Are big tech companies secretly targeting Nothing? Some fans think so, Carl Pei responds

The Nothing Phone (3a) and (3a) Pro just dropped not too long ago, and as usual, following an exciting phone announcement, the tech community is buzzing. However, it seems the new phones and the company in general have been getting quite a lot of negativity online, and these reactions have been spotted by the Nothing fan base.

People took to Reddit to express their suspicions about some of these reactions being paid, or at least, that's how it may be coming off. User Intelligent_Mud1225 has collected some very shady publications in their post.

First off, there's a post about a Nothing Phone green line issue, that's outright attacking Nothing Tech and comparing them to apparently OnePlus' superior handling of the situation.

The Redditor has also spotted hints from the published picture that it may be photoshopped, or tapered with. Curiously enough, it looks like the line extends beyond the phone's display, which is frankly odd. If the display is malfunctioning, the line won't be extending to the bezels, right?



It crosses my mind that the "extension" of the line may be due to some reflection of sorts, but it seems very unlikely. More likely, at least to me, it seems to be suspiciously faked.

Moving on, Nothing co-founder Akis Evangelidis has seen stuff too. His recent post on X shows an unnamed company wanting to ensure its phones receive more praise in comparison to Nothing's. The authenticity of these screenshots cannot be confirmed, and the name of the company in question is hidden. However, it seems someone sent these screenshots to Evangelidis.




As for what Pei thinks about it, he said this:



He believes if these rumors are true, it's a sign of respect. Ultimately though, he does mention that at the end of the day, this hurts the customer as the product isn't being judged by its own merit, which is definitely something I agree with.

And honestly, if Nothing is really a victim of a smear campaign, well... this means it's on to something good. And the mid-range market definitely needs it.