Meet Nothing Phone (2a), The Brand’s First Budget Model
Meet Nothing Phone (2a), The Brand’s First Budget Model
Nothing has officially unveiled its first budget-oriented smartphone after two flagship releases – the Phone (2a). If you’ve known this brand before, you’d know that this phone will be anything but boring. In fact, it’s quite exciting, so let’s go through the details.
Let’s talk design first: the Phone (2a) continues its proud tradition of unconventional looks with exposed internals, and it’s not missing out despite being a budget model. The dual camera is visually presented as a pair of “eyes” that sit within the NFC coil, and it features the industry-first 90-degree unibody cover wrapping around the edges of the phone. The entire packaging, according to the company, makes the smartphone sturdier, with improved drop resistance.
In terms of specs, Nothing worked with MediaTek to co-engineer the custom Dimensity 7200 Pro SoC, paired with 12GB RAM (+8GB extended) – accounting for 13% better performance and 16% better power efficiency compared to Phone (1). Notably, both companies have introduced optimizations including Smart Clean and Adaptive NTFS to improve file transfer speeds and reduce power consumption in certain scenarios.
Display-wise, it’s a 6.7-inch 120Hz AMOLED panel with a peak brightness of 1,300 nits and an adaptive refresh rate that works in the range of 30Hz to 120Hz. There’s one detail that beats even the current Nothing flagship, which is the bezel thickness – the Phone (2a) slims it down to just 2.1mm on all sides, making it the thinnest among all smartphones from the company so far.
The Phone (2a) also comes packed with a 5,000mAh battery and provides a 25% increase in lifespan over Phone (1). This means it retains 90% of the capacity after 1,000 charge cycles, or equivalent to three years of use. Heat dissipation is improved by 13% comparatively, which also helps in keeping the batteries happy. Charging is done via 45W fast charging, which delivers 0-50% in 20 minutes.
For the “eyes” (by that we mean cameras), it’s got a pair of 50MP sensors powered by Nothing’s TrueLens engine. TrueLens is the company’s take on computational photography which aims to retain realism as much as possible. Nothing worked with Google to develop the Ultra XDR technology which ensures consistency in highlights and shadows, via a set of 8 separately-exposed frames in RAW format, then combined in five passes for the final image. At the front, a single 32MP from the Phone (2) handles the selfie duty.
It’ll also come available with Nothing OS 2.5 based on Android 14 out of the box, and the company promises three years of feature updates and four years of security updates. In this new version, users get access to more widgets, including the new Recorder widget that allows users to quickly create a voice memo. While the Glyph Interface is reduced in terms of LED count, it still has three strips to provide basic information.
The Nothing Phone (2a) will be officially introduced on March 9, 2024 – but before that, the company is hosting the #THE100 Drops event on CROSSOVER @ Sunway Pyramid Mall with the first 100 units available on March 6th, 11:00 AM onwards. Alternatively, you can pre-order the smartphone from retail partners on the same date. It’ll be available in two colors, Milk and Black, with a single configuration of 12GB/256GB costing RM1,699.
Pokdepinion: I can see this has pretty great value for the specs and features it comes with.
