Former OnePlus boss' new startup Nothing teases its first product

Since leaving OnePlus, co-founder of the smartphone company, Carl Pei has moved on to co-found another tech company called Nothing; and while it's keeping its products close to the vest, we do know that headphones are in the works and this just might be our first glimpse at them.

Pei left OnePlus late last year to start the new venture, and has said that the first port of call is to launch simple devices like wireless earbuds, before moving onto an ecosystem of connected smart devices. OnePlus released its own wireless earbuds with the OnePlus Buds, and given the limited form factor of the product, Nothing's own wireless earbuds may not look all that different. 

But the company tweeted out an image teasing an upcoming product which we assume is the earbuds, with the text "Timeless, effortless and weightless." The teaser is not unlike the strategy OnePlus has used to build hype for upcoming products and events in the community, so it looks like this approach of drumming up interest with teasers and cryptic clues is something Pei has brought with him to the startup.      

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The cryptic image is most likely earbuds, based on the plan Pei has laid out for Nothing, and we're expecting the design to veer away from the OnePlus Buds and Apple AirPods Pro with the long ear stems, based on comments Pei made in an interview with The Verge in January, in which he says that Nothing won’t just relabel somebody else’s products" but that the "reason why a lot of products on the market look quite similar...[is] because they share a lot of the same components and the same building blocks.”

Pei says Nothing plans to avoid aping existing designs by using "custom made" components, which will allow it to deviate from the current trends and norms when it comes to product design. 

What exactly is being teased in the image, we don't know, but if it is the wireless earbuds we're expecting, they look to be sporting a mini display, which may come with its own set of problems for battery life. But we don't want to jump to any conclusions just yet! Let us know what you think Nothing is cooking up behind the scenes.