Nothing Phone (2a) Review: Pulls out something special

Nothing Phone (2a) Review: Are you looking for a smartphone that has the perfect combination of all the specs and doesn't burn a hole in your pocket? Well, your search may end at Nothing Phone (2a).

Nothing Phone (2a) Review: Variants

The smartphone is available in two colour variants - black and white and three RAM and storage options. 

8GB + 128GB
Price - 23,999

8GB + 256GB
Price - 25,999

12GB + 256GB
Price - 27,999

Nothing Phone (2a) Review: Design

The Phone (2a) carries forward the legacy of Nothing and has a transparent design with a centrally aligned camera module - which looks like eyes. This time it has a polycarbonate back and yes Phone (2a) does come with a glyph interface. This time, it has three LEDs at the back.

The body is also made of polycarbonate and has a bit of rough texture on the sides which enhances the in-hand feel. However, the back is prone to smudges and attracts fingerprints.  

• Weight - 188 grams (approx)
   
• IP54 Rating
   
• No wireless charging
   

Nothing Phone (2a) Review: Display

The Phone (2a) has a 6.7-inch full HD AMOLED display. This is a flat panel and despite being priced aggressively, the good thing is that it features thin and symmetrical bezels.

The display offers an adaptive refresh rate of 120Hz. This can go down to 30 Hz. Also, Phone (2a) has the thinnest bezels in Nothing’s smartphone line-up. The display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5. You can use the smartphone under direct sunlight and has a high PWM dimming of 2160Hz which is helpful while using the smartphone in low light. The sound quality of the stereo speakers is also decent and this makes the overall multimedia experience fairly good for the price.

• Bezels - 2.1 mm
   
• Screen-to-body ratio - 91.65%
   
• HDR Support
   
• Corning Gorilla Glass 5
   
• Peak Brightness - 1300 nits
   
• In-Display Fingerprint Sensor
   

Nothing Phone (2a) Review: Performance

The Nothing Phone 2(a) is powered by Dimensity 7200 Pro processor which has been co-engineered with MediaTek. But it has UFS 2.2 and I think offering USF 3.1 would have made things much better.

While USF 3.1 would have improved the read/write speed, the good thing is that the smartphone doesn't throttle and doesn't get hot. While this is not a gaming smartphone, you can easily use it for gaming. Also, there is absolutely no lag while multitasking on this device.

• Processor - Mediatek Dimensity 7200 Pro
   
• RAM - 8GB/12GB LPDDR4X
   
• ROM 128GB/256GB USF2.2
   

Nothing Phone (2a) Review: Battery and Charging

Phone (2a) comes with the biggest battery to date in Nothing’s lineup. Yes, it has 5,000 mAh and supports 45W fast charging.

The battery backup is quite good and you can fully charge the device in around 1 hour. While this is not the best, but quite good. 

• 50% of power in just 20 minutes
   
• No Charger in the box
   

Nothing Phone (2a) Review: Software

Nothing is known for offering the best software experience and this is true in the case of Phone (2a). It offers the cleanest software experience in its price range.

The smartphone runs on Nothing OS 2.5 based on Android 14 out of the box. The company promises 3 years of software updates and 4 years of security updates. The best part about Nothing phones is that they are absolutely bloatware-free.

• No Bloatware
   
• 3 Years of software updates
   

Nothing Phone (2a) Review: Camera
 

The smartphone has a dual camera setup at the rear with a 50MP primary camera and a 50MP ultrawide camera. For selfies, it has a 32MP punch-hold camera on the front.

The smartphone clicks good pictures in both day and low light settings. While at times there are some issues related to skin tone, they are usually sharp and bright. Selfies are good but the portrait mode is really great.

• No 4k on Front Camera
   
• Slo-mo, Timel-lapse Modes
   

Nothing Phone (2a) Review: Verdict
 

The Nothing Phone (2a) is an easy recommendation for those who want a unique-looking device with decent cameras, clean software and excellent battery life. Considering the competitive pricing, it is going to give tough competition to several well-established brands.