The Nothing Phone 2 is as sleek and modern as it appears

It’s simple to determine if the Nothing Phone 2 is for you. Look at this. Is it calling to you? Does it pique your curiosity and appear to solve smartphone issues that have been bothering you for years? If so, go ahead and buy one since it is exactly what it appears to be, nothing more or less. The Nothing Phone 2 is a styled Android phone with a few simple yet effective design features. It’s not a novel notion, but it’s unique enough to stand out and powerful enough to recommend.

Despite the greater price, the Nothing Phone 2 is an appealing option in the mid-market. It has a flagship-level chipset, a twin 50MP camera system, and great all-day performance that allow it to compete with some of the top phones on the market, not to mention its attractive, transparent, LED-laden design that sets it apart.

Essentially, this is the Nothing Phone that Nothing would have liked to have launched the first time, addressing the majority of the major issues with the budget-friendly first-generation device.

Price when reviewed: $791.70 | Check price at Amazon

Nothing Phone 2 KEY FEATURES

The Nothing Phone 2 Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 outperforms its similarly priced competitors, allowing it to compete with more expensive flagships. A reasonable pricing for such a novel design concept with long-lasting performance.Very innovative design with an interesting glyph light interface that is unfortunately misused. Excellent display, which is brighter than most competitors at this price level. Cameras cannot handle dynamic lighting and lack the detail and quality of competing phones. Unique interface concepts are simple but effective. Too bad the glyph was an afterthought. Excellent performance from the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 processor, a significant boost over the previous generation.

Unfortunately, the glyphs aren’t useful right now. If you expect to completely ignore your screen, you’ll be disappointed by the dazzling gimmick. The Nothing Phone 2 sports a stunning 6.7-inch OLED display with a refresh rate of 120Hz and LTPO technology that allows it to drop down to as low as 1Hz – which is extremely rare in this price category. Nothing CEO Carl Pei is nice and wealthy, but don’t buy his phone simply because you like him or dislike another phone company. It’s not particularly fantastic.

NOTHING PHONE 2 UNBOXING

The Nothing Phone 2, like the Nothing Phone 1, ships in an eco-friendly paper box, and once opened, or should we say torn apart, it is no longer in immaculate condition.

Anyway, this paper box contains the Nothing Phone 2, a pre-applied screen protector, a USB-C cable, and a fancy SIM ejection pin. Unlike many other smartphones, the thin protective film is of great quality and does not attract smudges as much as we expected.

CAMERA

• The cameras are not very excellent overall
• Dynamic range and HDR are a big issue
• In this price bracket, competition is severe

The Nothing Phone (1) was a terrific initial attempt at a cheap phone, but we discovered that the camera performance was hit-or-miss, with some strange tuning and performance concerns. Fortunately, this is not the case with the Nothing Phone (2), at least in most instances.

Though you could be forgiven for thinking that the twin 50MP main and ultrawide lenses are identical to their predecessors, this is only partially correct. While the ultrawide sensor uses the same Samsung JN1 sensor, the main camera has a new Sony IMX890 sensor, which is the same as the one found in the £729/$699 OnePlus 11.

In addition to enhancing the hardware, Nothing says that an enhanced ISP allows the phone to record up to 4000x more data than the Phone (1), and 8 frames of exposure in HDR photographs compared to only 3 in its predecessor. It has also spent a significant amount of work fine-tuning both cameras to maximize system performance.

That’s all well and good, but how does it convert into real-world performance? Reader, I have been pleasantly delighted. I’ve been using the Nothing Phone (2) to take photos for the past week, and in general, it’s a dependable camera that produces good photos in most situations – especially given its mid-range price. The sensor’s pixel-binning technology helps to produce detailed, colorful, and light-filled photos in well-lit conditions. I can simply aim and snap without worrying.

That holds for photographing large London buildings as well as more detailed subjects such as my fluffy German Shepherd, Luna. It’s the same with leafy trees, vast stretches of grass, and other finer features in photos, demonstrating the value of an improved ISP. It’s also fantastic for catching more subtle color transitions, such as the red-to-orange hue of sunlight beaming through the trees at sunset, without being overly vibrant. Samsung, I am looking at you here. The color profile is more natural than other options, yet it’s still vibrant enough to share on social media.

The Nothing Phone (2) is unlikely to win any awards for best camera phone for low-light photography anytime soon, especially with 1-inch sensors available at the high end of the market, but it can still extract extra brightness and detail from darker shots with a nearby source of light. However, it falls short of the Pixel 7a in terms of actual low-light performance. We had issues with the 50MP ultrawide on the Nothing Phone (1), which had a noticeable difference in color tone compared to photographs recorded with the primary lens, but it appears Nothing has spent a lot of effort resolving this issue with the Phone (2), which now has nearly equal colors across the two cameras.

The matched 50MP resolution also eliminates the resolution loss that many mid-rangers and their low-res ultrawide lenses cause, resulting in clear, detail-rich photos. Even when taking HDR photographs, they are fairly consistent with the images recorded with the main lens. There is still some distortion around the borders of ultrawide images, but it isn’t too noticeable. Users should expect a higher-resolution 32MP selfie camera, up from 16MP. That should be adequate for video chats and quick selfies with a natural bokeh, though images may occasionally appear soft due to the camera’s fixed focus mode.

In terms of video, you can expect a boosted 4K@60fps capture with reasonable stabilization; nevertheless, for truly shaky videos, the dedicated Action Mode comes in useful. It will crop your movie more than ordinary videos, but the super-smooth stabilization is worth the trade-off.

DESIGN AND SCREEN

• Same design as the Nothing Phone (1)
• Minor changes to the Glyph interface
• High-end 6.7-inch 120Hz OLED display
• The LTPO technology is remarkable at this pricing

Nothing produced a remarkable visual design with the Nothing Phone (1), and the same is true with the Nothing Phone 2. The Nothing Phone (2), like the original, has a translucent back, reminiscent of early 2000s technology such as the Game Boy Advance, allowing you to see the components that power the experience.

It’s as clean as it was on the Nothing Phone (1), with no significant alterations to the components on display. I enjoy being able to see the snaking lines connecting the components, the huge Qi wireless charging coil, and how everything fits together. Everything matches, with all components colored in either white or grey depending on the finish you choose – there is currently no black option, but this may change in the future.

The translucent rear isn’t the only design element copied from the Phone (1); the renowned Glyph interface is also present and accounted for. The location of the white LED strips is identical to that of its predecessor, but the underlying technology has been improved.

These range from minor quality-of-life enhancements such as auto-brightness technology, which dims or brightens the LEDs based on ambient lighting, to more significant enhancements such as segmented LEDs within the strip, which allow better control over the lighting within – but more on that later.

The Glyph interface’s essential functionality remains unchanged, but it is mostly utilized as a flashy notification system to alert you to incoming texts and calls when screen-down. It can also function as a soft fill light in the Camera app and as a flashlight.

During my week of testing, I didn’t get tired of the Glyph interface, however, it took some time for me to get used to setting my phone screen down to fully utilize the device.

I also enjoyed how I could flip the phone to silence the sound of calls and notifications while working, rather than relying entirely on the LED lights to notify me of incoming notifications. Some would claim that it is more distracting than a notification sound, but I didn’t find that to be true.

Essentially, if you love the notion of the Glyph interface on the Phone (1), you’ll enjoy what the Phone (2) has to offer. If you didn’t, there’s little here to make you reconsider.

Aside from the flashy lights, the Nothing Phone (2)’s design has remained relatively unchanged. The display is slightly larger, but the tiny bezels make it feel no larger than the 6.55-inch Nothing Phone (1), and the modest curvature of the rear paneling makes it more comfortable to hold than its angular predecessor. The components are likewise high quality for the budget, with an aluminum frame and a glass rear protected by Corning’s Gorilla Glass, making the phone feel much more costly than it is.

The Nothing Phone (1) was hailed for its high-end display despite its low price, and the Phone (2) maintains this trend, despite its increased asking price. A slightly larger 6.7-inch OLED panel with a smooth 120Hz refresh rate and high-end LTPO technology lets it drop down to as low as 1Hz to save battery life. LTPO technology at this pricing point is quite rare, and nothing deserves to be praised for it.

Aside from the super-smooth refresh rate, support for HDR10+ and a maximum brightness of 1600nits provide for an excellent movie-watching experience in apps like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, with rich colors and the deep, inky blacks that OLED technology is known for. That brightness also allows for a more comfortable viewing experience outside, with no major issues using the phone on bright sunny days. Aside from size, there’s a reliable fingerprint sensor within the display, as well as a centrally-placed hole-punch camera.

HOW’S THE PERFORMANCE?

• Probably faster than it should be
• The camera app could be unresponsive
• Faster than the Pixel but slower than the OnePlus

With the second generation Nothing Phone 2, Nothing significantly increased the phone’s processing power, moving from a low-cost, mid-range processor to a flagship-level Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 platform. The same chipset is utilized in the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 and the Motorola Razr Plus (Razr 40 Ultra). There is a newer Snapdragon, the Gen 2 chipset featured in the OnePlus 11, however the difference is minor.

The Nothing Phone 2 performed admirably in my tests, particularly when it came to running the quickest apps and games. Everything worked effortlessly and looked great on the Nothing Phone’s speedy display.

I experienced some camera response issues, and I’m not sure if it was a performance or software issue because Nothing wrote its camera app rather than using the stock Google Android Camera. When I pressed the button or switched between modes, the camera would freeze and stall for a second or two.

If you want a speedier phone than this at the same price, the OnePlus is somewhat faster, but only in benchmark tests. The Nothing Phone 2 can handle games with high graphics settings, and the visual embellishments Nothing adds to the interface operate very smoothly on this phone.

It may help that I am reviewing the top-tier variant of the Nothing Phone 2. There are 8GB and 12GB variants available, and having that much RAM can make a difference in an Android phone. I’m confident that programs will function nicely on both models, but if you frequently move between apps or deal with large games, you may wish to invest in more memory.

Buy it if...

• Unique glass design with Glyph UI, IP54 rating.
• Bright Fluid AMOLED, adjustable refresh rate, minimal bezels, 1 billion colors.
• Excellent battery life and rapid charging.
• Loud stereo speakers.
• Excellent heat dissipation and flagship-level performance.
• Excellent images and movies from all cameras, day and night.
• Lovely Nothing OS with up to four years of upgrades.

Don't buy it if…

• No high refresh rate gaming; GPU throttling may occur.
• Not IP68 rated.
• There was no charger in the box.

FULL SPECIFICATION