Nothing Phone(2) review: Finely tuned sequel

Last month, London-based consumer electronics startup Nothing Inc launched the second-generation Phone. In India, the company is offering the device in three configurations— 8GB RAM + 256GB storage,

Last month, London-based consumer electronics startup Nothing Inc launched the second-generation Phone.

In India, the company is offering the device in three configurations— 8GB RAM + 256GB storage, 12GB RAM + 256GB storage, and 12GB RAM + 512GB storage— Rs 44,999, Rs 49,999 and Rs 54,999 on Flipkart. It is available in white and dark grey colour options.

I spent more than two weeks testing the Phone(2) and here are my thoughts on the latest handset from the house of Nothing.

Design, build quality and display As you can see from the cover photos, Nothing Phone (2) retains the see-through design element and LED light-based Glyph interface of the predecessor.

I have no complaints here as Nothing wants to keep the originality and why change it, when the device standout from other brands.

But, that may change soon, as some Chinese brands are all set to bring their own version of phones with see-through back panels and LED-notification interface features to India later this month. But, I doubt they will be able to replicate as good as customisation options of Nothing's Glyph interface (more on that later).

If you closely observe, the new Phone(2)'s back glass panel is more curvaceous; the flat curved rails are smooth with a matte finish and most importantly exude premium hand feel and durability too.

The company has used Corning's Gorilla Glass shield on both the front and the back panels. Add to that, the front panel has another layer for a screen guard for protection against scratches.

It should be noted that several components of the Phone (2) and even the packaging is made of recycled materials.

The metallic mid-frame is made of 100 per cent recycled aluminium. The copper foil used for the motherboard is 100 per cent recycled and the tin used in nine circuit boards in the device is also 100 per cent recycled.

The steel parts used in the Phone(2) are 90 per cent recycled and the 80 per cent of plastic parts used in the device is said to be sustainably sourced.

At the top, it has a lone mic and at the base, the Phone(2) features a Type-C port along with a mic, SIM tray and a speaker, which by the way is really good at delivering good sound output.

On the right, it houses the power button and on the left, you will find the volume rocker. They are rightly placed and you will appreciate it while taking the screenshots.

In total, it has nine antenna bands, two each on three sides and three on the right side.

On the front, Phone(2) flaunts a 6.7-inch full HD+ (1920x1080p) flexible LPTO OLED display. It is bright and great to consume multimedia content.

Even under the sunlight, the messages are easy to read and view videos with fewer issues. It supports variable refresh rate; depending on the usage scenarios such as Browsing or gaming, the display can dynamically shift from 1Hz to 120Hz refresh rate, and it also supports peak brightness up to 1,600nits, which comes in handy outdoors to view images or video under direct sunlight.

The Phone(2) also comes with an in-screen fingerprint sensor and works smoothly as long as the fingers are dry and clean.

User Interface and Performance During the testing, the company rolled two two software updates with bug fixes, and new features and even released a couple of apps (Swedish House Mafia ringtone composer and Icon Pack) on Play Store.

As noted earlier, there are 33 addressable LED lighting zones, almost three times that of the previous model (which has 12 nodes). With this, it has allowed the company to offer even more customisation options to improve the Glyph interface.

With the Swedish House Mafia ringtone composer, owners have more personalisation options to develop their own ringtones and Glyph LED light notifications.

Also, users can be able to track how far the Uber ride is away from home or the office by just looking fading LED light indicator on the back of the phone.

In the coming months, Zomato too will offer a similar food delivery progress notification option and the LED light on the back will show how soon you will be able to get your hands on the food. Hopefully, more apps will offer such customisation.

This is such a value addition as this considerably reduces the screen time and over the long run, it will actually have good eyesight health. Even the Icon Pack with a monochrome (black & white) colour scheme ensures there is less distraction and not being colourful, making owners use the phone for intended use only and just to waste time scrolling the screen on it.

These aspects actually show how Nothing Inc is so much different from other Android phone makers. Despite limited resources, it has managed to develop a well-rounded layer over Android to deliver a unique user experience and also convince app companies to develop features around the Glyph interface.

In terms of day-to-day usage aspect, the device works smoothly without any fuss. Even while gaming too, Phone(2) was stable and never showed any lag-ness as such.

Yes, the Nothing has used an old chipset-- Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, but I believe, this is the right step taken by the company, by going with well-tested silicon, than blindly getting the latest available in the market. Because, sometimes it may backfire like it happened with older iterations of Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and Snapdragon 888. When they were launched, most companies used them in their devices and faced overheating issues, which eventually hurt the brand image.

So far, the Phone(2) with 12GB RAM + 512GB storage has been working smoothly without any glaring issues to complain about.

As mentioned earlier, the company offers the device in two other configurations--8GB RAM + 256GB storage, and 12GB RAM + 256GB storage. There is no option for storage expansion via microSD.

The new Phone(2) runs Android 13-based NothingOS 2. It has just the core Google apps and four proprietary ones-- native camera app, Nothing X, Recorder and Weather.

The company has promised to offer three years of OS updates and four years of security software support.

As far as the battery life is concerned, Phone(2) like any other modern-day premium device, delivers a full day under normal usage.

The company is offering just the Type-to-Type-C cable with the retail box. So, you have to make do with the older device's charging adaptor or else buy a new one.

I used a 20W Apple charger and the device with 4,700mAh cell capacity took one hour 52 minutes to charge up from zero to 100 per cent mark.

It should be noted that Phone(2) supports 45W charging speed and with a compatible charger, it will take less than an hour to get fully charged. It also supports 5W reverse charging too. Users just have to place any compatible earphone case or phone to charge them.

Photography The new Phone(2) features a dual-camera module-- 50MP wide sensor (f/1.9, 24mm, 1/1.56-inch, 1.0µm, PDAF, OIS: Optical Image Stabilisation) backed by 50MP ultra-wide sensor (f/2.2, 114-degree Field-of-View, 1/2.76-inch sensor size, 0.64µm pixel size, AF) with LED flash on the back.

In the natural sunlight, the Phone(2) takes wonderful photos. I noticed that the device doesn't over-process the photo to make the subject's colour more vibrant. It reproduces an almost natural colour be it a person's face or flowers.

In the ultra-wide angle mode, the Phone(2) manages to cover a vast area of the landscape. As you can see the hill range around the lake is captured well and also the colours of the vegetation and waterbody too, are realistic.

In Portrait mode, Phone(2) does a good job here too.

In low-light scenarios particularly indoors, I am very impressed with Phone(2). As you can see in the sample photos, the lamps in the hotel room look so gorgeous. With the macro mode, the Phone (2) does well with capturing minute details.

In night mode, Phone(2) does a pretty decent job, on par with rival brands in its class.

It supports video recording up to 4K at 30/60fps (frames per second), and full HD 1080p at 30/60fps. With gyro-EIS (Electronic Image Stabilisation), the Phone(2) manages to get very good stable video recording on par with most of the brands in its class.

On the front, Phone(2) houses a 32MP wide camera (f/2.5, 1/2.74-inch sensor, 0.8µm pixel size). It takes decent selfies and video quality too, is good too. With Portrait mode, if you wear glasses, you have to be a little patient to get the perfect photo with a bokeh effect. In other scenarios, it works just fine.

Final thoughts When kept side-by-side, Nothing Phone(2) it may be hard to distinguish it from the previous iteration, but inside, it comes with a whole lot of valuable upgrades.

The see-through enclosure on the back keeps the originality of the Nothing Phone and makes it stand out among the rival brands. The company has rightly improved key aspects such as processing power and software customisation to deliver an enhanced and unique user experience.

With more personalisation such as Uber ride distance tracking, and Swedish House Mafia ringtone composer added to the Glyph interface, it is more useful than before and I am sure, the company will continue to add more capabilities with software updates and future phone models as well.

The Phone(2) does everything smoothly without any pressing issues to complain. It even supports most of the high-end graphics-rich games and camera hardware too, it performs great with natural sunlight.

For the asking price, Nothing Phone(2) is a great upgrade over the predecessor and worth the asking price. Yes, I have heard cries on social media platforms of the high cost compared to the first-gen model in India. But, I'm pretty satisfied with the overall aspects of the device; it deserves to command such a price tag.

Having said that, Nothing has to increase the number of preferably fully-owned after-sale service centres in faster-accelerated motion across India.

I have been told that the company is slated to open the first of its centre in Bengaluru this month and has plans to open more such exclusive customer care centres across five cities in India by the end of 2023 and complete 20 by 2025. Get the latest news on new launches, gadget reviews, apps, cybersecurity, and more on personal technology only on DH Tech

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