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Nothing Phone 1 is coming to the US through beta membership

January 10, 2023
Anna M. Krupp

TL;DR

  • Nothing has launched a beta membership program exclusively for the US.
  • Those who sign up will receive a black Phone 1 with 8GB RAM, 128GB storage and a Black Dot from Nothing Community.
  • Registration for membership costs $299.

In December, Carl Pei – the founder of London-based consumer technology company Nothing – tweeted that a testing program for the Android 13 beta version of the Phone 1 was coming to the US. However, he and the company never mentioned when the program would arrive on US shores. But it looks like that time has finally come.

Today, Nothing announced that it is launching its beta membership program exclusively for the US. Along with the membership, US users get access to a Phone 1 running on Nothing OS 1.5 which is Android 13 based. The program is essentially a way for the company to test a new market and gather feedback from US consumers.

Nothing said how many it would take into the program, but you’ll have to shell out $299 to become a member. But in return, members will receive a black Phone 1 with 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage and a Black Dot from the Nothing Community. According to Nothing, the Black Dot grants “within access to the Nothing brand, new products and offers”.

Additionally, Nothing says members of its testing program will have access to the following:

  • Custom weather app developed by Nothing.
  • Up to 50% faster app loading speed.
  • More color schemes to match 3rd party apps to wallpapers.
  • Multilingual support allowing different languages ​​for different apps.
  • Privacy Upgrades. Including:
    • photo selection. Choose which images you want to share with each app.
    • notification permissions. Control which apps can send you notifications.
    • media permissions. Group the media types you want to share, e.g. For example, photos and videos, music and audio, and files.
  • New QR code scanner in quick settings.
  • Clipboard Preview: The copied text will be displayed in the clipboard at the bottom corner of the screen. This allows you to edit the text directly before pasting it.
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  • New look for Media Control.
  • foreground services. Close running background apps right from the notification center to save battery.
  • Live Subtitles: Detects speech on your device and automatically generates subtitles.
  • Increased background memory. Reduce the waiting time for frequently used apps to load.
  • New self-repair feature to keep phone 1 running like new. By clearing unused cache and expired system dumps.
  • Improved quick settings. With new network and bluetooth devices popups.
  • New volume control UI. Easily adjust individual volume controls without unlocking the screen (e.g. music vs alarm clock).
  • Improved game mode. New light notifications UI and added Google Game Dashboard. Dashboard supports screenshots, screen recording, FPS display and do not disturb.

The company also warns that the Phone 1s featured in this program are final models but are for testing purposes. As a result, the handsets may not work with all US carriers. It also mentions that users “may experience some limitations” since the software is in beta.

If you are interested, you can sign up for the beta program on Nothing’s website. Will you sign up for the beta program? Let us know in the comments below.