Week in Review: Nothing's debut phone is actually quite something
Plus: MacBook Air M2 review, and a mind-blowing trip into the history of the universe | Prime Day just didn't feel like the real deal | What was your approach to Amazon Prime Day?
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Welcome to another Week in Review – and it’s going to be a slightly different one this week. We’ve been deep in Amazon Prime Day content this week, with finding the best deals for you, lovely readers, our total focus.
We see an almost 100% increase in traffic to our top reviews and buying guides around this time, as people look for ideas of what to buy, and for validation of their choices – and given that our raison d'être is helping our readers buy the tech they love, the effort becomes all-consuming.
Prime Day affects the technology news cycle too (and Black Friday even more so); where our feeds are usually full of morsels about new Nvidia GPUs, iPhone rumors, and the launch of new headphones, this week it was relatively quiet. As a result, today’s newsletter is going to be shorter on the news – but do keep an eye out for a couple of pretty glowing reviews.
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There were plenty of Prime Day deals up for grabs, but not many great ones (Future)
I’ve been covering Prime Day for years now, and this year was one of the least interesting to my mind – even though Amazon claimed that “Prime Day 2022 was the biggest Prime Day event ever” in its press release.
The online retail giant claimed that more Amazon Devices – Echo speakers, Fire TV Sticks, Blink cameras and Ring video doorbells – were sold than ever before, even though the discounts on them were pretty much the same as ever.
And while there were some standout bargains, such as the Apple Watch 7 for $279, or a new iPad 10.2 for $299 / £299, these were few and far between. Many other products were advertised as being at “close to their lowest ever price” or similar… and that tells me something.
I think Black Friday is shaping up to be a real deals bonanza this year. The supply issues that have plagued the supply chain are slowly starting to be untangled, and with consumers getting a better sense of the economic situation they’re facing, I expect to see some seriously good savings up for grabs.
This year, I bought a laptop because I had to – my current one was no longer fit for purpose – but I still wondered if I could hold out until November, and score a better bargain.
Amazon Prime Day may have been a bigger hit than I thought it would be, but I still get the sense that, outside of Amazon’s own devices at least, the genuine deals just weren’t there.
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A composite image of the Cosmic Cliffs in the Carina Nebula, created with the James Webb telescope's NIRCam and MIRI instruments (NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI)
Wait… the science spot is the second story this week? Well I did say this week’s newsletter was going to be slightly different – and I simply couldn’t put the amazing pictures captured by the James Webb space telescope last in this newsletter. They’re absolutely mesmerizing.
The NASA telescope is the successor to the Hubble telescope, and was launched on Christmas Day last year, on a mission to study the earliest stars and peer back farther into our universe's past than ever before.
Writing at Space.com about the, ahem, star attraction – a stunningly clear and detailed new image of the Carina Nebula, Meghan Bartels explains that it’s “a massive cloud of dust and gas located about 7,500 light-years away from Earth where stars are both forming and dying. And JWST's [the James Webb telescope] view of the nebula, which combines near-infrared and mid-infrared light, offers a whole new look at its activity.”
Just go and scroll through the gallery of photos. I can’t believe that these are real pictures, and not something dreamed up by a gifted but slightly off-the-rails artist. They’re just incredible, and they remind us just how tiny we are in this vast universe.
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Okay, that headline might be a little strong – but I expected the Apple MacBook Air 2022, packing the super-powerful new M2 chip inside, to be an absolute world-beater.
A new, even-thinner frame, improved speakers, a long-lasting battery… surely it’s a hit? Well, those upgrades are certainly welcome, but the increased price, plus the presence of the M1 MacBook Air on the market – which is considerably cheaper and still offers excellent performance despite its age – makes the new version a bit of a tough sell.
Matt Hanson does a superb job of walking us through the new Air – so if you are tempted, go and check out his review.
Iman Vellani stars as Kamala Khan in Ms Marvel (Marvel Studios)
I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the new Ms. Marvel TV show, with its story of a young Muslim girl discovering incredible superpowers. It’s a well-written story, with beautiful visuals that celebrate diverse cultures across the globe – as Tom Power says in his review, it’s “inventive in its cinematography and tonality”, and “isn’t afraid to tackle difficult subject matter”.
You really should make time to watch this 6-parter – and then you can read Tom’s spoiler-heavy piece on the big reveal at the end. I was so enthralled in the finale that I sat on a station platform for a long time after my train arrived to watch it all, then I spent about another 15 minutes devouring said article, as there’s so much to think about… but I don’t want to spoil it either, so I’ll stop there.
I really enjoyed the first ‘big’ review from our talented new Senior Phones Editor, Alex Walker-Todd. He’s dissected the new Nothing Phone 1, and he really got to the heart of this intriguing new handset.
The big selling point of this phone is the cost: it’s only £399 (US pricing and availability is due to be announced soon), and while it has a relatively low-powered Snapdragon 700-Series chipset at the heart, that’s still a decent price.
The main selling point is the transparent rear, festooned with LEDs; this looks like a phone for the Tron generation, which makes the lack of high-end specs more perplexing. That said, we have plenty of more conventional flagship phones to choose from – and Nothing’s creator, Carl Pei (he of OnePlus fame), knows that particular market is crowded, and difficult to break into.
I certainly think Nothing has a future as a brand (despite having a frankly stupid name) if it can get things right. The Nothing Phone 1 is a promising first step, but Pei and co need to further refine the interface, and deliver on their promises of a radical combination of pricing and performance; let’s see if enough people go for the Phone 1 to create the momentum the company can build on.
This is from the editor
Thanks for reading this week’s slightly truncated newsletter – it would have been even shorter but for the two big reviews that landed. I’ve seriously thought about buying both the new MacBook Air and the Nothing Phone 1 – and I still may be tempted by the latter – but, as I said, I think November, and Black Friday, is going to be the time to pick up those big tech purchases.
As ever, please email me with your thoughts, remembering to include 'NEWSLETTER' in the subject line, and do subscribe to this newsletter if you haven't already, and encourage others to do likewise.
Until next week!
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