Nothing could be gearing up to launch a smartphone next year

OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei formed a startup called Nothing in late 2020, eventually dropping its first product in the form of true wireless earbuds earlier this year. The company also acquired Essential’s branding, suggesting that a phone could be in the works.

Now, frequent tipster Mukul Sharma and 91mobiles have reported that Nothing will indeed launch a smartphone in early 2022. The duo didn’t dish out any more details regarding the apparent phone, but Nothing’s previous announcements may have given us a few clues to go on.

For one, the company announced a partnership with Qualcomm earlier this week, saying it would use the Snapdragon series of chips to power “future tech products.” So it’s a safe bet that any future Nothing phone would use a Snapdragon chipset.

Nothing also confirmed earlier this year that it had acquired the Essential brand. It wasn’t clear whether patents related to design and technology were included the purchase though. But at the very least this deal leaves the door open for the use of the Essential name in future products.

Either way, the Nothing Ear 1 earbuds offered a neat design with a transparent charging case. So we wouldn’t rule out a future Nothing smartphone offering a transparent design of sorts too.

Otherwise, Sharma and 91mobiles claim that the company also plans to launch a power bank dubbed Nothing Power 1 ahead of the phone’s launch.

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