The Nothing Phone 2a is a decent budget phone with a unique look — and it’s part of the Nothing lineup. For $350 or so, the Nothing 2a offers a great design, a great display, long battery life, and more than good enough performance.
But it’s also hard to get in the US, it makes less-than-ideal compromises in materials, and it has cameras that make more mistakes than hits. It’s an interesting phone from an interesting company, but given the compromises it makes and limited availability, I don’t think it’ll be a big hit in the budget phone market — certainly not in the US.
Nothing phone 2a
The Nothing Phone 2a offers decent value for around $350, with good performance, long battery life, and compelling hardware and software. But the cameras are lacking, and you can’t buy this phone in the US without going through a few hurdles.
- Elegant design
- There is no great operating system.
- Very nice show
- Good performance
- Not available in retail stores in the US.
- Compatibility with US carriers uncertain
- Camera performance is average.
- The clear plastic back is getting ugly.
Phone 2a and network availability
The 2a phone is not available globally.
There’s nothing that won’t sell the Phone 2a at retail in the US; it’s available here through the company’s developer program, but you won’t be able to go to Amazon to get the Phone 2a. The version available through the developer program costs $350 and comes with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. You can get it in black or “Milk” (i.e. off-white).
The phone will be available more widely in European and Asian markets, in black, white, and milky white. Pricing varies by region, but in the UK, the base model with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage will set you back £319; the 12/256GB version is £349. In most of Europe, it’s €329/€379 for the same SKUs. In India, it starts at Rs 23,999; in Japan, it’s ¥49,800. (It’s available in more markets than this; if I haven’t mentioned your country, check the Nothing website.)
Compatibility with US networks isn’t perfect either. The Phone 2a lacks a range of 5G and 4G bands used by major US carriers: On the 5G front, it lacks support for the N2, N60, N71, N260, N261, and N262 bands, which are used by one or more of the big three carriers (and, by extension, any MVNOs whose networks they use).
As for LTE, the 2a lacks bands 2, 12, 13, 14, 17, 29, and 30, all of which are used in some areas in the US. If you plan to try using the Nothing Phone 2a in the US, be sure to check which bands you need to get reliable service where you need it. Coincidentally, I tested the phone on Google Fi (which uses T-Mobile’s network) and didn’t notice any noticeable differences compared to phones from Google and Samsung. But it’s definitely going to be different.
What’s good about the Nothing Phone 2a?
Stunning design, powerful performance, beautiful screen.
The Nothing Phone 2a is a Nothing phone in every sense of the word, and comes with all the features we’ve come to expect. It has a distinctive design, with a transparent back (plastic here, not glass) covering the ornate internals.
The company’s trademark Glyph lights are back, with three LED strips surrounding the dual camera bump that make the phone look like it has eyes. The Glyph lights light up with incoming notifications, and you can select Essential notifications that will have the Glyph lights stay on until you deal with them, like the old LED lights.
I think the most useful thing about Nothing’s Glyph lights is the basic notifications; if you set the feature to specify which notifications you’ll actually need to deal with, you can leave your phone face down when you need to focus, and not worry about missing anything important. I use it all the time when I’m working.
Nothing OS’s Android skin is also great. It doesn’t add as many unique features or system apps as Samsung’s One UI does, but it manages to carve out a unique identity for the Android platform without being overly cluttered or distracting.
Nothing has a collection of widgets designed in its own distinctive dot matrix-like style, matched by some restrained visual customizations throughout the system menus. Even Nothing’s system sounds and notification tones are pleasant and in keeping with the theme. The software experience on Nothing phones is polished and cohesive in ways I wouldn’t necessarily expect from a smaller brand, and I really appreciate that. If you don’t like it, you also have the option to use the phone with stock Android instead — a nice touch.
The Phone 2a has a better display than I expected at this price point: a 1080p AMOLED with a 120Hz refresh rate. It’s not LTPO, but colors are vibrant, and the screen looks uniform, even at low brightness.
Battery life was pretty good for me on the Phone 2a; on a particularly tough day, I managed to get a full 24 hours of playtime without a charger with six hours and 56 minutes of screen time, including two and a half hours of Xbox Game Pass cloud gaming (over Wi-Fi) and about half an hour of GPS navigation. The phone has 45W charging, too, so recharging is quick. Using a compatible charger, it takes about 20 minutes to drain the battery to 50%; a full charge takes over an hour.
Performance was solid, too. Thanks to the MediaTek Dimensity 7200 Pro chipset and 12GB of RAM, my review unit had no problem keeping up with anything I threw at it, from multitasking to casual gaming. The base model of the phone comes with a lower eightGB of RAM, but that’s still plenty for most mobile workloads.
What’s bad about Nothing Phone 2a?
Camera performance is poor and material choices are questionable.
There’s a lot to like about the Nothing Phone 2a, but it also has some serious issues. Particularly for me and a large portion of AP readers: Unlike the Nothing Phone 2, you can’t buy the Phone 2a in the United States.
Okay you canBut you can’t get it from Amazon or any traditional stores. You’ll have to sign up for Nothing’s developer program to get the phone. I should note that Nothing isn’t outright ruling out a retail release in the US, but when I pressed for details on that, a representative gave me a standard “nothing to share.” As I noted above, the version available today has questionable compatibility with many US networks, so if you’re keen on getting one, do your homework first.
The black model in particular seems to be built to collect fingerprints. The back panel is a high-gloss plastic that shows oil from your hands clearly, and because it’s not as hard as glass, it’s easily scratched. The back of the device I reviewed was already showing signs of wear at the top edge, after just a few weeks of being in and out of my pocket. Lighter versions will show wear just as much, but the scratches and smudges won’t be as easy to see.
I’m sorry to break this to you, but this is what the Phone 2a looks like most of the time.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the 2a’s cameras aren’t very good for a $350 phone. It has a standard lens and an ultra-wide lens, both of which are over 50 megapixels with Samsung’s sensors shrinking to 12.5. I took some photos with the phone that I liked, but performance is wildly uneven, with the cameras often feeling slow and struggling with dynamic range.
There’s Ultra HDR support here, which means your photos will show a greater dynamic range on compatible displays, with highlights appearing brighter than the rest of the image. But Nothing’s HDR processing seems to be really lacking: shadows are always too bright, and I occasionally get a message telling me to hold the phone steady while the cameras capture HDR images. daytimeThis doesn’t use any special mode, I’m just talking about tapping the shutter button on full auto mode.
File size in Ultra HDR photos has been an issue on Android since the feature debuted on the Pixel 8 series, which could pump out 12MP JPGs with massive file sizes of up to 6MB. The Nothing Phone 2a takes this to an extreme: the largest photo you’ve ever taken is one that’s eating up cloud storage space. 10 MB With a resolution of 3072 x 4080.
This image is an anomaly, but it’s not uncommon to see images that are five to seven megabytes in size. That’s a lot of space to allocate to images like the ones that come from this phone, HDR or not.
Related to
Nothing Phone 2 Review: Finding Its Niche
Nothing’s first US smartphone was a (mostly) success
Should you buy the Nothing Phone 2a?
If you can easily order one, maybe.
The Nothing Phone 2a is a stylish, fast phone that doesn’t cost a lot of money. The glossy plastic gets dirty in a heartbeat without a case, it doesn’t work perfectly on US networks, and the photos it takes aren’t great. If the pros—software, design, display, battery life—outweigh the cons for your particular needs, the Nothing Phone 2a is likely a good choice. If you can get one, it’s the best choice.
Nothing phone 2a
The Nothing Phone 2a offers decent value for around $350, with good performance, long battery life, and compelling hardware and software. But the cameras are lacking, and you can’t buy this phone in the US without going through a few hurdles.
