Nothing clarifies why it reduced the Phone 1’s brightness and future steps

Recently, Nothing found itself in a bit of controversy after it was discovered its Phone 1 didn’t meet the brightness specifications described in its original advertising. The company has now sent an official comment about the Phone 1’s brightness to Android Authority.

In the statement provided by Nothing, the company mentions:

The hardware is capable of reaching up to 1,200 nits peak brightness, but this is currently capped by the software to 700 nits. This decision was made to ensure a balanced user experience regarding heat and battery consumption. We look forward to hearing from our users about this and will monitor feedback closely to understand if this should be addressed in future software updates.

In materials provided to Android Authority, it was explained to us that 0-500 nits is considered the normal range for the Phone 1 and 500 nits can be achieved in usual conditions. However, the 500-700 high brightness range will only trigger when the auto-brightness mode is enabled and the phone is under strong light. The 700-1,200 range is meant to be a special mode that is currently unavailable due to software limitations, for now.

While the comment clarifies why the London-based company chose to limit the brightness — despite the hardware being capable of more — it doesn’t necessarily explain why it chose to initially use the 1,200 nit measurement in its marketing.