Hey Community!
Love it or Hate it, Nothing's latest device, The Phone 3 has made quite the stir! Yes, the hotly expected sequel to the Phone 2 launched a short while ago and I managed to get down to the traditional 100 drops at the Nothing Store, in SOHO London to see what all the fuss online was about!
FRIDAY
It all started with Discord; the laughs, the memes, the tears of joy and of sadness and a regular fun bantered conversation about the Phone 3 and the upcoming drop. People were asking me, was I going, and I was like, well yeah sure. They told me to come around 8ish and I was like, bro I'm sleeping! Suddenly word got out that @Allelujah was already there chilling in his chair a whole day before! Like dominoes, some of the group started to fall and took his lead and started heading down to the store.
"I'm getting the train, gonna be there at 2am, come down"
"I'm there, 6th position, yeah! come-on man"
They were edging me on to come on down early and camp the night away. I must admit, as tempting as it was to have a camp out, the thought of sharing space with the drunks, pimps and dealers wasn't too appealing. Plus, I was tired from a previous engagement. I told the crew I'd bail, but would try to get there earlier on Saturday. Mad props to @Selin , @Billy , @Butters and the others though who braved the night away - next time let's get some marshmellows and make smores.
SATURDAY
I got up early! 5am for me, that's damn early. I had a quick cuppa, packed my backpack with some essentials 😉 like water, a power bank, etc, and left the house about 6am. Door to door it would take me about an hour, not too bad and the morning was refreshingly cool too.
I skipped breakfast in my rush to get out early and hook up with the rest of the community and score a place in the queue, so I took a pit-stop on the way at McDonald's first. Figured, I'd need the food and a coffee to keep me going through the day until the start of the drops.
I rocked to the Nothing Store around 7.15am or 7.30am - which I think is the earliest I've ever been to an event before! When I got there there was already a queue of 20ish people, blimey! People were pretty chilled and relaxed though and I joined at the back of the line, right on the corner.
https://x.com/torharrington/status/1943921083687608831
Yep! I was literally on the corner where the comic shop is and for some reason the pavement gave me Glyph Matrix Vibes. I just imagined the curve of the pavement was the curve of the phone and that hole was the Glyph Matrix. Can you see it?
I put my backpack down, surveyed the landscape so to speak and settled in for the day. However, it was a long wait and that's really boring! I let my bag stand-in for myself to keep my place in the queue and started to talk to the chap behind me and make conversation. Time goes by quickly when you are engaged with people at this things.
I then went up to the front to say hi to @Allelujah and @Selinspace plus others like Raya (on Discord) who was here down from Scotland.
It was great to break the ice, say hi and chat about various things. @Selin even taught me how there is symmetry in the Phone 3 based on circles in the top row! I didn't get it at first, but when she explained it, it all made sense, fantastic! I also kinda starting seeing this Kirby-esque face too, where the 2 camera lenses are; like eyes and the red recording light? a mouth or maybe a tongue 😝.
I went up and down the line, checking the length and counting numbers, 20 went to 30, 30 went 40, and so one. Just before the store opened, I counted well into the 70's of people. That's a great turnout, considering some drops have been quiet.
"if you build it, they will come" - Field of Dreams
And came they did, for Lobster! no less. I tell ya, I was tempted to either dress up as a lobster or get a lobster hat or somethingm, sadly was too short notice. It would have be hilarious though wouldn't it, seeing this giant Lobster checking out the Phone 3!
All this chat made the hours go by like minutes and as the line grew, I tried to be the best 'host' I could be and welcoming people. Perhaps I was mad, as I ran up the queue trying to high-five people, but some people returned the favour and I think it lightened the mood.
This was my attempt to capture the line using a Panoramic shot, not the best, but gives you a sense of the line. It was definitely growing.
10:00AM
At around an hour to opening, staff and agency people started turning up at the store. The first was the store manager, I presume (they seem to rotate staff every time I visit) who clued us in on the happenings for the day. Later some other staff arrived and the store was buzzing with activity as they went about preparing things for the opening.
It was amusing that there was one person, probably temp agency staff, who rocked up to the event wearing AirPods Max, at a store selling their newly launched headphones! haha - he was also causing some chaos with traffic I heard too.
Speaking of Headphones, there was a big advert in the back of the store for Headphone (1)
As the team were setting things up inside, we got our first glimpse of the promotional T-Shirt? It has the number 3 on the glyph matrix on the back and the Nothing logo on the front.
Not long now!
11:00AM
Just before opening the store, the marketing team were making some vids and asked the queue to yell and scream and all that, to show enthusiasm. We started out strong on our side, but it kinda died off around the corner haha. They also offered us a 3rd scratch card for participating, great! more chances for prizes!
People started going in slowly and it was my turn. I was finally inside, but it was kinda crowded. The Nothing Store, honestly, is kinda small for these things really. Anyway, it seemed to be a case of people making a beeline to the till, buying the phone and securing headphones and waiting in a queue again to go downstairs.
I wanted to buy the phone, but I made a promise to the missus not to, so I gave up my spot for the 101th person in the line. I did wait to go downstairs though and see what was happening there. People in the line who bought the devices were given these cool tokens!
What were they for though?
Well downstairs, as mentioned, was a cool factory setup. On one side was the conveyor belt with products going around and around. At the front was a kind of space tunnel with a coin slot and another chute.
You would put your coins into the coin slot, which let the poor staff behind the facade pick the right items for you and pass them through the space tunnel. The chute was used to pass you the freebies. I felt a bit sorry for the staff, running in the back trying to pluck all the stuff and remember it all. It reminded me of some sort of comedy sketch. Very chaotic indeed!
This was also the area where the scratch cards were too. I managed to get 3, 1 for being in the line, 1 for sharing on socials, and 1 for just my enthusiasim for the video I mentioned earlier. Each card had 3 chances to win something from Nothing. I scratched the first card, and I got - a tote bag! The next card got me, another tote-bag and some badges and the 3rd card a t-shirt. Sadly, I didn't win free Nothing for 3 years - curses!. Oh well, I took my freebies and headed upstairs to check out the phone.
Putting all the controversy about the design aside, I didn't mind the phone. I will be real, I didn't hate the design, nor would I say I love it. After seeing some photos of the matrix online, I was worried it was 'yellow' again, but thankfully it wasn't the case in real life. I still feel the corners are too rounded still and I miss the the curved glass that the Phone 2 had.
Thinking about the design; I have heard of people seeing Phone 1 and Phone 2 as an iPhone or Apple product. I believe the design of Phone 3 is probably by design to truly make it unique and say hey I AM NOTHING! and make that statement, this isn't your parents iPhone as they say.
wahoo, yaaaa, yesss
There was some commotion from downstairs, what was going on? Maybe Carl or Akis had popped out of the factory or something in a surprise move! Ah, no, someone won the 1st of the 3, Nothing for 3 years prizes! Congratulations!
They had the Headphones (1) on display too, but they seemed to be de-emphasized compared to the phone and were tucked away in the back on the side, blink and you miss them.
I really liked the build of the headphones and loved the controls. There is something to be said for physical buttons and controls that do one thing and one thing well. Touch can be handy, but always seems to misfire with controls. The scroller nice and the paddle too, great stuff. I would have bought a pair, but they only available in the bundle offer sadly.
As I was checking the phone and trying to take some photos, I spotted our current CBO and community regular @adbo and wandered over to say hi and catch-up.
THAT's ALL FOLKS
It was getting on for lunch time now and I was rather tired and decided to leave for the day with my goodies in tow. I'm happy I went despite the long day as it was a great chance to meet some community folks I've been chatting with on Discord and to just have a laugh and to be part of the event. I also enjoyed just trying to meet people and engage with the crowd at large, doing my best to get them excited haha, Mr MC Nothing I was.
I do feel though that the drop this time was just missing something perhaps. There were no drinks or ice-cream, Nothing really. There was also not much inside either. I guess they had the big launch at Magazine (which I missed sadly) so perhaps they toned things down budget wise for the store drop. Aside from @adbo , I was surprised not to see @Rob ⚡️ or @Natalie ✨ there either, unless they popped down in the afternoon when I had left already.
I kinda wish for the future, as Nothing grows, they start having events at perhaps a larger venue than the store. The store just feels too small and I feel it doesn't lend itself to really making friends, chatting and hanging out. The space is designed to get in, buy, get out, and it would have been nice for something more. Hopefully in the future. This was the Flagship phone drop and the 2a drops were more fun with the t-shirt painting, ice-cream, etc.
SWAG BAG
I managed to get a t-shirt, but they never fit me, honestly they need bigger sizes than L, haha, a 2XL at a minimum, sadly this is why I never get too excited by these. I wish companies would realise that not all the people in the world are at a max, an L!. I also got a couple of the Nothing tote bags, which are nice, some matrix stickers and the badges.
The badges (pins) surprised me, since they are exactly the idea I had in mind when I put forward my Ear Pin community project 2 years ago. iykyk so I will take the win on that haha , perhaps I did inspire someone somewhere at Nothing afterall. A nice little collection and here's to more in the future.
Until next time!
Stay Glyphy
