This week, Nothing announced its first phone, the Phone (1). And unfortunately, it’s not coming to the US. So those in the US that were looking to pick one up, well you’re going to need an alternative now. Luckily the $300-$500 phone market is booming right now, so we have rounded up eight different smartphones that are available in the US that you can get instead.
Best Alternatives To The Nothing Phone (1)
In this list, you’ll actually (surprisingly) find quite a few options from Motorola. The company has been putting out a lot of these cheaper, mid-range smartphones recently. So about half of this list is Motorola. But you’ll also find options from Samsung, OnePlus and TCL.
The Nothing Phone (1) is actually pretty impressive for its £399 price tag (that converts to about $475 USD)It sports a 6.55-inch FHD+ display, the Snapdragon 778G+ 5G processor, with 8GB or 12GB of RAM, along with either 128GB or 256GB of storage. And of course the 4500mAh capacity battery. In this list, we decided to go with phones mostly between $300 and $500, as that seems to be the market that Nothing is targeting here. So without further ado, here are the best alternatives to the Nothing Phone (1).
For even more options, you can check out our monthly Top 10 Best Value smartphones.
| Cost | Where to Buy | |
| Samsung Galaxy A53 | $349 | Amazon |
| Google Pixel 6a | $449 | Google Store |
| Moto G Stylus 5G | $349 | Amazon |
| Moto G Pure (2021) | $129 | Amazon |
| Motorola Edge (2021) | $399 | Amazon |
| OnePlus Nord N20 5G | $299 | Amazon |
| TCL 20 Pro 5G | $399 | Amazon |
| Motorola One 5G Ace | $249 | Amazon |
Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
- Price: $349
- Where to buy: Amazon
The Samsung Galaxy A53 5G is actually very similar to the Nothing Phone (1), at least on its spec sheet. The Galaxy A53 has a 6.5-inch FHD+ display, powered by the Exynos 1280 processor, with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage on-board. It does have slower charging, however, at 25W, versus Nothing’s 33W.
Overall, it’s a pretty good alternative to the Nothing Phone (1) and it’s also cheaper. Not to mention, Samsung has been killing it with their software updates lately, and they are promising four years of updates on this phone, as well as most of their other phones.
Samsung Galaxy A53 5G - Amazon
Google Pixel 6a
- Price: $449
- Where to buy: Google Store
While it’s not yet available (it will be in a couple of weeks), we do think the Pixel 6a should be on this list. This is a really competitive smartphone to the Nothing Phone (1) and therefore makes for a good alternative.
Pixel 6a sports a 6.1-inch FHD+ display, Google’s Tensor SoC, 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage on-board. It has a slightly smaller battery at 4410mAh, however. But it will likely get updates far longer than the Nothing Phone (1) will. We also cannot forget about the Pixel camera, which is still among the best on a smartphone these days, and now it’s on a phone that’s just $449.
Google Pixel 6a - Google Store
Moto G Stylus 5G (2022)
- Price: $349
- Buy: Amazon
This particular Moto G comes with a stylus. It’s a pretty interesting device to pick up, since it has the most RAM and storage on any phone under $500, let alone under $400.
It sports a 6.8-inch FHD+ display, along with 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage too. So it’s a great phone for a lot of people.
Moto G Stylus 5G (2022) - Amazon
Moto G Pure (2021)
- Price: $129
- Where to buy: Amazon
This is actually a much cheaper phone than the Nothing Phone (1), but we still felt it necessary to add in an alternative list.
The Moto G Pure is just $129, and you can kind of see that in the specs. It has a 6.5-inch HD+ display, the MediaTek Helio G25 processor with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. It also has a massive 4000mAh capacity battery inside.
Motorola Edge (2021)
- Price: $449
- Buy: Amazon
This is the older flagship from Motorola, which comes in at a very good price, to be quite honest. It has a 6.8-inch FHD+ 144Hz display, which does support HDR10. It also has 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. That is all powered by a 5000mAh capacity battery too.
Additionally, this will work on T-Mobile and Verizon’s 5G network too.
OnePlus Nord N20 5G
- Price: $299
- Where to buy: Amazon
OnePlus has a great competitor to the Nothing Phone (1) here in the Nord N20 5G. This one is far cheaper, at just $299, but still similarly specced.
The Nord N20 5G sports a 6.43-inch FHD+ display, the Snapdragon 695 5G processor, 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. There’s also a 4500mAh capacity battery, the same as the Nothing Phone (1).
TCL 20 Pro 5G
- Price: $399
- Where to buy: Amazon
TCL is a company you may not be familiar with, as far as smartphones go, but you should be. They make some really great unlocked phones, like the 20 Pro 5G.
The TCL 20 Pro 5G is also specced similar to the Nothing Phone (1). This has a 6.67-inch FHD+ display, Snapdragon 750 5G processor, 6GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. There is also a 4500mAh capacity battery, which is the same size as the battery in the Nothing Phone (1).
Motorola One 5G Ace
- Price: $381
- Buy: Amazon
The Motorola One 5G Ace is probably the cheapest 5G smartphone that you can buy right now. And it’s under $500. It’ll work on every carrier network in the US, but you won’t get mmWave support on Verizon.
This has a 6.7-inch FHD display, along with 6GB of RAM and128GB of storage. There’s also a 48-megapixel camera on the back that’s going to take some really great photos.