First things first, big thanks to the Nothing team for trusting and giving me the opportunity to use the device for more than 2 months. It’s an honor, and the 18-year-old version of myself would be so proud of me 😄
Before sharing the list of things I love and hate about the Nothing Phone 2a, I should tell you who I am so you can adjust your perspective and understand how these statements formed.
I’m a visual artist. I do animation, design, photography, video, VFX, and everything in between. I do a lot of smartphone photography and videography. Even though I’m not a gamer, I push the device to its limits while taking photos and videos, as well as in post-processing. I engage heavily in social media since my work depends on it. So, for me, I treat my phone like a computer and expect a lot from my primary smartphone. I’m definitely a heavy user. Alright.
Things I love:
1. Design and Weight: I think this is the best design for a phone from Nothing yet. The white one looks incredible. I just fell in love with that phone the moment I saw it in the Bangalore community meetup. Even being a huge phone, it is surprisingly light (thanks to the plastic). I wish that red square was a functioning LED though.
2. Nothing OS Supremacy: NothingOS is clean, simple, and fun to use. The idea of giving back control to the user is so ambitious, and I’m all for it. It’s hard to use any other Android after getting used to the cleanliness and smoothness of NothingOS.
3. Performance: I have been using the Phone 1 before Phone 2a showed up. Even though Nothing hasn’t provided any specs of the devices, I know it will be a Mediatek device and it will be cheaper than Phone 1 (thanks to leaks). I was a bit worried about performance, but Phone 2a really surprised me with its performance. Everything is smooth as butter. It worked better than Phone 1 also. I see the increase in performance while I use the camera and editing in Lightroom. Definitely not going to break any records, but for the price and compared to my Phone 1, it’s really good.
4. Display: It’s gorgeous and best in class for the segment. It’s bright, sharp, color-accurate, smooth, with the least amount of bezels and symmetric camera placement. What else can you ask for?
5. 24k Rs, really? And you can get an even cheaper deal with bank offers. Forget the design. Personally, I would not think twice before buying this phone for that price, just for the specs. I really wonder what the profit margin of this phone is.
Things I hate:
1. Big Phone: I’m a tiny guy. Phone 1 with a 6.5-inch display already exceeded my preferred display size (which is around 6 inches). I’m well aware that there is not much demand for tiny phones anymore, but it looks like Nothing is the only company left capable of making a really good small phone that is affordable, if it is ever going to happen.
2. Camera Software Still Lacks Some Features: As I said in the beginning, I use the smartphone camera a lot, and I try to fully utilize the capacity of this system. Smartphone cameras are incredible if we really learn to use them and have the right software to take advantage of them. That software part is what’s missing on NothingOS. Yes, there is an expert mode for photos, but that’s kind of it. No expert/manual video mode. Even the expert photo mode lacks some monitoring features like zebra lines, focus peaking, histogram, etc. Even in regular mode, the camera control is very limited. There is exposure control by sliding down after tapping the screen, but it resets after 5 seconds or so.
I’m not going to complain about not nailing the HDR all the time because it’s one of the hardest software problems to solve in a smartphone for any OEMs. But giving control/options to the user is achievable and worth complaining about. I believe Nothing can bring change to the camera software by giving control to the user just like what they did with the homescreen and general UI. Before moving to the next point, I gotta appreciate the HDR controls and camera preset widgets. I want to see more stuff like these.
3. Customization in the Software: I’m a big believer in customization. In its current state, NothingOS is a bit behind when you compare it to other OEMs. I’m well aware of the aesthetic that Nothing is building, and it’s awesome. But in some cases, I feel like the form defeats the function. I wish I had more control in the lock screen elements, colors of UI, and more.
4. Fingerprint Scanner Position: I wonder why it’s unusually low compared to other smartphones. If it were a bit higher (bottom 1/4th of the screen), the thumb would be at a natural resting position. I feel like it’s placed there due to aesthetic and space constraints. After the introduction of quick toggles on the lock screen, there isn’t much space left to move the fingerprint scanner without overlapping with notifications (I hope I’m wrong here).
5. Why No Grey Color? The color grey was way better on the phone when it was introduced with phone 2. It helped to see the details better compared to black on phone 1. I was surprised when I saw Nothing went back to black on this phone. And no accent colors on buttons for the black as well. A red accent power button would have justified the decision to return to black 🙃.
View the pictures I shot with Phone 2a: https://x.com/raonehere/status/1765454631113548186?s=20
Watch the video of the Phone 2a Launch shot on the phone itself:
https://nothing.community/d/6547-phone-2a-launch-shot-on-phone-2a
