Not long ago, OnePlus was a small underdog seeking to break into the smartphone market. It effectively disrupted the market with competing items and then expanded from there. Well, not without the assistance of the BBK corporation, but it is still an underdog success story.
Carl Pei, one of the co-founders of OnePlus, is currently attempting to replicate his success in the industry by building the Nothing brand. Following the relative success of the first Nothing Phone (1), the business is now introducing a second model to the market: the Nothing Phone (2).
The latter is a significantly more expensive offer than the original. So much so that it can now compete successfully with other high-end smartphones. It’s also one of the few newcomers to the US market, where it costs roughly the same as the OnePlus 11. Each has unique advantages and disadvantages that are worth discussing.
NOTHING PHONE 2 VS ONEPLUS 11: SPECS COMPARISON
The Nothing Phone 2 is the company’s first retail smartphone release in North America. It has a visually appealing design featuring a translucent shell and a glowing Glyph Interface for alerts. The OnePlus 11 is the company’s latest device, and it marks a return to form, punching above its pricing range.
The Nothing Phone 2 is a sleek mid-range smartphone powered by the flagship Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 CPU. The transparent design is eye-catching and allows for notifications to be displayed via the luminous Glyph Interface. Is Carl Pei’s new company capable of competing with his previous venture? The OnePlus 11 marks a return to form for the firm, offering near-flagship performance at a substantially cheaper price point. The cameras are good, the performance is excellent without thermal throttling, and many of us here at XDA believe it is the most undervalued phone right now.
CAMERA
The Nothing Phone 2 features two cameras on the back: a 50MP Sony IMX890 sensor with f/1.9 aperture and a 50MP JN1 ultrawide sensor with f/2.2 aperture. The 32MP selfie camera is 1080p and fixed focus, but it performs well. This may be a mid-tier hardware configuration, but Nothing’s software engineering team has raised it to perform much beyond its class.
The OnePlus 11’s camera system is perhaps more adaptable than the two phones. The main camera is equipped with the well-known 50MP Sony IMX890, 1/1.56″ sensor, an optically stabilized 24mm lens, with a wide f/1.8 aperture. It is capable of capturing up to 8K@24fps videos. The ultrawide shooter has a 48MP sensor and autofocus capability, allowing for close-ups and macro shots. In addition, there is a specialized 32MP, 2x telephoto camera. OnePlus advertises this as a portrait-oriented camera. The selfie camera is a 16MP device with a fixed focus.
As you can see from the image samples below, the new sophisticated HDR technique employed on this phone is excellent. Images are vibrant and vivid, with color adjustments kept to a minimum to keep them looking more natural. Importantly, skies are usually always exposed correctly. There is nothing worse than blown-out skies. The only significant disappointment is that shadows can be overexposed, reducing contrast in the overall image. The ultrawide offers similar color science, but the smaller sensor produces soft photos in low-light circumstances. Video performance is good when still, however, motion causes a lack of stabilization, resulting in jerky footage.
DESIGN AND DISPLAY
The Nothing Phone (2) features a 6.7-inch OLED display with 2414×1080 resolution. It includes an adaptive refresh rate of 1Hz to 120Hz, which means it can increase during demanding tasks and decrease to save battery life when necessary. It supports HDR10+ and reports a peak brightness of 1600 nits for HDR content.
The OnePlus 11 features the same 6.7-inch display but with a higher resolution of 3216×1440. It features a Super Fluid AMOLED screen with the same 120Hz dynamic refresh rate. The presence of a higher resolution and AMOLED technology makes the OnePlus 11’s screen appear crisper and sharper, which is vital for anyone who wants to watch video material on their mobile device.
The Nothing Phone (2) has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset, whereas the OnePlus 11 uses the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC. The OnePlus 11’s CPU will be more powerful, with Qualcomm saying that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 improves AI, camera, and networking.
The OnePlus 11’s increased power will most certainly be evident to mobile gamers, who require more power than average users. If you want the greatest raw power, the OnePlus 11 is the way to go, but the Nothing Phone (2) can still handle most chores.
HOW’S THE PERFORMANCE?
The Phone 2 uses Nothing OS 2.0, which is based on Android 13. It uses a monochromatic UI by default, with minimalist icons and no text labels. That’s consistent with the phone’s outside design, although users may convert it back to labels or full-color if they like. Nothing OS is designed to provide extensive customization options to tailor the device to the way you use it. That is somewhat unsurprising given that several Nothing employees previously worked for OnePlus, and OxygenOS is similarly feature-rich. The Glyph Interface can be configured to display bespoke lighting patterns and/or noises for certain contacts or app notifications, allowing you to determine whether a notice is worth opening without switching your phone over.
The Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 is still a powerful chipset, and the Phone 2’s user experience is fluid and responsive. The Phone 2 has a 4,700mAh battery and supports 45W wired or 15W wireless charging. You will need your charger because the box does not include one. According to our testing, charging from 0 to 100 percent takes approximately an hour. It may last a whole day (13-14 hours) on a single charge, but you may need to recharge if you’re constantly surfing around social media or viewing videos.
The OnePlus 11 runs OxygenOS, which is based on Android 13. It has a lot of useful features, such as quick launch gestures that allow you to launch the camera simply by drawing a circle on the lock screen. All of the animations are buttery smooth, and the phone UI is very customizable to make it your own. It is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, the most powerful processor found in Android handsets. That, combined with the newest RAM and storage standards, ensures that everything you do on the OnePlus 11 moves quickly. It’s worth mentioning that the chip is somewhat underclocked, so it won’t set any benchmark records, but it will keep cool under heavy loads.
The 5,000mAh battery can provide 13 to 14 hours of use on a single charge. Again, heavy usage will limit this, but the bundled 80W SuperVooc+ charger can recharge it by 45% in 10 minutes (and approximately 25 minutes to full). The lack of wireless charging will be a dealbreaker for some, but I haven’t lamented its absence, nor have several other XDA staff.
PURCHASE THE NOTHING PHONE (2) FOR :
- The lighter body.
- The brighter display.
- The wireless charging capability.
- In Europe, prices are more affordable.
GET THE ONEPLUS 11 FOR:
- Higher IP64 ingress protection rating.
- Higher display resolution, enhanced HDR compatibility, and high refresh rate handling.
- The significantly faster charging and bundled charger.
- The chipset delivers greater overall performance.
- The extra 2x zoom camera.
