Nothing Phone (2a) 12+256GB – Unlocked mobile phone
Nothing Phone (2a) 12+256GB – Unlocked mobile phone with Nothing OS 2.5 – Black
Nothing Phone (2a) 12+256GB – Unlocked mobile phone with Nothing OS 2.5 – Black
I’m comparing this to my Zenfone 8. I’m not a Phone Gamer.
Quick phone. Battery life is far and away longer lasting than the Zenfone. Screen is very nice. I’ve heard of issues with the Fingerprint reader, I’ve not encountered any of those issues, it works just as well as my Zenfone.
It’s a very big phone, so takes some getting used to.
Niggles I don’t like:
1: No option for separate ring tones for each SIM. You can setup ringtones for each contact, but that’s no use if you have a Work and a Personal SIM and hundreds of contacts.
2: No carousel display option. On most androids to can scroll the page left or right and end up back to Home. On this you can only scroll Right, and then you have to scroll Left to get back Home.
3: Camera is just OK.
It is a mid-range phone though, so you have to expect compromises v’s price.
I recommend the JETech tempered screen protector and Clear case. Working in IT we buy these by the boxload for the hundreds of iPhones we have, and they’re high quality and durable.
This phones a bargain unless you want to pay stupid money for a phone.
Camera works well & everything else.
The glyphs are a bonus that work brilliantly especially the glyph timer countdown.
I recommend this phone especially at this price point.
I was looking for a mid-range phone to run the variety of apps I have loaded, and the Nothing brand had been popping up a lot on my feeds. I didn’t feel the need to go up to the Nothing 2 as it was out of my price range for what I needed.
Until now I’ve been settling around the 150-200 mark on phones and having an okay time – they did what I needed. My Huawei ran for ages but had to drop that one due to limitations introduced. Blackview was where I went next until the phone bricked after about 2 years.
So I took a punt on the Nothing 2a. I liked the idea of the simplicity and the price point was not far out of my range to hold me back.
I have to say I was impressed from the first. The box was tiny compared to most with a funky embossed design on the inner carton. Paper packaging with the phone, charging cable and the usual small phone guides.
Setting up was simple and I easily transferred the data from my old phone, and I was away.
Nothing came with almost Nothing – the usual Android/Google basics, and some extras to run the phone and that’s it – no bloatware.
The interface is clean and responsive, and, having downloaded the Nothing icon pack, I also had a clean monochrome display – something I wasn’t sure I’d get on with, but there’s no distractions.
The options to customise the home screen were the best I’ve experienced so far – essentially the whole home page is your playground. This is the first time I’ve been able to organise ALL my regular apps on one page, and I’ve also had room to add 3 widgets for showing key information, and altered the settings so I have 5 columns, with my most used groups set larger to easily access commonly used apps like MFA.
The dot matrix style text is also clear and pleasing to read, and you can switch off the folder names to gain even more screen space.
You do have the option of also reverting to the Android style interface if that’s more your style, so you are not tied to the Nothing view, but I have no intention of switching!
I’m also liking the Always on display option – I can mow have my basic info at a glance without unlocking the phone – time, date, next alarm, and icons to show app notifications, as well as battery level, and flipping the phone over to show the Glyphs, it flashes and minimises the battery drain.
The ringtones and notification tones are in the same basic style – not overly keen on most of them, but you can add the composer app and then create your own complete with LED combos, or add in items from your music library, so you are not short of options.
The camera is okay for my needs – The front camera does seem to lack some focus close up (trying to capture some text from the back of a device while using the screen to see where I was aiming) but I got round this using the rear camera, capturing a video, then using the in-built tools to grab a screenshot from the video, so problem solved.
Battery for me generally lasts 2 days with the always on setup, and around 3-4 hours screen time according to the stats the phone gathers.
There’s plenty more for me to explore still
Overall, even though I’ve only had it a short time, I am extremely pleased with the phone and I’ve already added the Nothing CMF ear buds (which for me is unusual as I dislike in-ear buds normally, but I was sold on the option of not using noise cancellation – I’ll probably post a review once I have used them in earnest!)
Had it a week and love it! Can’t think of anything to fault really, I’ve come from iPhone 12. Everything seems to work perfectly although I was a bit worried android auto might be hit and miss it no problems so far! Love the flip to glyph to immediately put in do no disturb but have glyph notifications for important calls and notifications.
Of all the phones I’ve had ( a lot in the last few years), this is a stunning phone for the price. Sure, it lacks wireless charging and ultra zoom camera lenses but other than that, it’s very strong performer indeed. It’s also got a personality of it’s own rather than just another mainstream smartphone. I like Nothing’s thinking in that respect to try and stand out from the crowd. For me, the best phone I’ve had in years, hands down. Absolutely love it !
My phone before the Nothing Phone 2a was the Pixel 6 and I’d been with Pixel since the 3, but unfortunately the price of the latest phones are just too high for next to no new features.
The Nothing Phone 2a is not only an incredibly affordable phone and unique in looks, but it competes with the top end phones from Google, Apple and Samsung. No bloatware either which pushed me away from Sony/Samsung nearly 10 years ago.
I’ll update the review after a few months of use and see if anything changes, but so far very very happy with my switch to Nothing.
For me the aesthetic wins out, I was about to pull the trigger on the 100 cheaper Motorola Edge 40 Neo in blue which look superb, but I think this has slightly better performance and looks way cooler. Lots of comparison reviews out there you can probably find other phones in the price range doing this or that better, but to my eyes they won’t look as cool while doing it.