Good for Nothing: Phone 1’s stable Android 13 release is starting to arrive

As spotted by XDA-Developers, Nothing is starting to release its first major OS upgrade for its very first mobile device: Phone 1. Remember the phone that goes blink blink blink? That one. Its Android 13 skin, Nothing OS 1.5, has been in beta testing since late 2022. Now, beta testers are reporting on Reddit and Discord that the stable version has arrived in the form of Nothing OS 1.5.2.

There’s a long list of improvements in Nothing’s release notes for the beta, like a Nothing-ified weather app with the company’s signature dot-matrix UI styling. There are other expected Android 13 updates included, including a QR code scanner in the quick settings menu and privacy updates for the photo picker.

But the single upgrade that Phone 1 owners are likely most looking forward to is improved app loading speeds: specifically, Nothing claims apps open up to 50 percent faster. That could be the result of a shift from external to in-house developers — CEO Carl Pei told Android Authority that since the Phone 1’s launch, the company staffed up its own engineering team. Switching from the externally developed codebase allowed them to make the system “smoother and more stable.”

If you’re a Phone 1 owner eager to check out the new updates but weren’t part of the beta program, it looks like you’ll have to keep waiting just a little while longer. Devices running the previous stable release don’t seem to be part of this first wave of updates — that’s the case with my review unit, too.

It’ll come not a moment too soon; Android 14 beta testing is underway.