Nothing has made something of itself in just a couple of years. While its first products were allearbuds, founder and OnePlus aluminiCarl Pei’sfirst love was phones. The upstart’s rookie effort in thePhone (1)seemed to play its cards right with theGlyph, a focus on features over specs, and mid-range pricing. Its success enabled Pei to grow the Nothing team and put out a premiumPhone (2)the following year.
Nothing phone (2) vs Nothing phone (1): What’s the difference?
With Nothing’s next-gen phone now official, we compare the specs based on our experience with both phones.
But as the company heads into its sophomore phase, it may want to address the needs of the cost-conscious bloc of its audience who became fans because of the Phone (1). And it may do so with something that isn’t just a cut-down version of the original, but an evolutionary step. That’s where the Nothing Phone (2a) is reportedly going to come into play. And, supposedly, we don’t have to wait long to see it in action. Here’s what we know so far.
Nothing phone (2)
The Nothing Phone (2) may end up costing more than the Nothing Phone (2a), but if you need something sooner, you might want to check around for deals.
Nothing Phone (2a) name
Follows Phone (1)
Nothing CEO Carl Pei is a Pokémon obsessive and a known connoisseur of Easter eggs (viaAndroid Police), so when heposted a new year’s greeting on X(formerly Twitter) teasing a new product, fans were already looking for hints based on an attached low-res dot-matrix rendering. Keener eyes were able to make it out to be Aerodactyl – Number 142 being a first-gen classic – and started aiming their eyes towards an ‘a’ variant of the recently-released Nothing Phone (2).
Pei confirmed fans' findings weeks later before thecompany published a communityupdate on February 1, officially announcing the Nothing Phone (2a). Aerodactyl was alsoofficially acknowledgedvia a post on X as a product codename, following in the footsteps of the Phone (1)’s “Spacewar” and Phone (2)’s “Pong.”
Nothing Phone (2a) release date
How soon is soon?
Up until mid-February, Nothing kept mum about the Phone (2a)’s launch date. There is some speculation, and rightfully so, that we’d see its debut at Mobile World Congress 2024 in Barcelona starting Feb. 26, but we now know that Nothing will launch the Phone (2a) on March 5. The announcement was made at the last minute of a new video posted on Nothing’s website that details why the company is making a cheaper phone.
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Nothing Phone (2a) pricing and availability
Back to square (1)?
Two sources seem to agree on pricing: WinFuture editor Roland Quandt and Indian leaks bloggerYogesh Brarare calling for the Nothing Phone (2a) to hit $400/€400. For reference, the Phone (2) was priced at $699 while the Phone (1), which was available only in Europe and India, was £399 in the UK.
As for potential availability, developer/leaker Kamila Wojciechowska has claimed that Nothing is developing four regional variants for Europe, Japan, India, and the rest of the world. Supposedly, the Japanese SKU was added on from the three that were made for the Phone (2). While that’s an encouraging sign that North America might be included in Nothing’s scope for the Phone (2a), Quandt expressed some doubt about US availabilitywhen asked by a commenter– though that may just be a function of his site’s (and sources') Europe-focused remit.
Nothing Phone (2a) design and features
Glyph v2(a)
In the early rounds of intel, we’ve been hearing that the 2a is going big on centering itself. Like, seriously: the punch hole selfie camera moves from the top-left corner to the center, the dual rear cameras move from the top left to the center, and even the characteristic Glyph lights are now centered around the rear cameras (which have moved down slightly so that they can accommodate the new design).
Gone is the ‘G’ shape with extraneous strokes – Android developer and 9to5Google contributor Dylan Roussel posted up pieces of demonstrative animation depicting the Glyph as a simpler three-section circle-esque shape. There’s a straight, vertical line at the 90-degree position, a curved stub section at 120-degree, and a long curved filament at 315 degrees. Presumably, as with the previous Glyph, LEDs will continue to show different statuses, such as volume and alert modes.
In February, we finally got our first look at the design of the Phone (2a)’s rear panel courtesy of OnLeaks and SmartPrix with the latter claiming that the Glyph would be omitted. Furthermore, the cameras appear to have returned to the top-left corner. AsThe Vergepointed out,Nothing’s Akis Evangelidissaid a lot by saying very little in a post on X shortly after the claim was published.
Mere hours later, longtime leaks blogger Evan Blass dropped an image of his own showing the 2a with the centered camera-and-glyph look. So far, the preponderance of the evidence seems to be pointing towards change rather than more of the same for Nothing.
With the glyph integral to the Nothing software experience, we’ll take this opportunity to mention that the 2a is meant to launch with Nothing OS 2.5 on top of Android 14. Among the mundane bug fixes and optimizations, users will find new home screen widgets, customization options and UIs, wallpapers, volume controls, gesture controls, and shortcuts that weren’t on board the last major update.
We’ll have to see if a dot-dot update is due when the Phone (2a) comes around with its new glyph design … assuming everything above checks out. Funnily enough,new wallpapersfor the Phone (2a) have been leaked by Smartprix/Wojciechowska.
If you’re wondering about the colors on offer, they’ll almost certainly be black and white.
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Nothing Phone (2a) specs
A get for MediaTek
Early reports suggested that the Phone (2a) was being worked under two codenames, PacMan and Aero, and a model number of A142. As we mentioned above, the company went official with Aerodactyl, Pokémon No. 142, as “acodename” for the 2a – perhaps the other codenames are being used on different internal surfaces. Following down the vein of model numbers, A142 also marks a departure from the Phone (2)’s A065 and Phone (1)’s A063.
In the company’s pre-launch announcement, Nothing marketing lead Akis described the product:
With Phone (2a), we’ve really doubled down on the core user experience - performance, camera, you name it. And it’s also kind of leveraging some of the most loved features of Phone (2) while ensuring it delivers on a clear upgrade compared to Phone (1) on every single front.
Whereas Nothing’s first two phones ran with Snapdragon 8 series chipsets from Qualcomm, rumors claimed the 2a would run withMediaTek’s Dimensity 7200, released in February 2023 and meant to go up against the Snapdragon 7 series. The company went official with a plot twist in late February, announcing that the phone would exclusively feature the Dimensity 7200 Pro, an update to the original that performed better than two other Qualcomm Snapdragon chips Nothing considered.
We’re not clear on whether the Pro is just another name for the Dimensity 7200 Ultra that came with the Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 Pro+ late last year (viaAndroid Police). We’re also not exactly sure how much of a leg up the Pro or Ultra has on the classic 7200 as all three feature 4nm transistors, the same overall design, and the same protocol support – at least according toNanoReview.net.
In terms of memory, one configuration is set to have 12GB of RAM with an extra 8GB available via RAM Boost, a technique that converts storage space to active memory.
Smartprix (on behalf of Kamila Wojciechowska) claims that it will be equipped with a 120Hz AMOLED display with a resolution of 1084 × 2412 from Chinese manufacturers Visionox and BOE. A photo posted by Yogesh Brar, claims to show a manufacturing validation unit of the panel spans at 6.7 inches. It’s important to point out that these are the same specs for the Phone (2)’s screen.
MySmartPrice notes a certification from TÜV Rheinland indicating that the Phone (2a) will charge at up to 45W.
Nothing Phone (2a) cameras
New location(?), same great taste
Smartprix and Wojciechowska are saying that the two cameras feature 50MP sensors: the Samsung S5KGN9 is a 1/1.5-inch sensor that will be fitted under a wide-angle lens — this replaces the ever-so-slightly smaller 50MP Sony IMX890 on the Phone (2) — while the S5KJN1 will be 1/2.76 inches across and be used for ultrawide shots. Sony does stick around to provide its 32MP IMX615 for the selfie side.
The OnLeaks picture suggests that the cameras will remain in the top-left corner, but earlier renderings depict them sitting center stage. Either may be true at some point in the ideation and development pipeline, but we’ll have to see how things pan out.
