Nothing CEO Carl Pei used a Friday Reddit session on r/NothingTech to address questions he usually sidesteps, conceding that the Nothing Phone (3) design may have changed too quickly, confirming that prices are still climbing and telling Phone (2) owners something they did not want to hear.
To prove the session was genuine, Pei posted a photograph of himself holding a handwritten sign showing the date and time. The thread gathered 745 upvotes and 967 comments before being locked to new replies.
Carl Pei addresses the Glyph and design criticism
Many of the sharper questions focused on a single theme. One user asked why the Glyph had shrunk from covering the whole rear of the device to a corner, and noted that nearly every Nothing model now looks similar. Pei did not defend the change, replying that the company may have moved too quickly. That answer drew 172 upvotes, more than any other reply in the thread.
He struck a similar note with a former Phone (1) owner who had switched to Samsung, saying he had recently asked the team to return to the spirit that defined the company in that earlier era.
Why Nothing OS 5.0 became the sticking point
Design was not the only area where Pei gave ground. He agreed that the semi-forced app installs introduced with Nothing OS 4.0 should be scaled back, said the green tint and black crush issue on the Phone (3) had reached the last board meeting and should be tackled soon, and confirmed that Essential Search had been deprioritised because Google can handle that task more effectively with Gemini.
The response still circulating two days later concerned software support rather than design. Asked why the Nothing Phone (2) is being excluded from Nothing OS 5.0, Pei explained that its kernel is too old and that Android 17 will not be supported by the chipset vendor. He added that the handset shipped with a commitment of three major updates and received them, with security patches running to 2027, and said he considered that delivery fair.
The reasoning did not settle the debate. The comment Pei was replying to argued that the Phone (2) remains Nothing’s second flagship with a still-capable processor, and it sat at 86 upvotes against his 121, indicating a split reaction rather than agreement. The post had passed 5,000 views by Sunday morning. Nothing’s own rollout page confirms that the Phone (1), Phone (2) and CMF Phone 1 have all reached the end of major software support.
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Image: phonearena.com
