The Nothing phone (1) is available for order now, but if you’re in the US, you’re out of luck. But if you want your phone to look unique, skin and case maker Dbrand has announced its own range of cases and skins, “Something”, in typically edgy fashion.
“Someone can accuse us of stealing,” Dbrand writes on their product page. (will open in a new tab). “Here’s our answer: we didn’t steal anything,” the page continues, arguing that the company is “uniquely qualified to rip off industrial design aesthetics and “creatively rethink it” for other devices.”
At the time of writing, these are just three devices: Pixel 6 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. But the site invites potential buyers to leave their request by phone if it is not on the list.
Each one shows what the insides of the phone look like under the surface, and in the case of the S22 Ultra, you can even see the S-Pen rendered in cross section. Although, of course, this is just a picture of the insides: physically undock the S-Pen, and it will still be on the case.
However, sketchiness of the proposal aside, this could offer the best of both worlds given the limitations of the simulated phone. In our Nothing Phone (1) review, we praised the unique design but weren’t thrilled with either the overall performance or the camera image quality. Whatever you say about the three phones that Dbrand currently supports, none of them suffer from these particular bugs.
Of course, the unique design of Nothing Phone (1) was created not only to catch the admiring glances of passers-by. It also has a very useful feature: glyphs – white LED strips located around components – light up in a pattern to give you notification information without having to look at the screen. The flashing pattern can be customized for each contact, and it even works as a charging indicator or Google Assistant. As we said in our review, this is more than a hack.
It can’t compare to Dbrand, and there’s also an open question as to whether Nothing agrees with the company’s legal defenses. Though it’s worth noting that the last company to argue with Dbrand was Sony over unlicensed PS5 tablets. While Dbrand initially withdrew their Darkplates, they resurfaced with enough changes to avoid legal action. At the time of writing, Darkplates 2.0 was still available for purchase.
“We may be in a maximum security prison by the end of the year, but at least your PlayStation 5 will have an undeniably original design,” the official page says. (will open in a new tab).
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