Nothing unveils a new phone, but it's not what everyone was expecting

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know that Nothing is preparing to launch its next phone – expected to be the Nothing Phone (3). So when the brand revealed its latest creation there was plenty of excitement.

Sadly though, it’s not the flagship device we were expecting.

Instead, Nothing has put together a fun video that’s part of its ongoing hype, running up to the launch of the next device. One pattern that’s emerging is that before a new phone is launched, Nothing often works with a YouTuber to reveal some part of that phone and help them spread the message through influencer marketing.

So that’s exactly what we have here in its latest video – the company has designed Marques Brownlee’s (AKA @MKBHD) dream phone. Brownlee has supplied the list of what he wants and Nothing has thrown it all together, with a phone render from Concept Central so everyone can see what it looks like.

We made MKBHD's Dream Phone - YouTube

Watch On

What we don’t learn from this video is anything about the Nothing Phone (3).

What we do get is a concept handset that basically uses the Galaxy S24’s cameras, a Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, and a 6.1-inch Samsung display. Yes, that’s not an error, it’s specified as a compact powerful phone, despite that fact that almost no one wants small phones, which is why no brands make them anymore.

What’s interesting here is just how much Samsung is in this phone, but Brownlee says he wants the iPhone 16’s phone software, and the front camera from the Pixel 9.

Cut through the influencer love-in and what have you got? Nothing is telling us that a phone is more than just it’s components – it’s the sum of the parts. But then, a lot more in R&D and manufacturing, as well as software development and support, while also talking about the realities of scale in smartphone production.

It’s a fun distraction and probably not the phone you thought you’d be reading about from Nothing, with the likely aim here to draw more attention to the fact that it is indeed developing a new device.

So what’s next from Nothing?

We’re a couple of weeks into Nothing teasing the launch of its next phone. So far we’ve heard very little about it. We’ve been told that Arcanine is coming soon and that’s expected to be the Nothing Phone (3).

But, all we know about the Nothing Phone (3) is that it will be the debut device for Nothing’s AI, building on Nothing OS and promising to deliver the experience that the firm has always wanted to give its users.

We’ve seen some sketches which tease parts of the phone, but it’s impossible to draw anything out of those other than the fact that it’s likely to be transparent again.

As for the hardware, we just don’t know what we’ll find in the Nothing Phone (3).

It might be that this video is telling us that making a phone is more expensive than you think and price rises should be expected. Perhaps the message is that economies of scale don’t run in the favour of Nothing as they might do for Samsung. Perhaps the message is that to make a phone that’s good value for money, something has to be sacrificed.

Given that Nothing has dropped @MKBHD into the mix, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Marques appearing with a video discussing Nothing’s new phone with company founder Carl Pei at some point in the near future.