Nothing OS is Painful.

Malix

For context, I am a software engineer, used plenty Android smartphone in the past, and I’m generally considered a tech savvy

I am an early adopter of Nothing Phone (1) and Nothing Ear (1)

For my taste, I find the Nothing Phone (1) and (2) to simply be the most beautiful smartphones that has ever been sold (hardware and software).

Nothing Phone (1) had the best hardware/price ratio at release

However, the software (Nothing OS) is one of the most buggy I’ve used

Here is a list of the things I’m not satisfied with, coming from my prior general Android use
In no particular order: Xiaomi, Redmi, Samsung, Pixel, Poco, One Plus

Some of those issues are happening with other Android phones and version, but I’ll put them anyway

Those are my Nothing OS negative feedbacks on the Nothing Phone (1)

Bad camera third-party use performance (generally slow and makes bad looking videos and photos outside of the native camera app)
Bad camera app performance (clicking early on the capture button sometimes make the photo be displayed in the gallery preview at the bottom, but you realize soon after it was not saved and you lost those memory footage forever)
WhatsApp picture random performance (usually slow, sometimes just not responding and needing an app reboot after capture)
Instagram stories bad performance (making very low-fps and poor looking videos and photos ; random decrease if any process is running in background)
Capricious fingerprint sensor
Passkeys broken and unusable since 2.5.4 A (it’s been a few months since they told me the devs will be releasing the fix in the next update; it was, in fact, not fixed in the next update, and still not fixed as of the date I’m posting this)
Battery random over-discharge (hard to know from which background app / process it comes from ; though battery saver under 10% battery is very performant with no big drawback)
Buggy native screen modes (Night light / Extra dim / bedtime mode), although seems to be fixed since 2.5.4 A
Sometimes buggy media control above the notification center (sometimes slow, causing double click, showing multiple media from long-ago closed apps)
Bad multiple-word text selector behaviors (feels way too slow and sometimes scroll at the same time ; options sometimes disappear after selection, really annoying. Also the zoom display is too small and sometimes doesn’t disappear after use, it actually happened right now as I tested it)
Random “charge steadily overnight” activation (sometimes work, sometimes the phone is already at 100% in the middle of the night)
Gliph interface innovations has been abandoned for the NP1, should have known it was a gimmick I guess
Heating when calling with VoIP by mobile data or video, specifically Discord and WhatsApp (common for unoptimized android phones)
Native (android) UI reactiveness is not good enough and pretty underwhelming compared to hardware specs (opening notifications, switching apps from swipe on bottom button)
Trash-tier Bluetooth Calling Mode sound and microphone (I made a post a long time ago about that). That is a general Android problem but I think can be overriden with a layer such as Nothing OS.
Personal feeling of abandonment since Nothing Phone (2) release

The general software really doesn’t feel like it has been optimized enough
In my experience, an old pixel phone with undeniably worse hardware specs feels more performant for day-to-day tasks

That’s a pity because I trusted them as an early adopter, and them ignoring those issues when I reported them and under-delivered their fix promises will make me rethink buying from Nothing again

I made a post about the abandonment feeling

MadOne

Malix since you are a software engineer I have a question for you. I play Efootball2024. It was running perfectly well without any heating at all at highest settings. After 2.5, 2.6 updates it heats up quickly and starts dropping frames. While other games like COD Mobile run perfectly. What could be the reason? I have reset the device multiple times but still no solution.

CelestialColosseum

I’m also a NP1 user, the software is more buggy than expected.

After the last update essential glyphs just straight up don’t work and i don’t know if i have notifications or not. The lights light up and turn off, they were staying on before the update. Sometimes the screen doesn’t even wake up on notifications.

Today my alarm did not ring until i woke up the screen, this was 1 minute after the set time.

Color correction settings do not apply to lock screen or fingerprint verification screen. My lock screen is too yellow, because i got a yellowish panel. (this is most likely an Android restriction though)

Changing color theme does not update parts of the ui so half of it stays as the previous color scheme until i restart the phone.

My wallpaper sometimes resets on its own to default dark wallpaper for no reason.

My notifications are always muted and vibration is turned off but everyday i get about 1-2 ghost notifications that vibrate and play a sound. No actual notification in the notification history as well. It doesn’t show up, just random jumpscares.

There are some features that are frustrating as well, like if i want to end a procrss running in the background it’s 2 swipes from up to down, then tap bottom left, wait for opening animation end the task, wait for the closing animation, then swipe up again. The animations in between are taking so long for no reason. It is cumbersome.

Don’t know what kind of sphagetti code is running on this OS but this is starting to get frustrating. I was gonna upgrade to the next upcoming nothing phone but if google pixel comes to my country i am thinking of moving on until this OS has a serious overhaul. Also as a NP1 user i feel neglected, yeah we get niche additions but nothing really fresh or worthwhile. How about we get actual themes so we are not locked into the red, grey, white theme? Customization is lackluster, both visually and technically.

As a NP1 and Ear 2 user it seems like i’ll move on if this is how it will go. I created like 3-4 bug reports at least and mailed back and forth, feeling like a beta tester. Got no fixes either…

There are a lot of good things as well but i can’t enjoy them while dealing with what i described above.

Tejas_01

Congratulations on being an early adopter and being a tester for the company.

As the old saying goes, never purchase a first release from any company. It is bound to be buggy since the company is in the learning stages wrt everything, hardware, software. Frankly, NP1/NOS for NP1 was a pre-sale device. The phone 2 was an actual NP1 in a true sense since they got to understand the issues plaguing their software, hardware in NP1 and then not committing the same mistake.

It happens with all the companies. You trusted them and they failed to deliver. What were you expecting?

I am not trolling or anything. I understand the frustration. But we can move on and let this company mature enough in 5-8 years and then see if Nothing is still a brand worth considering or have they already closed down!

darkseid

The company don’t even care about customers they just drop some features updates that no one use and for fixing the issue that users face they don’t care

MuhammadZiyad

I second this (software engineer and have a NP1) .

I put my trust in Carl since I had a good expirence with OnePlus. but this one has made me avoid buying very first products of any company.

Anyways it’s becoming almost 2 years I’ll probabaly stick to this phone for one more year and then dump it and get a samsusng galaxy or an iphone as my next one. I’m really tired of unfinshed products.

Wolverine

MuhammadZiyad nothing phones and earbuds are unfinished products, I pity the people who keep on buying them just because there is too much of hype for them.

The camera on nothing phone 1 is horrible and if you say this in the community, the moderators hide your posts and/or give you a warning.

Axd_WZ2Sc4QZiQ

I regret buying my NP2. Everything is below my expectations.

[deleted]

Nothing phone doesn’t give update on camera stability and monthly security patch

Malix

Hello again guys.

Today, it’s been a year since the passkey issue has been reported (multiple times)

Still not fixed

RavishKumar

Wolverine you are write bro, nothing focus only currently lunched product and no proper testing before software update.

mNothing

What’s stopping you from installing custom roms? Don’t expect any forum support from here.

Malix

mNothing the point is that replacing the official custom device’s operating system should not be a requirement to use it properly.

HariSankarD

I’m waiting for NOS 3.0 if it sucks, custom rom it is. And next phone is prolly not gonna be nothing. Came for a great experience but both the software and camera (NP2) reallyyyyy disappointed me. They were comparing themselves to iPhones and samsungs of the world and hyped up so much and gave “Nothing” in return. Ah, the irony.

RavishKumar

HariSankarD If I identify a software issue, some community members blame me and suggest that I change my phone.

HariSankarD

RavishKumar just voice your problems, there’ll always be blind fan boys that hate on criticisms

M1st

No OS/Company is perfect, my experience with:

Samsung A30s (OneUI) - too much bloatware in the UI. The RAM management is crap and its a pain to use it as a daily driver cause duh, nothing uninstalls! Smasnug Pay for no reason, Smasnug health, Smasnug Max(what in the world is this) and more BS!

Redmi Note 10 Pro Max (MIUI) - My phone is dead because of a single update. It was a disaster because I wasn’t alone. Plus the ads in the UI along with the bloatware.

iPhone 13 (IOS) - No multitasking, bad for audiophiles(no Hi-Res along with a good equaliser), No AOD, very poor customisation plus everything on the screen feels very crowded(my opinion)!

Phone 2 (NOS) - bad RAM management, terrible battery after most of the updates, still lacks feature it should have had from the start.

I don’t blame though, the battery was terrible everywhere (except iPhone or so I thought but turns out, the idle drain was off charts because the numbers barely moved infront of me) but not as bad as NOS! There is no bloatware too. NOS just needs some work, lets see what 3.0 puts on the table!

RavishKumar

M1st brother I like Nothing ui but after Android 14 update many problems occurs.

vovan-v

M1st try NP2a the battery life is great and RAM managment too.

But no UI is perfect pixel phones has a lot bugs too becouse a lot of updates.

M1st

vovan-v I know its great cause my friend owns it! I am happy with my Phone (2) and my opinion was based on the facts people complain about so it would be neutral, but if you ask me. NOS is the best stock ROM i’ve ever used!

@RavishKumar exactly, The UI got decent after 2.5.0 but it arrived with a cost! Last A13 update was Phone (2)'s peak, but people still had problems back then!

Nicky0078

vovan-v Hi ! I have a Pixel 6a and this is true …Not counting the rather disappointing quality of materials and workmanship - the display stopped working from the slightest drop and that too in a case…

So far NP2a, I really like it.

mNothing

Malix May be you are not used to it. Your points are correct but I knew what I was paying for and pretty happy with it. Ever growing electronics world you can’t expect much updates on any product of what it was from day 1. I love XDA in that matter and devs keeping older devices alive.

Mayankray

MadOne every game is different because they made on different engine (unity/unreal.etc) . And you face heating issue since the latest update that’s mean it’s os problem that is not optimized for that game Or games that made on particular engine