Bringing nostalgia to its products, Nothing wants to become the tech brand for the new generation | Technology News

“We used to call it the ‘sea of sameness’,” added Evangelidis. The challenge was to create a design identity that could be recognised from two meters away — “without even looking at the logo.”

‘Building an emotional connection’

Nothing, led by OnePlus founder Carl Pei, has had a busy few years, steadily rising in the consumer tech space. Its products feature retro-influenced designs while also looking futuristic, each with a distinct character. They are also priced more competitively than many of their rivals.

The Nothing Phone 3a Pro has an enormous camera module on the back. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)

“At first, people thought we were crazy for even considering entering the industry. But for us, it felt like no brand was bringing back the excitement we experienced as kids — watching the launch of the first iPhone or scrolling through our first iPod,” he told indianexpress.com in an interview last month at Nothing’s office in Gurgaon.

The first few years were spent building the brand and showcasing how its products were different. But now, Nothing has found its groove, creating products that feel distinctly “Nothing-like.” With the new Nothing Phone 3A and 3A Pro hitting shelves this month, the company finally seems poised to make a leap into the mobile market with more mature product lines, aiming to offer premium yet accessible devices in the mid-range segment.

The Phone 3a Pro runs a Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 processor with 12GB of RAM, and is joined by the Phone 3A, which sits on the entry-level. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)

Both the Phone 3A and 3A Pro appear almost identical, featuring Nothing’s trademark semi-transparent design language and Glyph lighting system. The only differences are in the cameras — while the 3A has its three lenses arranged in a horizontal line, the 3A Pro has three lenses and flash forming a half-spiral within the circular camera module.

“The idea behind transparency was to make tech fun again, adding a softer, more emotional value to the overall proposition — building an emotional connection with your product. If we look at the market today, there’s little visibility into who is behind the products, how things work, or who is designing what. This has created a distance. So for us, we naturally gravitated toward this concept of transparency… it’s raw, human, and authentic,” said Evangelidis.

“What we realised is that as we started developing more products and experimenting with transparency, the options became limitless,” Evangelidis added. “I can guarantee you that everything will be different. Even now, for instance, when comparing the Phone 2A (review) to the Phone 3A, you can clearly see the difference. It’s part of the 3A series, yet it has a distinctly unique look.”

‘Making a few trade-offs’

But Evangelidis said making transparent products may seem easy, but it’s not. “It’s quite a complicated process, and a lot of innovation went into manufacturing these products. It’s not actually easy to do, and even in execution, most attempts would fall far short of our level of precision. Even at our Chennai factory, we had to implement several processes within our facility to drastically reduce the level of micro dust particles.”

Nothing is adding its own flair of AI in the Phone 3A series. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)

While the transparent design has been a consistent theme across all Nothing products, Evangelidis believes there is an opportunity for growth in the mid-range segment. The Nothing Phone 3A sits at the entry level, much like its predecessor, while the brand is introducing a new addition — this time, a camera-centric smartphone. The Phone 3A Pro, positioned at a higher tier yet still similar to the entry-level 3A, features the key upgrade of a 3x periscope lens.

“It’s not necessarily more difficult, but there’s definitely less room for error,” Evangelidis said when asked how designing a mid-range smartphone differs from a flagship, especially given supply challenges and rising manufacturing costs.

“When you develop a product, there are a lot of trade-offs. The other day, someone asked me why we didn’t go for a metallic mid-frame on the Phone 3A Pro, and I explained that if we had done that, the BOM (bill of materials) cost would have increased significantly. That’s where cost optimisation comes into play. Every incremental change we made was solely focused on the camera, so we had to make a few trade-offs and find the optimal recipe while staying within the cost constraints of this price segment,” he added.

“We are very cautious about the end-user experience. We try to optimise everything within all cost constraints.”

Evangelidis cited the example of choosing UFS 2.2 storage over UFS 3.1. “We have been running extensive internal testing, and our UFS 2.2 has performed well in terms of optimising random read and write speeds. I would say our performance is often better than some devices on the market that use UFS 3.1 alongside more powerful processors. Some spec warriors might not understand this, but at the end of the day, we are delivering a smoother experience across the entire user interface”.

Evangelidis admitted that there are some scenarios where UFS 2.2 is slower. “One is when downloading files—it does happen, but how often? And the time difference isn’t drastic. The other is when transferring data from your phone to a laptop, which is a very limited use case compared to daily usage. But opting for UFS 3.1 would have significantly increased costs,” he said.

Striking a balance

As brands set their sights on the premium smartphone market — a segment that has been booming in markets like India — Nothing is trying to strike a balance between high-end and mid-range smartphones. “It’s no longer solely about value for money; consumers now aspire to do more and buy into a brand’s image, seeking aspirational satisfaction. That naturally leads to higher price points for smartphones,” he said.

The Glyphs and transparent panels are part of Nothing’s design language. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)

But as Evangelidis pointed out, there is a vast addressable market across all price segments. The brand offers the CMF Phone 1 (review), a semi-modular smartphone priced under Rs 20,000, along with the mid-range Phone A series and, at the high end, its flagship lineup. “If you are not in that market, then there is no market,” he said. “The way Apple was to us when we were growing up, I believe we can be the next brand for this new generation.”

“If you look at the key purchase drivers in the mid-segment, the highest is the software experience, followed by the camera. But these are purchase drivers that people recognise — we call them blind spots. There are other purchase drivers where I think we are very well positioned. One is design, and the second is brand image. These factors rank even higher in purchase decisions, especially in India, which was quite surprising,” he said when asked how these factors influenced the development of the Phone 3A Pro. The device leans on its camera capabilities while maintaining a novel transparent aesthetic, solid performance, good battery life, and a competitive price.

Evangelidis believes the younger generation in India has an international mindset and will appreciate the nostalgic and futuristic design elements. He is confident that the Indian market is ready for innovative and timeless designs that offer a differentiated user experience.

Embracing AI

Evangelidis said that Nothing has spent a lot of time and effort focusing on the software experience and the camera over the past few months, with a 50 per cent increase in team size in these two areas alone.

For a relatively new brand like Nothing, it’s even challenging to cultivate a distinctive brand identity when the competition is stiff in the smartphone market. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)

With the 3A Series, Nothing has also finally embraced AI. However, its approach is a little different from what its competitors are doing. “People are getting confused. AI is a tool that enables you to have a more holistic approach to your experience. Now, it’s very siloed within different apps, becoming an aggregator that brings everything together, reducing friction in daily use,” he explained, comparing AI to a processor.

But in true Nothing style, the brand has woven artificial intelligence features into the latest Phone 3A series — not in a predictable way, but subtly. It has introduced a feature called “Essential Space,” which organises content and generates action points, essentially serving as an AI-powered visual to-do list.

“We just want to create a user-centric experience, focusing on use cases that we, as users, can relate to. Think of the ability to capture content, drop a voice note, and set reminders. With so much going on, it reduces the mental bandwidth spent on remembering tasks. So we approached AI from our own point of view, considering what it could solve for us.”

“We tend to gradually onboard people, focusing step by step on specific use cases and introducing more features over time. I think that’s where the real game is,” Evangelidis shared, explaining Nothing’s approach to AI.

Thinking beyond the cool design

Both phones also include a new physical button that, when pressed, triggers an AI assistant and “Essential Space.” Instead of going buttonless — a trend many wanted to experiment with back in the day — Nothing and other brands are now adding more buttons to smartphones.

Nothing is finding gaps in the market, and where the Phone 3A series fits in. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)

“It was quite important to have a physical button with an N-minus screen that would be accessible via the button, just to ensure it served as a clear breaking point,” he explained.

But Evangelidis and his team are thinking beyond the cool design that Nothing phones are known for. He once again emphasised that from day one, the mindset has been about focusing on the overall experience — both hardware and software. The Essential Key and Essential Space are part of the idea to blend hardware and software and build a new type of software experience with the help of AI.

“We foresee that the future user interface will be extremely exciting. We already have that in mind and are working towards it. Different form factors may come and go, but one thing that isn’t going to change anytime soon is that smartphones will remain the gateway to AI-powered experiences.”

As Evangelidis scales Nothing globally — and in India, where he has additional responsibilities — he emphasised that the company’s approach to product development remains the same as when it first started. “People bought our products because of our software experience. But I think software, as a whole, is essentially how you navigate the device. It’s also the best element that showcases affinity with the overall product experience.”

“Our whole brand is inspired by the IBM mainframe era, and Nothing, as a brand, has always been at the core of everything we do. That was a time when people were truly excited about technology. All our design aspirations come from that era. We’ve always aimed for a blend of futuristic and nostalgic elements in our products because nostalgia is a good way to trigger emotions. So, we’ve always approached product design with that mindset,” Evangelidis said.