Nothing Phone 1 is a new mid range phone on the market. It is one of the most hyped mid range phones ever. It is because of the new transparent design and LEDs that they call Glyph lights. The phone looks premium because of its unique design. And if you own Nothing Phone 1 and want to root the phone, this guide is for you. Here you will know how to root Nothing Phone 1 and how to unlock bootloader of Nothing Phone 1.
The smartphone symmetry looks like iPhone 12 and they even blend the screen for a similar display design. Before we head to the steps, let’s first quickly check its specifications. Nothing Phone 1 comes with a 6.55โ full HD+ display. It is a 120Hz refresh rate display. 50MP + 50MP rear camera setup and a 16MP front camera. The phone also comes with Snapdragon 778G+ processor tuned for the device by Qualcomm.
Its main attraction is the glyph interface. The lights at the back glow based on the ringtone, wired & wireless charging, and other actions. But the manual customization for the glyph lights is not available and hence you need to use the preset available by default. And as recently Nothing released the Kernel source for the device which means we can see some customizable apps for it soon. But you might need to root your phone for these types of customizations.
How to Root Nothing Phone 1
The Nothing Phone 1 has capabilities for more than what the device ship with. But we have to wait for the custom developments which shouldnโt take much time considering the kernel source is now available. Although it can take time, you can root your device right away to enjoy root level features and customizations. But to root Nothing Phone 1, first you need to unlock the bootloader of Nothing Phone 1. Letโs see how to unlock the bootloader.
Unlock Bootloader of Nothing Phone 1
Just like other Android phones, Nothing Phone 1 also comes with locked bootloader as one of the security features. It prevents users from modifying the device including writing to the system like rooting or installing custom ROMs. So if you planning for these modifications you need to unlock the bootloader of Nothing Phone 1. You can follow these steps to unlock the bootloader.
- Take a full backup or backup of important data on your Nothing Phone 1. This process will reset your phone.
- Open Settings on your Phone and open About Phone.
- Now go to the Software Info page and look for Build Number. Tap 7 times on it to enable Developer Options.
- Go back to Settings and then head to System > Developer Options.
- Scroll down a bit and you will find OEM Unlocking, enable it. Also, enable USB Debugging available in developer options.
- Install adb and fastboot drivers on your PC. You can also use the Platform SDK Folder if you have Mac, Linux, and also Windows.
- Now connect your phone to your PC and if it asks for USB Debugging authorization, tap Allow. And open command windows from the Platform tools location or open directly if you have installed adb drivers. Guide to open command window from specific location.
- Enter the below command to check if the device is connected or not. It will return the device id.
adb devices
- Grant permission if there is any prompt on your phone. And then enter the command again to see if it is connected.
- Now you need to enter your phone into bootloader mode. For that enter the below command.
adb reboot bootloader
- From bootloader switch to Fastboot mode using volume buttons to navigate and power button to select. While in fastboot mode, enter the given command to unlock bootloader of Nothing Phone 1.
fastboot flashing unlock
- Now you will get some options on your phone, navigate to unlock bootloader and press the power button.
- It will unlock the bootloader and reset your phone. You can now reboot the system using options in bootloader mode.
So thatโs all you have to do for unlocking the bootloader of Nothing Phone 1. And once the bootloader is unlocked you can now root your phone. But for rooting, you will need some files and apps mentioned in the prerequisites.
Pre-requisites
- Take a backup of your phone
- Install Magisk app on your phone
- Download Nothing Phone 1 firmware (The same build your phone is running on)
Steps to Root Nothing Phone 1 with Magisk
- Extract boot.img from Nothing Phone 1 firmware and copy it to your phone.
- Open the Magisk app and click on the Install.
- Now choose ‘Select and Patch a File’ from the available options.
- Select the boot.img file that you copied earlier, and it will start patching the boot image.
- After patching the output file will be saved in the download folder with the name magisk_patched.img.
- Now copy the patched boot image and paste it to your computer in folder C:\adb (Copy it in the platform tools folder if you are going to use the command window from there). Rename the patched file to boot.img.
- Reboot your Nothing Phone 1 to Fastboot mode and connect it to your computer. Follow the steps in the bootloader guide section.
- In the C:\adb folder (or platform-tools folder), type cmd in the location bar and press enter to open the command window on that location (full guide to open cmd from any location). Or locate these folders using the cd command (eg. cd C:/adb).
- Enter the given command to flash patched Magisk file and root Nothing Phone 1. If the location in the command window is not of the folder where boot image is located then drag and drop boot.img after fastboot flash boot command mentioned below.
fastboot flash boot boot.img
- After flashing the patched boot image, reboot your phone. You can use fastboot reboot command.
- Install Magisk app if it’s not already installed. Now you will see Magisk installed which means your Nothing Phone 1 is rooted.
So there you have it, the guide to unlock bootloader and root Nothing Phone 1. You can now start using apps and customization services that require root privilege. There are various Xposed modules you can use after installing the Xposed framework on your phone too.
Also Check: