Nothing Phone (1) breaks record! First phone in India to support Jio SA 5G network

Nothing Phone (1) becomes the first smartphone in India to support Jio’s Standalone 5G network.

Nothing Phone (1) gets the update to support Jio's 5G network. (Amritanshu / HT Tech)

Nothing Phone (1) has garnered a lot of attention over the last few months for its unique design and the standout Glyph LED lights. It also got some backlash after its Android 13 update schedule was announced. It also got a mega price cut during the Flipkart and Amazon sale over the past few weeks. Now, the Phone (1) achieves a record in the Indian market. With its latest software update, Nothing has now added support for Jio's 5G SA network.

No other smartphone in India supports Jio's 5G SA network in India as all other 5G smartphones are yet to support Jio's 5G network. Nothing claims its Phone (1) supports Standalone 5G that is supported by Jio's network. The Phone (1) also supports Airtel's NSA 5G network. Hence, if you get the invite to test Jio 5G in your city that supports 5G, you should be able to access it easily on the Nothing Phone (1).

Nothing Phone (1) gets Jio 5G support

The company claims that the software update is being rolled out in phases and users should be getting it at the most by October 24.

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Note that the 5G technologies used by Jio and Airtel are different in nature. Airtel's 5G is the NSA 5G, which means it relies on 4G LTE networks to provide faster speeds uniformly across larger areas. This also means that Airtel 5G users may not experience much faster speeds in the initial stages.

On the other hand, Jio's 5G uses the Standalone 5G technology, which means it solely depends on the 5G infrastructure. Hence, the 5G speeds will be faster on Jio's network but the reach could be severely affected.

At the moment, the Nothing Phone (1) is among the 50 percent of 5G smartphones in India that can support any kind of 5G services in India. Apple has confirmed rolling out an update to enable 5G networks by December 2022, while Samsung will do the same for its 2021 and older flagships by November. Motorola has already started releasing 5G support for its compatible devices. Xiaomi, Realme, Oppo, Vivo and Infinix devices already support 5G networks.