News

Nothing Phone (1) Is Here, And You Can Afford It

All models of the Phone (1) are available in black or white across more than 40 markets including Saudi Arabia, Israel, and United Arab Emirates.

Published

4 years ago

July 14, 2022

David Morelo

Nothing

A new contender in the smartphone arena is here, and its name is Phone (1). The company behind it, Nothing, was founded in 2020 by Carl Pei, after the Swedish entrepreneur left OnePlus, which he co-founded along with Pete Lau.

The Phone (1) is actually Nothing’s second product. The first was a pair of Teenage Engineering-designed wireless earbuds, called Ear (1).

nothing ear 1 earbuds

Just like the wireless earbuds before it, the Phone (1) attempts to grab the attention of consumers with an unusual design and better features than what its starting price of £399 (around $475 USD) would suggest.

The base model comes with 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage. It costs £50 to increase the amount of storage space to 256 GB, and £100 to also upgrade RAM to 12 GB. All models of the Phone (1) are available in black or white across more than 40 markets including Saudi Arabia, Israel, and United Arab Emirates.

The back of the smartphone features unique light strips that visually set it apart from all other devices on the market. But the light strip isn’t just about looks. For example, it indicates how full the battery is, and it can also flash to let you know that you have a new notification.

nothing phone 1 black and white

When looking at the rear side of the Phone (1), you’ll also notice two camera lenses: one standard and one ultrawide. Below both lenses are 50 MP sensors, and the main camera even has optical and electronic image stabilization (OIS and EIS), so you should be able to take sharp pictures even in low-light conditions.

nothing phone 1 camera setup

It’s worth noting that the ultrawide camera doubles as a macro camera because it can focus as close as 4 centimeters from an object.

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The front side of the Phone (1) houses a 6.55-inch 1080p OLED display that can reach up to 1,200 nits of peak brightness and a refresh rate of 120 Hz. The display has a small hole-punch cutout for the front-facing 16 MP selfie camera, and it integrates an in-display fingerprint sensor.

nothing os official screenshots

Powering the Phone (1) is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G Plus processor. While not as capable as Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, it should still keep the phone’s Android-based operating system, Nothing OS, running smoothly for a long time.

News

Lebanon Ministers Meet Visa Over National Digital Payment Platform

Finance and technology ministers say a comparative study and roadmap will follow before any decision on adopting a model.

Published

23 hours ago

May 5, 2026

Joanna Melki

lebanon ministers meet visa over national digital payment platform

Lebanon’s finance and technology ministers met representatives from Visa last week to discuss a proposed unified national digital payment platform for government services, according to a readout from the Ministry of Finance.

The meeting brought together Finance Minister Yassin Jaber, Minister of State for Technology and Artificial Intelligence Kamal Shehadeh, a Visa delegation, and experts from both ministries. Discussion focused on whether Lebanon could establish a single platform through which citizens and institutions would pay taxes, fees, fines and other official transactions electronically, using mobile phones and other digital channels.

The Visa delegation presented examples from countries that have adopted unified government payment platforms, including the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Estonia and Jordan. According to the readout, the examples were presented as having increased collection rates and expanded financial inclusion.

Talks covered settlement mechanisms, direct transfer to the treasury account, financial reconciliation, risk management, cybersecurity, fees, and an operational model that would involve the private sector. The parties agreed to continue technical and institutional consultations, prepare a comparative study, and develop an implementation roadmap before any decision on adopting a model for Lebanon.

Jaber said the Ministry of Finance had already enabled citizens to pay using credit cards and e-wallets through transfer companies, but described the proposed platform as a further step. He framed the development of electronic payment and collection systems as a priority within the ministry’s modernization plan.

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Shehadeh outlined the citizen-facing concept as a single mobile application through which users could settle obligations to ministries, government institutions and other bodies.

“The idea, in short, is that any citizen downloads an application on their mobile phone, through which they can pay all service obligations for all ministries, government institutions, or those owned by the Lebanese state, and others as well, as the platform is not limited only to state institutions,” he said.

Shehadeh added that the platform would not displace banks and money transfer companies that currently provide collection services to the state, calling it complementary to their work.