- Nothing's first mid-range device, the Nothing Phone (2a) has been launched.
- It's powered by MediaTek Dimensity 7200 Pro and packs a 5,000 mAh battery capable of charging at 45W.
- The phone features a transparent back with Glyphs; the back of the device and the frame are made of plastic.
After much anticipation, Nothing has launched the Nothing Phone (2a), its first mid-range phone globally. And unsurprisingly, most of the leaks about it were true, besides a few design-related ones that couldn’t trace out a few fine details. Given the surprisingly low price, the device has turned out to be an exciting acquisition, and here’s everything you need to know about the Nothing Phone (2a) launch.
Nothing Phone (2a) Design and Display
Starting with the back, which has been the center of attention, the material used for the transparent back design is polycarbonate, in simple words, plastic. The frame too is made out of plastic but the buttons are aluminum. The phone comes in two colors — White and Black; the back plastic curves on the edges and has a sort of frosted finish. In typical Nothing fashion, the volume buttons are on the left while the power button is on the right.
The display is a 6.7-inch Full-HD+ AMOLED with a 30-120Hz adaptive refresh rate with a peak brightness of 1,300 nits. It’s a 10-bit flat display protected by Gorilla Glass 5, and is HDR10+ certified.
It has a 32MP punch-hole camera, and the same is located in the middle. Overall, the display has exceeded expectations on paper when you consider the pricing, which we discuss at the end.
Performance
Hardware leaks are often on point, and the Phone (2a) leaks were no different. The company initially denied them only to come out and say they were using the Dimensity 7200 Pro. Nothing and MediaTek have worked together on a custom Dimensity 7200 Pro chipset for Phone 2(a) to deliver better power efficiency.
It’s developed on TSMC’s 2nd-gen 4nm process node and has an octa-core CPU with a 2+6 configuration. The CPU features 2x Cortex A715 performance cores clocked at 2.8 GHz and 6x Cortex-A510 efficiency cores clocked at 2.00 GHz. The GPU is a Mali G610 MC4, and the phone features a 3,200 square mm large vapor chamber and 12,000 square mm graphite-made cryogenic frame.
One of the other areas where Nothing did massive cost cutting is in the storage and RAM. The storage on the Phone (2a) is the older UFS 2.2 variant along with the older LPDDR4X RAM.
The competition like the Realme 12 Pro and OnePlus Nord CE 3 come with UFS 3.1 storage and LPDDR5X RAM, which are newer and a tad bit faster than Phone (2a)’s storage and RAM.
Nothing Phone (2a): Cameras
The rear has dual cameras. The main sensor is the popular Samsung ISOCELL GN9 50 MP 1/1.56″ shooter with optical image stabilization. The secondary camera is a 50 MP Samsung ISOCELL JN1 1/2.76 sensor which is Ultrawide and lacks OIS. The front camera is a 32 MP 1/2.74 Sony IMX 615 sensor.
The fact that there’s no 2 MP gimmicky macro camera is a good thing, and I’m sure people would find more use for the ultrawide than a 2 MP macro. That said, the primary camera should be able to capture decent shots, depending on Nothing’s post-processing chops.
Glyph Interface
The Phone (2a) has three Glyph segments and 26 individually addressable zones with lots of functions, most of which are also available in the Phone (2). Cool Glyph functions such as timer, Essential Notifications, Glyph Composer, Glyph Torch, Glyph Progress, and Flip to Glyph are all present. It’s definitely an upgrade from the Phone (1).
Battery and Charging
Backing the Dimensity 7200 Pro and Glyphs is a beefy 5,000 mAh battery that’s capable of charging at 45W. However, unlike the Phone (1) and Phone (2), there’s no wireless charging support. Nothing claims 0-100% charging speed in 1 hour, but more information about the same will be revealed in our full review.
Paired with the Dimensity 7200 Pro and Nothing’s optimizations on top of the Nothing OS, I expect the Phone (2a) to last two days with light usage and slightly more than a day for heavy users.
Software and Connectivity
Nothing Phone (2a) comes with Nothing OS 2.5 (review), which is Nothing’s latest software release based on Android 14. Similar to Nothing’s earlier phones, the startup promises three major Android updates which is excellent for a mid-range device, offered at a competitive price. The OS comes with ZERO bloat, which is commendable.
As for the connectivity, you get Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3, Dual Nano SIM card slots, NFC, and USB Type-C which unfortunately is USB 2.0. It’s commendable that Nothing has managed to keep NFC, which should allow users to use tap-to-pay seamlessly.
Nothing Phone (2a) Pricing
The 8GB+128GB base variant of the Nothing Phone (2a) is priced at Rs 23,999 in India. However, the offers will bring the price down to effectively Rs 19,999 for just one day, i.e. on March 12.
As for other storage variants, the 8GB+256GB variant will cost you Rs 25,999, whereas you need to spend Rs 27,999 for the 12GB+256GB variant.
- 8GB+128GB – Rs 23,999
- 8GB+256GB – Rs 25,999
- 12GB+256GB – Rs 27,999
What are your thoughts on the Nothing Phone (2a) launch? Would you pick it over devices like the Realme 12 Pro or the POCO X6? Let us know in the comment section below. The company has also launched CMF Buds and Neckband Pro with its mid-range offering.
