EVERYONE PLEASE READ FULLY
I have always been a diehard Nothing fan and truly believed in the brand’s vision, but the camera experience on the Nothing Phone (2) has left me very disappointed. The hardware is excellent on paper, yet the software fails to deliver results worthy of this device. Even though I understand that 8K recording may be disabled due to heat and battery concerns, the bigger problem is that the existing 4K modes often produce blurry, grainy, and unstable video. Night Sight performance is weak at 1x and 2x zoom, video stabilization is poor, and photos beyond 3x zoom are unnecessarily oversmoothened, destroying detail. I have continuously raised these grievances, but not a single step toward improvement has been seen in the Nothing OS updates. Experiencing these issues makes me question whether I should continue trusting the Nothing brand in the future.
It also feels like Nothing is not considering its older devices seriously. Despite repeated feedback from users, updates for the Phone (2) rarely bring meaningful improvements, while newer devices seem to get more attention and feature updates. This approach is disappointing because loyal users who supported the brand early on are left with software that does not fully utilize the capable hardware they purchased, making the device feel neglected.
From a technical perspective, the Nothing Phone (2) underutilizes its powerful hardware. The Sony IMX890 sensor combined with the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset is capable of much more than what is currently exposed in software. Videos are recorded at low bitrates (~100 Mbps), leading to compression artifacts and loss of detail. Stabilization through OIS and EIS is not properly tuned, resulting in wobble and jello effects. Daylight videos often look soft, night videos lose fine detail due to oversmoothing, and zoomed-in photos suffer from heavy smoothing that removes natural texture. There are also no pro video controls, and features like cinematic video modes, LOG/HDR10+ profiles, or adjustable frame rates are missing despite the hardware supporting them.
👉 Specific issues that need improvement:
Video bitrate is too low (~100 Mbps), causing blur, grain, and compression artifacts — higher bitrate is required.
Stabilization (OIS + EIS) is poorly tuned, with wobble, jello effect, and shaky walking shots.
Night Sight is weak at 1x and 2x zoom, producing noisy, smudged details.
Photos beyond 3x zoom are heavily oversmoothed, removing natural texture and detail.
Daylight videos often look soft, while night videos are oversmoothed and lack detail.
Pro video controls are missing (manual shutter, ISO, WB, HDR10/LOG option).
No proper cinematic video mode (24fps, LOG/HDR10+, better dynamic range), even though the hardware fully supports it.
The hardware (Sony IMX890 + Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1) is fully capable of much more, and other brands using the same setup have proven this. We are not asking for unstable 8K, but we do expect Nothing to optimize the current 4K modes, Night Sight, zoom processing, stabilization, and add cinematic video features so that the camera reflects the true flagship potential of this device.
