Basically called overrated by the company’s CEO and founder, Carl Pei, about six months ago, the Android 13 update is finally being delivered in stable form to the first (and so far only) Nothing Phone. In the absence of an official announcement on Nothing’s social media channels, all user reports on Reddit seem to indicate that a phased rollout is taking place, with a first wave hitting select participants in the open beta program now, and further waves coming for less… adventurous users are likely to follow soon. Unless, of course, major bugs or critical issues are discovered after this first phase of stable Android 13 update, in which case the rollout will likely need to be halted for further “tweaking”. It seems unlikely that will be the case, however, as the last beta build was apparently “definitive” enough to justify a tiny 157MB expansion now. This still packs a lot of nice stuff for your Nothing Phone (1), with the full changelog listed below: Weather app
New Nothing weather app; Tapping a weather widget on the home screen now directly opens the corresponding city in the app, instead of opening a link to minimalistic wallpapers; Icons can be customized to match your background color to make your home screen look more consistent. Create shortcuts for camera, flashlight, device control and wallet. Improved experience
Easily switch data usage when using dual SIM with the improved network quick settings panel; Automatically display the current network and display the mobile data used in the quick settings; Scan a QR code directly in the camera app. The scanner also appears as a shortcut in Quick Settings; Choose language settings for different apps.
Visual Enhancement
A new look for Media Control. Fully renders the album art with a wider set of music controls; Improved volume settings panel. Allows granular volume control without unlocking the device; Improved light notifications in game mode. So there is less distraction when playing; Smoother animations when switching the display between on and off; Refined camera app interface. Privacy and Security
Get notified when an app accesses your clipboard. History has been cleared after a period of time to prevent unwanted access; Added personal security app; Better privacy protection, including photo selection, permission for nearby Wi-Fi devices, and selected media permission. system performance
Fingerprint unlock accuracy improved by up to 12%; app launch speed increased by up to 71%; standby power consumption improved by up to 50%; implemented a new self-healing feature to periodically wipe unused system images and cache; increases system stability; General bug fixes. With the official release of Nothing OS 1.5, the Nothing Phone (1) joins a large group of Android 13 devices consisting mainly of Samsung phones (and tablets) with low, medium and high-end specifications, as well as occasionally Sony, Motorola, OnePlus, Asus and Nokia smartphones. However, unlike any other member of this club, this bad boy remains inaccessible to the masses (at least in the US), which, on the plus side, can help with overall system stability on Android 13 and later.
At the moment there don’t seem to be any complaints from early adopters on Reddit, but of course that’s always subject to change, so as always it’s wise to hope for the best and prepare for the worst when adopting a new version of the mobile operating system . This includes backing up all your precious data and maybe even waiting for the right time to install Android 13 on your device. BTW, the update also includes the January 2023 security patches, which is good if not ideal… mid-February 2023.
