Released in July 2022, Nothing Phone (1) has just received its first major update to Android 13. A stable version that greatly improves battery life, but is not yet available for everyone.
Announced in December for January 2023, the Nothing Phone (1) update to Android 13 will finally have waited another month before starting to roll out. Several users of the Reddit social network reported receiving the update on Thursday, February 16. This is the first of three major updates promised by the manufacturer.
However, the extra work time on this version seems to have been worth it: according to Nothing, battery consumption has improved a lot.
A better battery, thanks to better equipment
This version 1.5.2 of Nothing OS therefore follows two beta versions of Android 13 on Nothing Phone (1). If the first version had been characterized in particular by a halved application loading speed, it is the battery consumption at rest that has been improved this time by 50%. At the beginning of January, the second beta was already noticing an improvement in battery life.
An optimization job that seems to make the founder of the brand proud, Carl Pei, who congratulated the team dedicated to Nothing OS on Twitter, on Tuesday, February 14. Two days later, he justified this drastic battery improvement by the fact that he now relied on an in-house Nothing team for his software, which was not the case when the phone came out (1).
Big difference now, having our own team that previously co-delivered Oxygen OS vs. an outsourced team that doesn’t really care about the success or failure of our company.
— Carl Pei (@getpeid) February 16, 2023
Welcome customization options
Among the other improvements since December, we can also note a slight acceleration of the fingerprint unlock speed and the improvement of the automatic brightness algorithm.
But most of all, while we noticed a lack of customization during our long-term testing of the phone (1), the Nothing OS 1.5.2 update also brings several customization options: new tones created to sound in time with the light patterns on the back of the phone, new app shortcuts on the lock screen, and more minimalist wallpapers.
A month late, the app also brings the January 2023 Android security update.
Official release… for open beta members
If this version marks the official release of Android 13 on Nothing Phone (1), the brand, however, is playing with caution by limiting its access to open beta members for now, “as a thank you for participatingclarifies the patch notes.
If you are one of the lucky ones, you can install Android 13 through the “Upgrade systemin phone settings. For others, the update will roll out gradually over the next few weeks, subject to no major bugs being discovered.
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