared to the Snapdragon 778G+ SoC on the Phone 1.

Apart from the expansion into the US, the company is also reportedly looking to open more retail stores in other regions. They are also said to be considering a store in the US.

The Nothing Phone 1 was unveiled in July last year with a starting price tag of Rs. 32,999 for the base 8GB RAM + 128GB storage variant. Nothing later increased the price by Rs. 1,000 in August.

Specifications of the Nothing Phone 1 include a 120Hz refresh rate display, a 50-megapixel dual-camera setup along with a 16-megapixel selfie sensor, and up to 256GB of inbuilt storage. It has a Snapdragon 778G+ SoC under the hood paired with up to 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM. It is backed by a 4,500mAh battery with support for 33W wired charging, 15W Qi wireless charging, and 5W reverse charging.