Nothing Phone (2a), analysis: is this the new king of the middle class?

After two generations of high-end mobile phones and several headphones, Nothing finally has a mid-range smartphone. The company presented Telephone (2a), a device designed to compete with cheaper models from brands such as Samsung, Xiaomi or Google. It does this by keeping the essence of the phone (2), with features never before seen in a mid-range mobile phone and some surprises we didn’t realize until we tested it extensively.

With this phone (2a), Nothing seems to follow a strategy very similar to the one Google has been pursuing for several years.and what Samsung did at one time: it released a special version of its flagship with some similar functions, but at a slightly lower price. For example, Mountain View has the Pixel 7a (RRP €509), which is a slightly lower option than the Pixel 7 (RRP €649), although they use the same processor or the same camera.

However, there is an important difference. Phone (2a) shares almost no characteristics with phone (2). It doesn’t have the same processor or the same main sensor. Simply, we repeat, it inherits the essence of the brand’s flagship. This represents a disadvantage compared to Google’s mid-range mobile phone, but allows the Nothing to compete with this and other similar devices with another advantage: price. Phone (2a) actually, It will go on sale at a price of around 330 euros.. And I would dare to say that there is no better option for this price in several key ways.

Phone “Best of Nothing” (2a)

Telephone (2a) has a different design than Telephone (2). But inevitably, when you see it, you know you’re looking at a Nothing mobile device. The company has managed to maintain the aspect that characterizes them so much, with transparent back showing some components – although in the case of the black version it is somewhat more opaque – completely flat bezels and a bezel with virtually no bezels on the screen. However, there is an important difference in materials: this phone (2a) has both the back and frames made of polycarbonate. However, this is unlikely to be the case.

The back part also differs from the “Phone” (2) in the location of the photo module, which is now located in the center. And also because of the LED lighting system. Yes, this phone (2a) has what the company calls Glyph.although in this case we only see three stripes surrounding the camera area.

This and the transparent back panel are more than enough to make the terminal, without a doubt, one of the most beautiful mid-class smartphones what passed through our hands. In fact, speaking of personal taste, I think the opaque finish of the Phone (2a) is much more appropriate than the gray color of the Phone (2), although I must say that it is a big fingerprint magnet.

Telephone (2a also has light)

And speaking of Glyph. The Phone (2a)’s lighting system is significantly less expansive than its big brother, but that doesn’t mean it’s any more limited. Nothing really retained all the functions announced with the advent of the phone (2). That is, the ability to create personalized ringtones through its own app, use one of the LED strips as a countdown visual element, activate the backlight as an alert for incoming calls and notifications, or even activate its use in third-party apps for, for example, finding out how long Uber has been parked in our place.

This is an addition that, although not a decisive factor when choosing a particular terminal, is extremely welcome. This has virtually no effect on battery life, and gives it a completely different aesthetic tone compared to other mid-range mobile phones.

By the way, NothingOS, the company customization level, is present in this phone (2a). Again, with almost the same functions as in the Phone (2). You can customize your home screen with Nothing’s custom icon pack, experiment with different wallpapers, or change interface colors. All this from one menu and without useless additional settings and functions.

The screen also lights up

I’ll be honest. When I first tried this phone (2a), I didn’t know its starting price. I stuck to the rumors that it cost around 500 euros and after playing with it I realized that its screen is very good for that supposed price. Now that I know that the smartphone costs about 330 euros, I can say that This is an impressive screen for the price.

This is an AMOLED panel. 6.7 inches with a resolution of 1084 x 2412 pixels, with excellent sharpness and very accurate color calibration. All this, in addition, with a 120Hz refresh rate and a maximum brightness of 1300 nits. No one will be dissatisfied with the quality of this panel.

What I really have mixed feelings about is the performance. Nothing chose MediaTek as its first mid-range mobile phone. In this case for Dimension 7200 Pro, which is a slightly fortified version of the Dimensity 7200 that we see in some Xiaomi phones. It is also accompanied by two RAM and storage configurations. On the one hand, the one with 8 GB and the option with 128 or 256 GB. On the other hand, with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage.

In general Telephone (2a) does a very good job in terms of performance. It can run games fine as long as we don’t demand too much in terms of graphics and allows us to access any application without any problems. However, in some cases the terminal freezes slightly when executing several tasks simultaneously; for example, when loading apps while gaming or even while multitasking.

Be careful, it’s not something very serious. In fact, this only happens at very specific times; only when we demand too much from the terminal. This is to be expected from mid-range mobile phones.

Regarding the battery, yes, there is nothing to argue with. 5000 mAh They do their job well and allow you to enjoy heavy use throughout the day. The phone (2a) is also compatible with 45W fast charging, although Does not include wireless charging support.

This is what phone cameras look like (2a)

Let’s talk about the Phone cameras (2a). They inherit the configuration of their older brother, but do not have exactly the same sensors. The brand’s mid-range comes with Main camera 50 megapixels with an f/1.88 aperture, as well as an ultra-wide-angle one, also 50 megapixels, albeit with a less bright f/2.2 aperture.

The camera results show that the photo This is not the main advantage of this smartphone. I think, in my opinion, that you don’t want that either. It seems that nothing has paid attention to other aspects such as design, software or screen before giving priority to this section and putting the smartphone on sale for less than 400 euros. Of course, for the price this is a good camera. Outdoors and in good light the results are decent, although in some cases the processing tends to overexpose the brightest areas and saturate the colors, necessitating a repeat shot.

Something similar happens with wide angle camera, although here we discover another negative point: it tends to distort the image in the corners. Also, for some reason, sometimes the terminal takes a few seconds to capture an image, and during this time it forces us to remain motionless, a small movement causes the processing to fail and create a scene that is out of focus and noisy.