The launch of the Nothing Phone 2a shows that Carl Pei’s design-centric tech company intends to take the budget smartphone market seriously. At a starting price of price of £319, the Nothing Phone 2a aims to take on rivals like the Pixel 7a and Samsung Galaxy A54/A55, but does the low price mean compromises and a “lesser” smartphone experience? Let’s find out.
Design and Screen Quality
As far as looks go, the Nothing Phone (2a) retains the design DNA of previous Nothing phones with the signature transparent back with the Glyph interface (which we’ll discuss later), although it features a refreshed camera design, as the lenses on the back have a bit of a pillow effect, which bulges out slightly. The volume rocker is on the left side, while the power button with fingerprint sensor is on the right; there’s a USB-C port on the bottom along with a speaker grill and a SIM card slot. Overall, the design is sleek, and the Phone 2a has a nice, stealthy look overall.
The Phone 2a’s display comes with a peak brightness of around 1300 nits, which is exceptional for a non-flagship device. The panel is a 6.7-inch flexible AMOLED display with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection, with a resolution of 1084 x 2412 pixels at 391 PPI, and supports 10-bit colour for a rich and vibrant viewing experience. The refresh rate is customizable, which is a rather nice addition – users can opt to set their display at varying refresh rates ranging from a smooth 120Hz down to a battery-saving 30Hz. There’s also a 240Hz touch sampling rate for a responsive gaming experience.
Performance and Software
The Phone (2a) is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 7200 Pro processor and offers up to 12GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. As with other phones on the market these days, there’s also RAM expansion technology that can boost the RAM further, potentially up to 20GB. The phone also boasts a large 5,000 mAh battery with support for 45W fast charging – not insanely fast, but it should be enough for most users.
The phone runs on Nothing OS 2.5 based on Android 14, and unlike most other non-Pixel smartphone brands, the interface is clean and mostly free of bloatware. One great feature that Nothing has included is the option to use a standard Android user interface instead of Nothing UI, although it should be said that the latter is designed to complement the phone’s unique features. Settings include the usual options like display, storage, and battery information.
Camera Quality
At the centre of the Phone 2a’s rear panel is a dual lens setup, which consists of a main 50MP f/1.88 sensor with optical and electronic image stabilization and autofocus, aided by a secondary 50MP f/2.2 ultrawide sensor with a 114° field of view. Meanwhile, the front-facing camera for selfies is 32MP f/2.2. The main camera can record videos at 4K resolution up to 30 frames per second, and 1080p at 120 frames per second for slow-motion. It also supports HDR photo capture, which combines multiple photos for enhanced quality.
The video samples taken with the phone show some over-sharpening in certain areas and occasional oversaturated skies – hopefully, these might be fixable with software updates. Still photos meanwhile generally look good, with good detail and brightness. Even low-light photos come out well, with balanced highlights and colours. Check out our video above for photo and video samples.
Glyph Interface
A key feature of Nothing’s Android phones is the Glyph Interface, which uses a specially-designed lighting setup on the back for various purposes. The Phone (2a) has 26 individually addressable light zones, which can be customized to work with various ringtones, notification sounds, a glyph timer, and other customization options. Users can control the lighting patterns for notifications, ringtones, and even create custom lighting effects. This is no doubt one of the major selling points of Nothing’s Android handsets, the 2a included – if you were after the Glyph Interface, then it’s definitely something you’ll love on the 2a.
Pricing and Conclusion
The Nothing Phone (2a) starts at a very competitive price of £319 for the 8GB RAM/128GB storage version, and £349 for the 12GB RAM/256GB storage version. This is significantly lower than previous Nothing phone models, and is cheaper than even the Google Pixel 7a and the Galaxy A54 and A55. Overall, the Phone (2a) offers excellent value for the price, making it a great option for budget-minded users who still want a phone with unique features and good performance.
