grassejp Hey!
I own both the Phone (2) and pre-ordered there Phone (3), the latter became my daily phone about two weeks ago. Personally I’m very happy with the new phone, build quality is excellent, even better than Phone (2), the whole device just feels more refined overall and Nothing improved most of the stuff I criticized on NP2. The cameras in particular are much better overall, it’s not just about the new telephoto camera.
While I still like the Nothing Phone (2), I sort of have a hard time recommending it in 2025: Nothing OS 4.0, which will be released later this year, will be the last major update for this phone. While security updates will continue well into summer 2027, you will be missing out any new software released features introduced beyond OS 4.0 - of course if you don’t mind that and can find the NP2 for a decent price, IMHO it still is a solid phone.
Some more words regarding matrix vs LED:
After two weeks of using the NP3 as my primary phone and often having (2) and (3) sitting on my home desk side by side, there is no clear “winner” in the Glyph battle. Just having them besides my keyboard, I can spot incoming notifications much easier on the NP2, because the light show of the patterned LED interface is much more obvious. The animations on the matrix are not only much shorter, most of them seemingly just the blink of an eye, but of course the whole display area is much smaller. While the NP3’s Glyph matrix can be used as a flashlight, there is essentially no point in doing so, on the NP2 the old interface can server as a nice filler light for the camera or just as a fancy flashlight and eyecatcher. On the other hand the matrix can display more detailled informations, especially when it comes to the refined Essential Notifications system: While the old Glyph interface just had a single, dedicated LED for these notifications, you never really knew what kind of notification you got until picking up the phone. NP3 can assign custom icons to each Essential Notification rule, which means you now have a better idea why you are being notified in the first place.
It is also more advanced when it comes to showing dynamic, detailed information: You can see the actual time, the stop watch is a sort of useful feature, while the selfie mirror is quite funny and even somewhat useful, I barely use the other toys. Keep in mind the Glyph matrix is completely new, Nothing will most likely introduce new functions with OS 4.0 and first community members are also hard at work and started developing their own apps for the matrix display. Something I dearly miss is the Glyph Timer, that was a feature I literally used every single day on my NP2 and I was utterly disappointed when I noticed it got fully axed on the new Glyph matrix - no new version. The Glyph Timer for me has always been a quick and handy tool setting a timer right from the quick settings panel, while the LED bar gave a good idea on a quick glance how much time was left. Now I have reverted back to the old timer option on the clock app, which doesn’t have any visual feedback on the Glyph interface.
My verdict: There are two sides of the coin - while the classic Glyph LED interface absolutely wins in the coolness factor, putting on a fancy light show, easily noticeable even when you aren’t really paying attention, the new Glyph matrix is less distracting, less obvious, it’s more laid back and offers a more flexible way displaying information. IMHO there is no clear winner, both have their pros and cons, I think everybody needs to decide on their own which one is better.
