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.

Also Read: DDoS Attacks Are A Growing Threat In Gaming

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

Microsoft Plans $10 Billion-Plus Gulf Expansion Despite Iran Conflict

Security is shaping Microsoft’s approach, from resilience work with governments to what it will say about how the money splits by country.

Published

4 days ago

September 24, 2026

Nour Nasir

Microsoft

Microsoft is planning more than $10 billion of investment across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait through 2030, Vice Chair and President Brad Smith told Reuters, calling the spending schedule aggressive. The Iranian conflict that began on February 28 has not persuaded the company to scale back.

“We’re sustaining all the investments we planned to make before this conflict started, and we are in fact adding to them,” Smith said. The $10 billion-plus total does not, however, show how large those additions are.

The investment, which Smith described as part of Microsoft’s continued infrastructure expansion, is aimed at cloud and AI infrastructure and at the company’s growing regional operations. Microsoft also intends to put more than $400 million into subsea and terrestrial connectivity across the Middle East by 2030.

The spending fits the region’s own ambitions too. Gulf governments have been investing heavily in AI infrastructure as part of a push to diversify their economies beyond oil and gas and turn themselves into global technology hubs. Major cloud and AI providers have been drawn in part by the land and relatively low-cost energy on offer.

Microsoft is widening its partnerships with regional AI companies, though not on identical terms. In 2024, it invested $1.5 billion in Abu Dhabi-based G42 for a minority stake, and Smith currently sits on G42’s board. Saudi Arabia’s Humain and Qatar’s Qai are working with Microsoft on selected priority areas, but Smith said the company does not plan to make capital investments in either.

Also Read: Egypt’s Mobile Wallets Are Booming, But Cash Still Has Power

The conflict has added another strand to Microsoft’s work in the region. Since it began, Smith said, the company has supported regional partners with digital resilience assessments, and it is now working with Gulf countries through a digital resilience initiative focused on preparedness and the protection of critical data.

So far, the company has given no country-by-country breakdown of the investment, citing security among other factors. So while the headline figure is public, how Microsoft divides the spending among the four countries is not.