Nothing Phone (2a) Review: Looking like a flagship in disguise
The mid-range segment is a tricky one to navigate.
The choices are endless and routinely renewed every year to keep up with demands. So saturated is the market that deciding on a mid-range smartphone can feel akin to wading through a bustling pasar malam trying to decide which stall sells the best apam balik.
Every now and then though, you see a store that’s gone over and beyond in their setup, with delectable offerings to follow suit. I’m not sure if you get where I’m heading, but this is essentially the Phone (2a).
This is an eye-catching, pretty-looking device with the promise of stable performance that makes you question if it perhaps belongs in the rungs of the flagship ladder.
Having had the Phone (2a) for a month, I’ve been blown away on many occasions as to how well it performed, and just how enjoyable it is to use. It’s a holistic all-rounder with little compromise, and for me, the best mid-ranger I’ve reviewed thus far in 2024.
But enough with vague statements, here’s an in-depth review of the Nothing Phone (2a).
All eyes on the two eyes
From the rear panels alone, you can tell that this is unmistakably a Nothing phone. The semi-transparent rear panels iconic to the Nothing brand are present, and the Glyph Interface – although largely subdued from the Phone (2) – is still the hallmark feature.
Unlike the Phone (2) though, there’s no glass back here. The rear panels, and even the frame around the display, are plastic. It may sound off-putting on paper – especially when other brands are boasting glass backs and aluminum this-and-thats – but in reality, the Phone (2a) is a solid build. It does help that it has a rounded back, and the frame, despite being made of plastic, has a matte-like texture which has earned itself some style points. The only real downside of a plastic back is that it tends to attract fingerprint smudges rather quickly, but it’s nothing a piece of cloth can’t fix.
The camera bumps are unique to say the least. That horizontal dual camera setup made to resemble eyes may not be for everyone. I personally had no issues with it. In fact, it’s quite refreshing given the amount of phones with either gargantuan circular camera bumps, or boring vertical setups guised under the ‘minimalist’ theme.
The Phone (2a) is available in Black and White. Our review unit came in Black, which is decent looking in itself, but I must say the White model with the black power and volume buttons does go a long way, and would’ve been my first choice as a consumer.
Aesthetics-wise, the Phone (2a) receives a flying A in my books just on the sole fact that it challenges the norm. Everyone is pulling pages out of each others’ books nowadays, which makes refreshing new takes like these all the more unique and welcoming.
Glyph Interface: Stripped down to the basics
One of the areas Nothing has made changes – possibly to reduce cost – is to strip down the Glyph Interface (GI). Compared to the Phone (1) and Phone (2), the GI on the Phone (2a) is largely subdued. Its presence is limited to the top half of the device, consisting of only three LED strips encircling the camera bump.
We’re not sure how reliant you are, or will be, on the GI. Even Nothing users tend not to fully utilize the Glyph Interface. Some would even turn it off completely since they will have their phone screens upwards anyway. At this point in time, you can still make the case that the GI is still a gimmick feature, although, in our Nothing Phone (2) review, we did note a few worthy improvements that push the needle in the right direction.
Nevertheless, the mellowed down GI on the Phone (2a) still retains much of the core elements we found useful. The most important of these being Essential Notification, which allows users to decide for themselves which notification from an app is important enough to warrant attention when your phone is facing downwards. It’s a great feature to have if your goal is to reduce screen time as it trims down the need to pick your phone up every time a notification comes through (and fewer chances of getting distracted with another app).
You’ll also still have the GI as a volume indicator and timer, and they’ve thankfully retained the Flip to Glyph function which turns off vibration and puts the phone into silent mode when you lay your phone face down, relying only on the Glyphs for notifications.
What you lose on the GI is the charging indicator, which, on the Phone (2) required you to wiggle the phone anyway for the Glyph to light up, and so isn’t too different from picking the phone up yourself.
At this point in time, the Glyph Interface on the Nothing flagships – although moving in the right direction – isn’t a feature someone will throw thousands on. Trimming down the GI in order to markedly reduce the cost of the Phone (2a) may prove to be a stellar move to make the Nothing brand more approachable, while still providing a gateway for budget-restricted consumers to experience the heart and soul of the Nothing way.
Nothing OS still the main star of the show
What truly separates the Nothing brand from the rest is the Nothing OS. For the record, our version while reviewing was the Nothing OS 2.5.5, which is also available on the Phone (1) and Phone (2) as well.
I’m still very much all for the clean and sleek monochrome aesthetics. Nothing’s goal was always to give opportunities to the user to be decisive in which app to open, pulling away power from bubblegum-coloured icons that steal your attention. Everything is consistent on the Nothing OS, every icon is cloaked in black and white, and therefore, every app is equal.
If you’re wondering, yes, even third party apps can be made monochrome. But you will need to download the Nothing Icon Pack, preferably by Nothing Technology Limited. After that, it’s only a matter of long-pressing your home screen, selecting Customisation, and choosing the Icon Pack option.
A neat trick with the Nothing OS is being able to enlarge specific app icons and folders. I personally lump all my games into a blown out 2×2 folder. If you want, you can also overlay it with a dot matrix icon to cover the contents of the folder. My WhatsApp – probably the most important app for personal and work – is also enlarged to a 2×2 size so it’s the first thing I see when I look at my home screen.
What I love most though is the Quick Settings widget that allows you to set specific settings into an icon on the homepage. Say, for example, that you constantly find yourself toggling your Bluetooth, mobile hotspot, or location settings on or off. With Quick Settings, you can integrate these functions into your homepage itself, rather than needing to pull down the drawer menu or manually heading into settings.
In fact, you don’t even need to be on your homepage to toggle these functions on/off. Nothing OS allows for lock screen widgets, so you can have access to your desired Quick Settings all without unlocking your phone.
Then there are the small things too, like being able to elongate the widget to an oblong 2×1 icon. And the ‘Atmosphere’ wallpaper mode which blurs your home screen background for better contrast with the icons, kind of like a camera bokeh effect.
This is customization at its finest. The Nothing OS gives users allowance to shape the phone in a way that is stylish and practical to the user, therefore making their phone truly theirs. I can envision that after a few years of using the Nothing OS, shifting to another device with a less expressive operating system will make you feel like you’re missing out on something.
Performance: Is this a flagship in disguise?
The Nothing Phone (2a) is by far one of the snappiest mid-rangers I’ve used. It runs on the MediaTek Dimensity 7200 Pro 5G, which has impressed so far.
If your day-to-day largely revolves around social media scrolling, web browsing, emails, and video streaming on YouTube and Netflix, the Phone (2a)’s engine is everything you need and more. I was delightfully in awe of how responsive the overall experience was. There was no sign of any perceptible lag or delay, and even those pop-up animations whenever you open a tab run unflinchingly smooth.
Even our gaming experience was a total surprise. We tested the Phone (2a) across several genre of games, namely Call of Duty: Mobile for first-person shooters, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang for battle arena type games, Asphalt 9: Legends for racing, and Subway Surfers for endless runner games. Each one, even under high settings, performed beyond the mark with no stuttering whatsoever.
We reckon things will get a little more complex with open-world based games such as Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail, but as far as performance goes from the shoes of a casual gamer and chronic social media user, the Phone (2a) merits some mighty applause.
On another note, battery performance was equally as amazing. From 100%, I managed to get 9 hours of screen-on time with YouTube running continuously throughout the whole period. Before I started the test, I had expected battery to diminish or at least be in the red zone by the end of the nine hours. Remarkably though, I still had about 35% battery left!
Whatever it is that’s in that 5,000mAh battery, or however that MediaTek chip is tweaked, it seems to be working jaw-dropping wonders on battery life.
Cameras: Great main camera, but ‘mehh’ portraits
The Nothing Phone (2a) comes equipped with a 50MP main camera and a 50MP ultra-wide. By default, it shoots at 12MP.
Overall, the Phone (2a)’s camera is pretty decent as a point-and-shooter. Under good lighting, photos taken from the main cameras are vibrant, bright, and accurate to the scene.
The focal length of the main camera is equivalent to 24mm, and you can either zoom 2x for a 50mm focal length equivalent, or switch to the 0.6x ultrawide for a sweeping 14mm focal length. All three lengths performed equally well, with crisp details and colours retained.
Where cameras take a hit is in portrait mode. For certain subjects, such as the photos of the flower bouquet below, you’ll notice that the edges aren’t rendered all that well. The blurry bokeh effect seeps into the outline of the subject, blurring the edges and making the photo look unnatural.
Despite that, the Phone (2a)’s cameras are for the most part pleasing. You may perhaps feel like it’s lacking in lens array since it only has two cameras while most other mid-rangers usually have a third macro camera. I certainly didn’t feel like I was missing anything. Macro lenses on affordable devices don’t perform that well anyway, so it isn’t something I’d hinge my entire decision on when looking out for a new device.
Nothing Phone (2a): The new mid-range king?
If you’ve taken the time to read the whole article, then it’s plain to see I really, really like the Nothing Phone (2a). Even more so than the Phone (2). Now, don’t get me wrong, the Phone (2) performed greatly too. But this was somewhat expected of a device floating in the RM3,000 range.
The Phone (2a), on the other hand, retails at almost half the price at RM1,699, with performance just as good as the flagship offering, and battery life that can last you 9 hours of continuous screen time, at least. Plus, you’ll be getting the same Nothing OS with all its clean interface and customization features to boot.
Even the mellowed down Glyph Interface keeps to the core essentials so you won’t be missing too much from the Phone (2) either.
In my books at least, the Nothing Phone (2a) is the best value-for-money smartphone you can purchase in 2024.
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