The No Phone 2 it’s officially here, and after a few weeks of gameplay we can see if all the hype was worth it or not. The No Phone 1 it was (and still is) a solid first attempt from a new company and it got a lot of things right, including price, which means the Phone 2 has some big shoes to fill. While our review is underway, here’s what we first saw of the phone.
The Nothing Phone 2 ships in the same little package as the Phone 1, but now you get a proper box that pops out inside a printed outer jacket. Here, you’ll find documentation, a transparent SIM eject tool, and a shiny new USB Type-C cable with a transparent section next to the connector. The phone 2 comes in a new Dark Gray color instead of black, but there is still white.
No one has launched the Phone 2 in three configurations. The base model is priced at Rs. 44,999 in India and has 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. About Rs. 49,999, you get 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. There is a new third model this time with 512GB of storage (and 12GB of RAM) which is priced at Rs. 54,999 in India. The prices are quite high compared to the prices of the Phone 1, but the Phone 2 has some impressive upgrades to try to justify this.
The bundled cable is pretty high but you still don’t get a power adapter in the box
It is clear that design plays a very attractive role in None; more than specs. The Phone 2 changes the original design in subtle ways. From a distance, it’s hard to tell the two colors apart but you’ll notice a difference once you touch them both. The Nothing Phone 2 is a bigger phone than the Nothing Phone 1 – much taller and wider, heavier, and larger. It still feels good in the hand, and there’s nothing to say that the mid-frame is made of 100 percent recycled aluminum.
The antenna and microphone arrays are in a different position on the new Phone 2, but the buttons and ports are in the same places as on the Phone1. The Phone 2’s glass back panel has curved edges for better grip, and the Glyph’s lights are now multi-layered, allowing for a wider range of lighting and more display.
The new long display on the Nothing Phone 2 is the LTPO OLED panel
The display on the Nothing Phone 2 is still flat but now has a center-mounted camera. It measures 6.7 inches and the company has used a modified LTPO OLED panel so that the refresh rate can vary by 1Hz from 120Hz, if needed. Maximum brightness is increased to 1,600 nits, while the Phone 2’s water resistance has been slightly improved to IP54, against IP53.
The Nothing Phone 2’s hardware has also received some updates. Unlike the mid-range chip in the Phone 1, Nothing’s Gone is the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC from Qualcomm. It’s not new or huge, but it’s been tried and tested, and I think it should do well in its field. The battery has gotten a slight bump to 4,700mAh, and the Phone 2 now supports 45W PD fast charging. There is also 15W wireless charging along with a 5W reverse wireless charger.
The Nothing Phone 2 still has two rear cameras, but the main one has been changed to a 50-megapixel Sony IMX890 sensor; the same we have seen in many recent phones like OnePlus 11R, OnePlus Nord 3, etc. The main camera uses the same 50-megapixel Samsung JN1 sensor as the Phone 1, but has autofocus for large images. The selfie camera on the Phone 2 has been upgraded to a 32-megapixel Sony IMX615 sensor. We’re in the process of testing the cameras so check back for a full review of our final impressions, when they come out.
The Nothing Phone 2 has a larger battery and can be charged faster
Finally, we come to the software. The Nothing Phone 2 runs Nothing OS 2.0, which is based on Android 13. The Phone 2 should receive three years of Android updates and four years of security patches, as the company does. No OS 2 brings new widgets, a monochrome graphics pack, and many neat tweaks to the interface.
Glyph’s analysis system has found new ways to improve. Now it only supports flash and you can set certain apps or notifications from a specific app to ‘required’, which means that one of the rear lights will stay lit until you remove or view the notifications. There are new ringtones and notification packs, and you can use the Glyph lights to check the time or see the progress of a job in other third-party apps like Uber. Finally, the new Glyph creator lets you create your own ringtones and alert sounds.
The Nothing Phone 2 has some tough competitors to deal with in India. That’s it OnePlus 11 5G, Oppo Reno 10 Pro+ 5Gand iQo 11 5G to name a few. We’ll be taking a closer look at the Phone 2’s apps and functionality in our full review, so make sure you don’t miss out. Meanwhile, leave us a review and let us know if there is anything else you would like to know about this phone.