‘There’s no new flagship this year’: Nothing CEO Carl Pei gives us a bold taste of the future by killing off the Phone 4 to focus on a mid-range ‘evolution’.

• Nothing CEO said there won’t be a Phone 4 this year
• This is apparently to ensure that the next flagship feels like a significant upgrade.
• There will, however, be a Nothing Phone 4a

Following his refreshingly frank assertion that phones – including Nothing’s devices – will get more expensive this year, the company’s CEO is back with more potentially bad news.

In a video on the company’s YouTube channel, Nothing CEO Carl Pei said the company would not launch the Nothing Phone 4 this year – in other words, there would be no new flagship model in 2026.

Pei explained that “we’re not just going to produce a flagship phone every year just for the sake of it,” adding that “we want every upgrade to be meaningful.”

It’s a refreshing stance, although some Nothing fans might be disappointed. But the annual upgrade cycle we see in most smartphone industries doesn’t always lead to exciting new devices every year – often, upgrades are little more than a marginal increase in specs.

So by having less frequent upgrades on a less predictable schedule, Nothing could make the flagship products it releases more exciting.

Of course, if you wanted to be cynical, you could suggest that the company might be running out of ideas – which could be a problem, especially when it’s still aiming for its products to stand out. And perhaps rising RAM prices are also a factor, as they could make a Phone 4 prohibitively expensive.

A different approach

But this is just speculation, and it is credible that Pei’s explanation is the main reason for the lack of a flagship this year. After all, as Pei pointed out, “just because the rest of the industry does things a certain way doesn’t mean we’re going to do it the same way.” If that was the case, why did we start this company? »

And there are a few new products coming this year, including the Nothing Phone 4a series, which Pei says will be a “complete evolution” of the Nothing Phone 3a series, with upgrades to cameras, screen, materials, design and performance, bringing these phones closer than ever to flagship status.

That said, these handsets still won’t live up to the Nothing Phone 3, which will remain the company’s flagship at least until next year.

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James is a freelance phone, tablet and wearable editor and sub-editor at TechRadar. He loves all things “smart”, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work across the web, print and TV.