Nothing Phones at Best Buy: 500+ Stores, Still No Carrier Deal

Nothing's full product lineup is now in more than 500 Best Buy stores across the U.S., the London-based company's largest domestic retail footprint to date. The Phone (3), Phone (4a) Pro, Headphone (a), and Ear (3) went live in stores and on BestBuy.com last Thursday, 9to5Google reported. For unlocked Android buyers outside New York, that's a direct improvement in access. For Nothing's broader U.S. ambitions, it's a meaningful but qualified step.

The launch arrives on the back of sharp growth. Nothing's U.S. unit sales rose 120% and revenue grew 175% in 2025, per Canalys data cited in Nothing's press release, as PhoneArena reported. Those figures come via the company's own press release and Nothing has not disclosed absolute shipment volumes, so treat them as a directional signal rather than a market-share verdict.

Nothing still has no presence with Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile. Best Buy expands where consumers can find and handle the hardware. It doesn't change how most Americans buy phones.

Nothing phones now available at Best Buy: what changes for shoppers

Before last week, Nothing's most accessible physical presence in the U.S. was a single flagship store in New York's SoHo neighborhood. Now the brand sits in more than 500 retail locations nationwide plus BestBuy.com, per 9to5Google. Buyers who weren't within reach of one Manhattan zip code were essentially limited to purchasing blind online.

Shoppers browsing Best Buy's unlocked phone section will now encounter Nothing hardware without seeking it out, handle devices before committing, and order online through a retailer with familiar infrastructure. Those are tangible advantages for a brand that previously depended entirely on direct-to-consumer sales or foot traffic to a single store.

The audience this primarily serves is self-directed buyers in the unlocked phone market: people who choose their own devices and activate them independently. The Phone (4a) Pro retails at $499 with no subsidy or installment plan attached, per PhoneArena. In-store financing options, carrier compatibility details, and warranty handling through Best Buy aren't confirmed in available sources, so those specifics are worth verifying directly with the retailer before purchase.

Nothing audio products at Best Buy are part of the same rollout, which matters for the brand's visibility beyond phones. The Headphone (a) and Ear (3) land on the same shelves as the handsets, giving the full ecosystem a presence in a single retail trip.

Why buying a Nothing phone at Best Buy is different from buying online

Nothing's products are built around a visual and tactile identity that a product listing struggles to convey. The translucent back panels catch light differently depending on the angle; the Glyph lighting system is something you either find compelling in person or don't. Renders and spec sheets can describe these things. They can't replicate them.

CEO Carl Pei framed the partnership in exactly those terms, saying the goal is for U.S. consumers to experience "first-hand what makes Nothing special," per PhoneArena. Nothing's press release described in-store shoppers being able to explore the company's "distinctive product ecosystem" and interact with devices directly, as 9to5Google reported. The language frames Best Buy as a demonstration environment, not just a distribution point.

The North American rollout followed a deliberate sequence. Nothing launched through Best Buy Canada before crossing into the U.S., per Droid-Life. The Best Buy deal scales that hands-on strategy from a single trendy block to the entire country, as PhoneArena noted. Whether it converts browsers into buyers at national scale is what this rollout will actually test.

The OnePlus factor: winning the unlocked Android shelf

Nothing didn't find available shelf space at Best Buy. It inherited a position. Last month, shoppers began noticing that OnePlus devices had been pulled from Best Buy display units, with Nothing phones taking their spots, reported by 9to5Google. The Phone (3) and Phone (4a) Pro appeared in the locations where OnePlus hardware had been, a direct category substitution in unlocked mid-range Android.

PhoneArena described Nothing bluntly as "the brand that took OnePlus' shelf space," framing last week's formal announcement as confirmation of a transition that had already been unfolding at the store level, per PhoneArena.

That context shifts how to read the Best Buy deal. This isn't a retailer experimenting with a niche brand on a spare shelf. Best Buy replaced one unlocked Android challenger with another, and the substitution was already visible to shoppers a month before any formal partnership announcement. That's a different kind of validation than a new brand earning a trial placement.

The carrier gap: what Best Buy can't solve

Nothing still has no partnerships with Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile. Those are the channels through which the majority of Americans buy their phones, with installment plans, trade-in credits, and in-store activation handling most of the friction, per PhoneArena. A Best Buy partnership doesn't change that.

The growth figures are worth holding carefully. A 120% jump in unit sales and 175% revenue growth in 2025 are eye-catching, but they come via Nothing's own press release, reported by PhoneArena, without independent market-share framing. Large percentage gains from a small starting base are a genuine measure of momentum. They aren't the same thing as market scale.

What the Best Buy deal does establish is a defensible niche in national unlocked retail, built without a single carrier agreement. Nothing has not signaled that a carrier push is coming. Until it does, the brand's U.S. ceiling is real: high enough to matter to design-conscious buyers in the unlocked segment, still well below the volume that carrier shelves generate.

Where this leaves Nothing

The Best Buy launch gives Nothing something it hasn't had before: a nationwide stage for hardware that rewards being held in person. For the buyers it reaches, that's a genuine shift.

The harder question is what comes next. Nothing has shown that U.S. revenue can grow sharply without a carrier deal. Whether that trajectory leads toward pursuing one, or toward doubling down on the unlocked retail lane it now occupies more visibly than any Android alternative, will determine how much last week's launch ultimately matters.