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Nothing Phone 1 comes to the US through beta membership
- Nothing has started a beta membership program exclusively for the US.
- Those who sign up will get a black Phone 1 with 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a Nothing Community Black Dot.
- Signing up for membership will cost $299.
In December, Carl Pei — the founder of London-based consumer technology company, Nothing — tweeted that a testing program for the Phone 1’s Android 13 beta was coming to the US. However, he, nor the company, ever mentioned when the program would arrive on US shores. But it looks like that time has finally come.
Today, Nothing announced that it is starting its beta membership program exclusively for the US. Along with membership, users in the US will get access to a Phone 1 running on Nothing OS 1.5, which is based on Android 13. The program is essentially a way for the company to test out a new market and get feedback from US consumers.
Nothing didn’t reveal how many it would let into the program, but you’ll have to shell out $299 to become a member. But in return, members will get a black Phone 1 with 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a Nothing Community Black Dot. Nothing says the Black Dot grants “inside access to the Nothing brand, new products, and offers.”
Additionally, Nothing says that members of its testing program will have access to:
- Custom weather app developed by Nothing.
- Up to 50% increase in app loading speed.
- More color schemes for matching third-party apps to wallpaper.
- Multi-language support that allows different languages for different apps.
- Privacy upgrades. Including:
- Photo picker. Choose which images you want to share with each app.
- Notification permissions. Control which apps can send you notifications.
- Media permissions. Group the types of media you want to share e.g., photos and videos, music and audio, and files.
- New QR code scanner in Quick Settings.
- Clipboard preview: copied text appears on the clipboard in the bottom corner of the screen. So you can directly edit the text before pasting.
- New look for Media Control.
- Foreground services. Close active background apps directly from the notification center to save battery.
- Live caption: detects speech on your device and automatically generates captions.
- Increased background memory. Reducing the wait for frequently used apps to load.
- New self-repair feature that keeps Phone 1 running like it’s new. By clearing unused cache and expired system dumps.
- Improved Quick Settings. Featuring new network and Bluetooth device pop-ups.
- New UI for volume control. Easily adjust individual volume sliders without unlocking the screen (e.g. music vs alarm).
- Improved Game Mode. New UI for light notifications and added Google Game Dashboard. Dashboard supports screenshots, screen recording, FPS display, and Do Not Disturb.
The company also warns that the Phone 1s offered in this program are final models, but they are for testing purposes. As such, the handsets may not work with all US carriers. It also mentions that users “may experience some limitations” due to the software being in beta.
If you’re interested, you can sign up for the beta program on Nothing’s website. Are you going to sign up for the beta program? Let us know in the comments below.