Seoul-based industrial designer Sungwoo Choi built Turntable(1) as a personal project, imagining what a record player would look like if the phone brand Nothing decided to make one. The concept borrows Nothing's transparent shell, exposed mechanical details and dot-matrix Glyph display, then works out what those ideas mean once they're applied to a turntable instead of a phone.
Two finishes built around the same transparent shell
Choi renders the concept in both of Nothing's usual finishes, a matte white-and-silver body and a matte black one, with every other detail held constant between them: the same tonearm, the same control layout, the same built-in speaker grille. Shown side by side, the two units read less like separate products and more like the two halves of a single color story Nothing already uses across its phones and earbuds.
A platter that swaps vinyl-black for see-through
The platter comes in two versions. A "low-end" build keeps a solid platter, with the record's own label showing through the spindle hole. A "high-end" build replaces it with a fully frosted, semi-transparent disc, so the platter itself becomes part of the transparent-housing idea rather than the one opaque component left over from a normal turntable.
The Glyph Matrix display speaks in six pixel modes
A round dot-matrix screen, styled after Nothing's Glyph Matrix on its phones, handles every status the turntable needs to show. A splash screen reads "NOTHING" before switching to a personalized "HELLO!! JAMES" greeting. Vinyl mode displays side and speed as pixel text inside a waveform ring, then confirms with a small bulb icon once it's set. Bluetooth mode shows a pairing glyph before switching to a scrolling "MUSIC-AR" track display with playback controls. Leveling mode uses a bubble-level icon and a percentage readout, and recording mode counts up on a running timer. A sixth mode turns the whole display into a clock face that flips over to an animated icon, the kind of playful touch Nothing's phones already use for notifications.
Physical dials for the two numbers a turntable needs
Rather than burying record size and speed inside a menu, Choi gives them their own knurled dials on the control panel, one marked 7 and 12 for record size, the other marked 33, 45 and a variable position for speed. A separate rotary dial handles volume and doubles as a navigation control for the Bluetooth and recording modes, sitting flush against the same panel as the built-in speaker.
Tonearm and cartridge built to be watched, not hidden
The tonearm's counterweight, pivot bearing and cartridge housing are all machined in exposed aluminum rather than tucked under a cover, continuing the see-through logic of the platter into the parts of a turntable that most designs try to make invisible. Close on the headshell, the cartridge sits in an angular black clip that reads more like a piece of jewelry than hardware, shot from the kind of low, dramatic angle usually reserved for renders meant to be looked at, not just used.
Ports kept to the essentials
Flip the unit over and the connections are limited to a stereo RCA line output, a USB-C port and a DC power input, laid out on a recessed rear panel with rubber feet on either side for stability. A corner of the top panel carries the only visible indicator, a small red-striped marker next to the power button, keeping the rest of the surface as uninterrupted as the transparent shell around it.
Turntable(1) is a personal concept project, not an announced Nothing product. More of Sungwoo Choi's work is on his Behance profile.
