Nothing Phone (2) to launch in 2023 with much-needed software upgrades

Following the launch of last year’s Nothing Phone (1) in the UK, it appears that the brand has plans to launch a follow-up in 2023 based on comments from CEO and co-founder Carl Pei.

The Nothing Phone (1) isn’t the best phone on the market right now, but its bold aesthetics and budget-friendly price – with a performance that’s definitely value for money – have made it a pretty popular handset in the regions where it’s available. So it’s no surprise that the brand would want to launch a follow-up.

In an interview with Inverse, Nothing CEO Carl Pei admitted that his company has big plans for its next “more premium” smartphone: the Phone (2). While Pei is reportedly hesitant to give too many details away he did reveal the two key areas that Nothings want to focus on with its next smartphone.

The first is software. We don’t know exactly what form the upgrades will take, but we hope the user interface will see some refinements. In our review, we found the Android-based Nothing OS to be clean, but it’s not the most stable build of Android out there and it lacks user-friendly features like one-handed mode.

Another big difference is that the Phone (2) is designed with a US audience in mind. The Nothing phone (1) originally snubbed the US at launch and has only recently arrived there via an odd beta program. It appears that this program is being used to help Nothing work out what US consumers want from a smartphone, but also to work with carriers to determine the certifications and features its devices need in order to function properly on US networks.

That said we don’t expect everything will be different from the Phone (1). It seems likely that the Phone (2) will continue to use the original’s iconic Glyph interface, and offering a competitive price that offers users solid value for money is very probable too. Though to know exactly how much the Phone (2) costs, and the specs it packs, we’ll likely have to wait for a proper announcement later in the year.

Until then we’ll have to make do with a few other tech reveals, including the announcements made at Samsung Unpacked 2023 on February 1 (that’s tomorrow at the time of writing). It seems very likely that Unpacked 2023 will be the launch event for the Samsung Galaxy S23 smartphone (and its upgraded Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus and Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra models). If you want to check out the announcements for yourself, then follow our guide on how to watch the Samsung Galaxy S23 launch event to see our coverage of all the devices announced.