TL;DR : This is by far the best phone in this price range I’ve ever had ! And trust me, I got many.
Note: Being an insider and testing the device was an incredible opportunity. When the Nothing team says that they value community voice, it’s not marketing. We, as insiders, were able to report every single thing that we would like to the team, from bugs to optimization, and to camera performance. The device was protected, so it was just not possible to judge the design (too bad, I would have loved seeing the design in person). We didn’t know anything about the phone’s spec and most importantly the price. So our opinions were simply based on what was the feeling we got using the phone and have a really unbiased review.
That being said, take a coffee, and enjoy the review.
I made this device my primary device for more than a month. It meant constant upgrade (multiple update in a day sometimes !) to fix what we reported, improve performance, improve camera tuning, etc…etc… To be more legible, let’s break this review into categories
Design
As said in the note, we didn’t have many things to say as the back of the phone was covered by a case. Tho, the first thing that I noticed was the weight ! Oh boy, this thing was light compared with phone 2 ! Even with this protective case. And that feels great in the hand, even with the case on.
Buttons are nice and clicky, nothing to complain about.
Even bezels all around, this is just the DNA of Nothing, and I would have definitely not liked this phone if it didn’t have those even bezels all around. Thanks Nothing !
Camera displacement is for me the biggest upgrade in Nothing’s design. Placed in the center and horizontal. I have to say that I welcome this change very much, only because of one thing. The phone doesn’t wobble around when it seats on the table. And for me that use my phone without a case, it’s a welcome upgrade !
Performance
Let’s take a look at what it was using the phone before going into the sequel of this category : battery.
As I said in the note, I was using this device for about a month as my primary device ! So I feel that this performance review will be very close to an average user.
To be short, performance is great. It is obviously a downgrade compared to the Phone (2), that’s what I noticed when I set up the device first. Installing a lot of apps and multitasking while setting up the device felt a bit slow compared to phone(2), I knew right away that this device wasn’t meant to be a flagship.
Don’t get me wrong, the phone handles everything just fine, I’m just comparing it with my phone (2).
Tho, after setting it up, restarting the device, it felt soooo smooth for most of the use cases ! I never had lags (after a couple bug fixes updates), the phone barely ever heats to death. And gaming was really smooth for the game I played (Clash of Clans, mostly).
I feel like this magic is thanks to the software. Nothing OS is just so great to use, I never felt android skin worth more than the stock android experience… but that was before Nothing OS. It really changed the way I use my phone and my home screen. Of course, this is not specific to phone 2a, but it really is a major part of why the phone performs (at least feels) so good in terms of performance.
For me, that is very active in the nothing.community forum, I have to say that the ram management is still too aggressive… It has been reported many teams by the community even for the phone(2), I’m sure the team is working on it, let’s see what the future holds.
Battery
I really have nothing to say about the battery apart that it’s perfect as most phone these days (excepts Apple cough cough). The phone can handle 1 day and a half easily and even 2 days with moderate usage.
I had on average 8 hours of SoT, which is pretty good nowadays.
Also, that fast wired charging is always great to have. I just plug my phone every morning during breakfast and I know I will be able to run the day with no issue at all.
Camera
And finally, the camera ! It is what people ask the most these days. You will be maybe disappointed, but I’m really into smartphone cameras. I obviously took some shots to see how the camera perform, but my opinion is really as a casual snapper and not a social media / photograph specialist.
Say hello to Tornado again ! Of course, I tried to get some details and see how it handled cat hair. It’s always a good test for smartphone. And I was pretty impressed by the shot ; it’s sharp, colors are great, and the background is well blurred naturally.
We also had the chance to have the phone during the Christmas holidays. So that means getting some Christmas tree shots ! Plenty of details, good photo overall for my taste.
I also took some low light shots, photos are great in low light conditions. Some parts are a bit over-processed for me, but it’s overall a good photo.
While writing this review, I just remembered that I didn’t take any video with the units, so sorry for that.
Overall, cameras are great, Nothing to complain about. I’m really not a photo enjoyer !
Final thoughts
We were not aware of anything about the phone, nor the specs, nor price. And that is the key, we were able to make some guesses about how the phone would be great into what brackets of prices, that was fun I guess !
For me, and based on my usage and mostly day-to-day performance (again, I’m not using much the cameras), I was placing the phone into the 400-450€ category.
And wow, what a surprise when I saw the 350€ price in Europe. This phone is by far the best phone to get in that price range. It is a really easy recommendations for anyone that is seeking for a good value phone in this price range.
I can’t thank enough the Nothing team to trust the community and random people like me to test out their devices. Le’ts continue to work together with the community and making great phone together. ❤❤
