Nothing Phone
Shares rank 23 of 60 smartphones by recommenders
Clean, lightly customized Android phone that many find good value. Critics say its hardware trails flagships and its security patches arrive months late.
Clean, lightly customized Android phone that many find good value. Critics say its hardware trails flagships and its security patches arrive months late.
21 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 12
- criticize it
- 9
- approval share
- 57%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 12 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Open, bare-bones software
“Nothing Phone comes probably the closest to bare bones at least what I have come across.”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “I Do Not Recommend Google Hardware” “Nothing already seems to be one of the most "open" devices today”
Comment from 16 Jul 2026 in “OnePlus halts operations in USA and Europe” Runs well and good value
“My Nothing Phone(3) is running pretty well with a sillicon-carbon battery”
Comment from 16 Jul 2026 in “OnePlus halts operations in USA and Europe” “lean style over performance, but in general I'm happy with the value”
Comment from 16 Jul 2026 in “OnePlus halts operations in USA and Europe”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Late custom ROM support
“Nothing phones had no LineageOS support until recently”
Comment from 25 Jan 2026 in “OnePlus update blocks downgrades and custom ROMs by blowing a fuse” “Nothing Phone 1 took ages to get LineageOS support”
Comment from 2 Feb 2026 in “OnePlus update blocks downgrades and custom ROMs by blowing a fuse” Price high for what it offers
“Even the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro is getting close to the price of an S26 here”
Comment from 16 Jul 2026 in “OnePlus halts operations in USA and Europe” “Not quite worth its high price”
Comment from 16 Jul 2026 in “OnePlus halts operations in USA and Europe”
Other smartphones people recommend
The four most recommended other smartphones, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple iPhone | 706 | 882 | 44% | 13 | 7 yrs107 owners | — |
| Fairphone | 168 | 107 | 61% | 13 | 3 yrs19 owners | — |
| Apple iPhone Pro | 144 | 155 | 48% | 12 | 4 yrs26 owners | — |
| iPhone 13 mini | 141 | 51 | 73% | 12 | 1.5 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| Nothing PhoneThis page | 12 | 9 | 57% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
21 of the 24 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“they want to sell you a 300$ pair of Bluetooth headphones that I can guarantee are inferior to my 70$ Fiio headphones”
“I bought their phone hoping they'd do this eventually, but I'm bit disappointed. The security patches are typically delivered with 3-6 months delay.”
“They seem good for what they are but not great.”
“lean style over performance, but in general I'm happy with the value”
“My Nothing Phone(3) is running pretty well with a sillicon-carbon battery”
“Nothing didn’t bother to support Verizon’s most important 4G band, it’s not blacklisted it just won’t work well outside of major cities.”
“Even the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro is getting close to the price of an S26 here”
“Nothing looks like a decent replacement for OnePlus for phones”
“Nothing already seems to be one of the most "open" devices today”
“Not quite worth its high price”
“they're generally weak hardware compared to a 9 Pro XL class device”
“the Nothing Phone behavior will work a lot better I think”
“The better UX would be to clear the that after the error which is effectively what the Nothing Phone is doing with the photo rotation”
“Fairphone and Nothing do not come anywhere close to meeting the criteria for GrapheneOS device support.”
“They started pushing lock screen ads.”
“Nothing Phone comes probably the closest to bare bones at least what I have come across.”
“Nothing, which uses clean Android as one of their selling points, started installing something similar”
“Nothing Phone 1 took ages to get LineageOS support”
“Nothing phones had no LineageOS support until recently”
“Primary missing feature which I've come to depend on, off screen gestures, is missing.”
“unimpressed with what Nothing is proposing, feels more like a design exercise than a flagship killer”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.