The best new tech heading your way 

1 NOTHING PHONE (1)

• £399, nothing.tech

It’s not hard to follow the thread from OnePlus to Nothing. Indeed, OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei is in charge here, and there’s a definite parallel between the launch strategy that put OnePlus on the map and the trickle-down reveal that preceded the Nothing Phone (1). But while OnePlus’ emergence essentially kickstarted the mid-range, Nothing enters a market already full of excellent £400 phones.

Thus it does something different. The specs aren’t altogether bad, but like the striking Nothing Ear(1) true wireless buds before it and unlike just about every other generic middleground Android handset, this is a phone built with design first. Nothing and design partner Teenage Engineering have absolutely succeeded on that front: you’ll know the Phone (1) when you see it.

The clever clear rear is the Phone (1)’s most eye-catching element, revealing an intricately laid-out, textured and tidy selection of components beneath, and allowing the 900 white LEDs surrounding those components to display what Nothing calls glyphs. These are glanceable notifications, app-specific and customisable and (while they’re of limited usefulness if it’s in your pocket) they’re very cool indeed.

And that’s the Phone (1)’s killer feature in a nutshell: this is the coolest phone we’ve seen in a long time. It feels like a bold and ballsy middle finger to its staid competition, and one which brings that exciting design to a price that’ll get it in people’s pockets in no time at all. A masterful debut.