It’s been a little over 2 months since I’ve got my hands on the Nothing Phone (2a) thanks to the Insider program. While we weren’t able to discover the design of this phone, we were able to test the Photo system and the software experience offered by it to detect any hidden bugs before its release, and the experience offered in these first few weeks was already very satisfactory for regular use.
Let’s take a look at the improvements in this Nothing Phone (2a).
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Screen
The first improvement is the screen, which goes from the 6.55″ of the Nothing Phone (1) to the 6.7″ of the Nothing Phone (2), all in the same resolution (2412×1084px) with a peak brightness of 1300 Nits and refresh rate adjustable in 3 modes: “Dynamic”, “High” (120Hz) and “Standard” (60Hz), an AMOLED screen perfect for everyday use for multimedia and smooth UI experience.
Performance
Big news for the new member of the Nothing family: the processor at the heart of the operation is a Mediatek processor, the Dimensity 7200 Pro. If the Mediatek name doesn’t bring back fond memories for some phones from a few years ago, I’m back on Mediatek after switching to Snapdragon and Tensor phones in recent years, but of course we had to trust Nothing’s expertise on this choice, which couldn’t compromise the user experience with NothingOS, and indeed that’s what we had to expect, a fluid and stable experience with no lags equivalent to what we’ve had on the brand’s previous phones.
The phone is therefore very pleasant to use and lives up to the Nothing experience we’ve come to expect from the Phone (1) and Phone (2).
This new chip is etched using TSMC’s 4 nm Gen 2 process, which gives it a better power efficiency (see this video for more information).
In an interview with Carl Pei by digitalTrends, we also learned that the
« Phone (2a) is 13% more powerful than Phone (1) and 16% more efficient in terms of battery consumption than Phone (1). »
Battery
Another big improvement on this Phone (2a) is the switch to a 5000mAh battery from the 4500mAh on the Phone(1), which enables the phone to achieve a battery life of almost 2 days with moderate use (4h/day with AOD active and backlight at +50%) and 60% at the end of the day. This will also depend on your activity and will probably be different if you use the phone for gaming or other intensive activities.
One of the big absences from this Phone (2a), however, and one of my biggest disappointments, is the absence of wireless charging, despite the fact that it is present on the Phone (1).
However, the Phone (2a) inherits the Phone(2)'s 45W recharging, which is an improvement on the Phone (1)'s 33W. With a 30W recharging unit, the phone recharges to 100% in 1h15, a time that will probably be reduced with a suitable recharging unit such as the official Nothing Power (45W) charger or the CMF Power 65W charger.
This rapid recharging and great autonomy soon make us forget the absence of wireless recharging.
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Gaming
The Gaming experience will probably not be the one to expect the most miracles, most 2D indie games work very well but more demanding games deliver variable results, for example Fortnite will only be playable in “Medium” graphics mode at 30 FPS, with very unappreciable image quality whereas “Call Of Duty: Mobile” will be playable in “Low” graphics mode at 90 FPS and at 60 in “Very High” with good image quality.
Phone (2a) is capable of coping with some games, but if your aim is to use your phone as a regular gaming platform, it would be preferable to opt for phone (2).
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Software
The Nothing Phone (2a) comes with NothingOS 2.5 based on Android 14, the most complete Nothing software experience to date which now includes a new AI-powered option, “Wallpaper studio”, which lets you generate unique wallpapers directly from your phone, the whole package is stable and works perfectly on this phone, the whole thing comes without bloatware from third-party partners, only the Google suite and the Nothing “Recorder” and “Nothing X” applications are pre-installed which is a very good point and means you don’t clutter up the available storage with numerous applications that can’t be uninstalled. 3 years of OS updates and 4 years of security patches are promised for this phone which is in line with regular update policy for Nothing.
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Glyph
The Glyph system has been reduced to its essentials, with the disappearance of the design that appeared on the Phone (1) and Phone (2) in favor of a more compact format centered around the central camera that has been the subject of much debate of late.
As for the features that disappear with this evolution of the Glyph system
- Google Assistant feedback
- Charge tracking
But we gain some features that were not present on the Phone (1) such as:
- Phone volume indication
- Glyph Progress (Uber/Zomato/Calendar)
- Glyph Timer
Note that this list could be extended with the Glyph development program, which is also available on this Phone (2a).
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Camera
As we’re used to by now, there are 2 rear photo sensors, each with 50MP Samsung GN9 as main camera with OIS, Samsung JN1 for Ultra Wide, and a Sony IMX615 32MP selfie camera, Ultra Wide and Selfie camera are the same used in Phone (2).
The camera application’s interface offers some interesting evolutions, such as the ability to disable HDR and Ultra HDR, one of Android 14’s new features.
Photo rendering is astonishing by day as it is by night, provided you have the right lighting. Here are a few samples taken during my time with the Phone (2a)
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Conclusion
Available from March 12 and in various cities from March 6 with the #Drop100, the Nothing Phone (2a) is a good compromise between experience and price: for the price of 350€ (8/128) you get the best of the Nothing universe, with more than decent autonomy and perfect performance for versatile use (Web, social networking, Photo/Video).
Compared with the Nothing Phone (1), the direct predecessor of this new smartphone, Nothing has succeeded in upgrading everything except the price, which is the lowest price for a Nothing Phone at launch.
Superior quality, unbeatable price: Nothing Phone (2a)!
