Back in December, Nothing Phone (1) creator, Carl Pei, said in a tweet, "Phone (2) isn't launching anytime soon. [We] won't churn out dozens of products a year like many others. Phone (1) is our main focus."
Like many, I applauded a refreshing change of pace from other tech companies. Rather than putting out a new handset every year, often with minimal updates over previous generations, phone manufacturers could take inspiration from Nothing's approach.
Now, though, Pei has announced that the Phone (2) is coming sometime soon – later this year in fact. The news broke in an interview with culture publication, Inverse. Directly addressing the elephant in the room, Pei said, "I tweeted before that we're not gonna launch [the Phone (2)] any time soon. The point I was trying to make is: let’s launch products with a healthy cadence and we're able to support the product on the software side and keep making it better."
According to the report, Pei's decision largely comes from the response to the Nothing Phone in the US market. Initially, when the handset launched, it wasn't available in the USA. It's since had a beta launch in the region, and the aim is to build on that, with the new device set to launch in the USA from the off. Pei suggests that, by not launching in the USA, Nothing are potentially missing out on around one third of total sales volume.
So, what can we expect from the Nothing Phone (2)? Naturally, Pei was tight-lipped about the product. However, he did describe the product as a "premium" smartphone, being careful not to brand it a flagship and do a disservice to the original Nothing Phone.
It certainly sounds like Nothing could be preparing a device more capable of sitting with top Android phones, like the Google Pixel 7 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. While the current handset is arguably one of the best cheap phones you can buy, on spec sheet alone it can't compare to more costly handsets.
It's tipped for a late 2023 release, so expect more news on this as rumours and information come out over the year.
