This phone from Carl Pei’s Nothing was one of the most anticipated phones of the year, and it was able to gather some pretty decent reviews. While people were using the phone, they noticed that the screen wasn’t getting as bright as advertised.
Now, Nothing has to back-peddle on the peak brightness of the Phone(1)
When people use this phone out in direct sunlight, they’re met with a pretty dim display. The spec sheet for this phone shows that it gets up to 500 nits of brightness during normal usage. When in HDR mode, the screen bumps up the brightness by 140% to 1,200 nits. A brightness level like that should outshine the sunlight on any day. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case, as the peak brightness of the Nothing Phone(1) is nowhere near that. Looking at the specs for the Nothing Phone(1) on the Nothing site shows a pretty shocking change. Previously, the specs pointed to a peak brightness of 1,200 nits, but it was surreptitiously changed to only 700 nits after launch. So, instead of a 140% increase, it’s a 40% increase. 700 nits is decent, but it’s still a disappointment, as people were expecting a much brighter display. This might not be the biggest controversy in smartphone history, but it’s still pretty shady of the company. We’re not sure if Nothing will make an official statement about this issue. So far, aside from the peak brightness, everything else about the Nothing Phone(1) seems to be accurate.