Will there be a smartphone manufacturer more irreverent and ready to do its thing in this market than Nothing?
Well, after Phone (1) and Phone (2), which tried to position themselves more as upper mid-range devices, or in the case of (2), as an “almost” top-of-the-range device, now is the time to welcome the Nothing Phone (2a), a device much more focused on what still interests many good consumers… Quality-price!
One thing is for sure, despite the strange design, we have a lot of good things here!
(Analysis) Nothing Phone (2a): Strange… But incredible in what it focuses on! In other words, quality versus price!
Therefore, the Phone (2a) is a mid-range device that arrives on the market to take advantage of much of the success that the Phone (2) had before it, while also serving as a kind of adoption of the Pixel strategy by the company. Nothing, when launching its top-of-the-range, and 6 months later, a very similar device, with some compromises in the mix, but of course, much cheaper, all in order to try to capture another segment of potential consumers.
More specifically, the Nothing Phone (2a) has the main objective of offering an excellent user experience, at a much more appealing price, by meeting the most basic needs of consumers, while at the same time trying to offer a little of that that Nothing does well.
Having said all this, it is undeniable that Nothing's attempt to enter the world of the mid-range ends up being extremely interesting, because despite being a market almost always focused on the same brands, and same product ranges, it is also a segment that has lost a lot of your soul after the COVID-19 pandemic. BBB devices (good, cheap and beautiful) are on the verge of extinction.
But, apparently, Nothing's Phone (2a) has the great objective of pulling back the clock. Shall we go back to the past? Let's do it by steps!
Performance
As expected, here we do not have a high-end Qualcomm SoC as we had the opportunity to find in the Phone (2a). Instead, we have a MediaTek Dimensity 7200 Pro SoC, which is the result of a very close partnership between the chipmaker and Nothing.
We are therefore talking about an SoC that is not top of the range, but still, based on TSMC's 4nm process, it is capable of offering extremely curious levels of performance, as well as a lot of energy efficiency. It is a SoC very similar to that of Xiaomi's Redmi Note 13 Pro+, which we said is the top of the mid-range. It wasn't by chance!
This means that we have a level of performance very similar to that of a Galaxy S22, or Google Pixel 7 Pro. It's not incredible, but, once again, we're talking about a mid-range smartphone that starts at €349. It's not even bad at all.
In addition to the SoC, we have two versions of the Phone (2a) coming to the market, one with 8GB of memory, and the other with 12GB of RAM. However, both have the help of RAM Booster technology, meaning you can get another 8GB of the smartphone's super-fast storage, all to ensure that you can open all your favorite apps, and of course, keep them in memory.
However, it must also be said that Nothing and MediaTek have worked hard to introduce several important technologies to ensure that the smartphone reaches your hands quickly, and perhaps more importantly, remains fast throughout its life cycle. This is especially true on the internal storage side, thanks to technologies like Smart Clean and Adaptive NTFS, which keep memory clean, and therefore, with bandwidth for what really matters.
Battery and Charging
Being a mid-range device, as you can imagine, wireless charging was left in the drawer. Still, we have a 5000mAh battery with 45W fast charging support, which in turn means that you can charge 50% of the total battery in just 20 minutes.
Nothing also claims that this battery is superior in retaining its capacity for longer. In other words, according to the manufacturer, the Nothing Phone (2a) will maintain more than 90% of its total capacity after 1000 charging cycles. This means that in 3 years you will still have more than 90% of your battery intact.
Design and Display
On the screen side, we have a 6.7” Flexible AMOLED (LPTS) panel with FHD+ resolution, and of course, the ability to reach 120Hz. The maximum brightness is 1300 nits, which could be a little better, but is in line with the price range.
Having said all this, unlike the Phone (2), this (2a) can only change the frame refresh rate between 30Hz and 120Hz. One of the compromises to keep the price low was the use of an LTPS OLED panel instead of the more advanced and more expensive LTPO.
However, I'm very honest, you won't notice any big differences. It appears to be the same exact screen as the manufacturer's top of the range.
Here it is also worth highlighting that despite being a mid-range device, the Phone (2a) has extremely thin margins, with a thickness of just 2.1mm around the OLED screen.
Design
This is the trickiest part of this analysis. After all, design is always debatable.
Having said all that, personally, I think the smartphone is strange, but beautiful. Especially in its white color. But this is not at all a widespread opinion. In fact, I have never seen such disparate opinions as on this device. There are those who love it, there are those who don't like it, there are also those who hate it. Some even say it looks like Wall-E, which honestly doesn't seem like a bad comparison to me.
In short, it is a very different smartphone than usual, in what is most likely Nothing's real identity now in plain sight.
The manufacturer wants to launch products that are very different from what we already have on the shelves, which is clear, sometimes it will result in “things” that are a little strange, but in my opinion, they will work a little like Coca-Cola… Initially it's strange, but then it really sinks in.
Having said all this, the back is now made of plastic instead of glass, and of course, the side is no longer aluminum but also plastic. These are changes that are obviously due to commitments to keep the price low. But… In a world where we are almost forced to use protective covers to protect our investment… Does that make that much of a difference? Especially at €349? I don't think so.
It's also worth pointing out the Glyph system that once again gives an air of grace, but now a little smaller, with just 3 parts.
In short, it continues to be a very well built device, and in my opinion, well done.
Cameras
Another point that will be worth talking about, but in my opinion, for the price, it is one of the strongest points of the Nothing Phone (2a). I very honestly believe that the image capture capacity of this smartphone is well above its price.
As for the specifications, we have two sensors on the rear, both 50MP, one main and another more focused on ultra-wide. Both rely on the help of the TrueLens Engine, or as they say, Nothing's image processing algorithm.
Obviously, the images won't be as good as those we could find on the Phone (2). Still, for the price, this smartphone doesn't know how to take bad photos. See the example below.
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Night Mode – Active
However, on the Selfie side, we have a 32MP sensor, which of course also has the help of the same image processing engine. In fact, we also have a beauty mode that can be customized, or simply turned off.
Selfie
Conclusion
I like! In fact, I like it so much that I can say without any problem that if you ever want a mid-range device capable of doing everything, or at least almost everything, we have a new king in the Android world.
Make way for the Nothing Phone (2a), which costs €349 for the 8GB/128GB version and €399 for the 12GB/256GB version.