Remember when Carl Pei’s new company Nothing suddenly acquired the long-dead smartphone brand Essential back in 2021? Tech Twitter went wild. Everyone assumed something big was coming — maybe a revival of the Essential Phone, maybe some secret patents, or even a new team of engineers.
But guess what? None of that happened.
Recently, Carl Pei casually revealed in an interview that the only reason he bought Essential was for… the name. Yep. That’s it.
“Essential R1” — The Phone That Almost Was
Believe it or not, the Nothing Phone 1 could’ve actually been called “Essential R1”. We’re not even joking. Early design concepts show that Nothing was experimenting with the Essential name on products — from earbuds to smartphones — and even the model name “R1” was ready to roll.
So technically, if things had gone differently, your transparent Nothing Phone might’ve been an “Essential R1” today.
Carl’s Backup Names: From “Stone” to “Nothing”
Before finalizing the name “Nothing”, Carl was also toying with the name “Stone”. Imagine that — “Stone Phone 1”? Hmm, doesn’t quite have the same vibe.
Eventually, “Nothing” was chosen, and honestly, it’s hard to imagine the brand being called anything else now. It’s bold, it’s weird, and it fits the whole transparent-minimalist aesthetic they’ve been pushing since day one.
So What Did They Actually Get in the Acquisition?
No patents. No engineering team. No secret prototypes. Just branding rights — the Essential.com domain, a few social media handles, and that’s about it.
Carl even admitted he couldn’t share how much the deal cost because of an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement). Mysterious as always.
The Essential Spirit Lives On (Sort Of)
Even though they never used the Essential name publicly, you can still feel the influence. Essential was all about minimal design, bold ideas, and clean product aesthetics — and that’s exactly what Nothing is running with now.
So in a way, Essential didn’t come back — but it kinda got reborn through Nothing.
At the end of the day, it’s pretty wild that Carl Pei bought an entire company just for the brand name — but it worked. Nothing is now one of the most talked-about tech startups, and Essential? Well, it may be gone in name… but its DNA lives on.
Not bad for “nothing,” right?
