Nothing Phone 1 comes to US via $299 beta program

Nothing is finally giving people in the US a way to purchase its debut smartphone… sort of. After its CEO teased a “US launch” last month, the company has officially announced a new US-focused beta program. Customers can pay Nothing $299 and, in return, receive the black version of the smartphone with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage to test. At launch last year, the phone was only officially sold in European and Asian markets. 

This is far from a full US launch — and not just because the devices are being distributed to test Nothing’s beta Android 13 software. The company’s website cautions that the phone “may not work with all US carriers,” so it sounds like you shouldn’t expect to be able to rely on it for day-to-day usage.

5G is only supported on T-Mobile, while AT&T and Verizon subscribers will only be able to access up to 4G connectivity. Nothing adds that coverage on Verizon will be “very limited.”

That could eventually change, however, given Nothing CEO Carl Pei previously told CNBC that the company is “in discussions with some carriers in the U.S. to potentially launch a future product there.” He said the reason the company didn’t initially launch the phone in the US was because of the “additional technical support” needed to support the various networks in the country as well as the “unique customizations that [carriers] need to make on top of Android.”

“It’s definitely a market where there’s already a lot of interest for our products,” he said. “And if we launch our smartphones there, I’m sure we could obtain significant growth.”

According to Nothing’s website, the beta program will run until June 30th, although devices will not need to be returned after the beta period ends. Device shipping is expected to take five to seven days.