Nothing Phone 2 revisit – Is it still worth getting one ?

Now we all do know that the Nothing Phone 2 had been released last year, with some positive degree of success and recently Nothing also selling the new Nothing Phone 2 (a) which is aim towards the mid tier budget markets that cares about good value with some added modern features and hardware updates to it.

Today we will take a look at the Nothing Phone 2 and determine is it still worth getting one in 2024

Design

The design of the Nothing Phone 2 is staying as unique as ever, starting from the back of the phone, the Nothing Phone 2 is covered in it’s translucent back shell, which is actually Gorilla Glass that still holds up till today even after continuous usage. The buttons are clicky too and well balanced in place where one will quickly get used to it. As you may know, the Nothing lineup of phones are also famous of the Glyph light which light up pretty strong and gives you notifications, set timers or disco lighting when you are playing your favorite music.

The Nothing Phone 2 is weighted at 201 grams with the thickness at 8.6 mm which is not the lightest and thinnest of them all, but with the amount of internals and design aesthetics fit in the phone, I still appreciate the grip and button positioning that is easy to hold on and operate at the same time.

Display & Audio

In fact, when the Nothing Phone 2 was released last year, being mid tier over certain specs, the display is not, instead Nothing fitted in a fairly high quality LTPO OLED display measured at 6.7 inch, 120Hz refresh rate on dynamic mode. As many of the higher tier phone, even certain point more expensive than the Nothing Phone 2 were offering LTPO display, Nothing pull this off really well with good contrast and color that till this day, able to give you one of the higher tier display that still holds along with HDR10+ and brightness that can peak up to 1600nits. So far there is no ghosting and still remains all smooth all these days with some curves on all sides of the display. Whether you are gaming or working with the phone, the Nothing Phone 2 still remains as a standing contender on this department.

The pair of the firing speakers may not be the very best, but it is well above average with good sense of proper soundstage distribution that remains pleasant to my ears. Moreover if you need more customization, unfortunately it is automatically tuned by Dirac Audio, and there is no additional settings for that. Being a frankly modern phone, there’s no headphone jack, which is a norm.

Camera

Now towards the camera, the Nothing Phone 2 only has 2 rear camera and 1 selfie camera, and this seems like the Nothing Phone has lesser camera module than the other competition, even at the time of the release, which most competition has at least three at a similar specs. The reality is, the dual 50MP rear camera still holds up even till these days, both from the software and hardware/module perspective. All I see is a set of formidable camera that produces good images during day time ever that anyone would have on any other phones that has more than two modules at the back.

Taking place into the perspective today, the Nothing Phone 2 takes photo with very minimal distortions whether it is normal, wide angle or even zoomed in, albeit it is just limited to 10 X zoom, however it is still clear with good color representation and reasonable dynamic range that is perfectly usable. If you crave for more high resolution, there is a 50MP mode there for you. The front 32MP camera capability remains clear that it is also capable of capturing both portrait up to 2x with bokeh mode. The last thing it is the video recording, which allows for up to 4K at 60FPS. Overall for the most part, whether it is day or night, you will not be disappointed even though you missed telephoto or macro capability, the camera sensors available still does a good job by the end of the day.

Performance, Software, Benchmarks

Nothing took the approach of fitting in the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen1 SOC with up to 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM and up to 256GB of internal storage. Over this portion, I know that one may argue that the SOC chosen may be dated since the time of the release, SD8 Gen2 exist in the market well long enough, but putting back to the perspective of general multitasking, gaming and all other uses within what a smartphone is capable of, this is considered a upper middle range phone, even at this point of writing. The downside remains that you don’t have a headphone jack, and you are missing out Ray Tracing capability, but that can be easily put aside since most are using TWS or earbuds, while RT is not widely available yet on applications and games.

Software wise, it started with Android 13, and till this day, it receives the update to Android 14 with Nothing OS 2.5.2 which bring in several improvements towards the Glyph LED interface with more several features and improvement, while then, it also optimize the battery life of the phone along with the standard Android 14 updates and security patches. Nothing still maintain and stick to it’s black and white UI as default and this is close to as stock Android as it can be, with no bloatware other than Nothing’s own applications and features, this is also quite close to a standard Pixel Phone when it comes to navigating and using it.

I will use gaming as an example to portrait the performance, my take is rest assured that all your gaming with Genshin, COD Mobile, PUBG mobile remains smooth so long you are setting things to between medium mix with some low settings along the way, and it is all good.

The Nothing Phone 2 can last over a day easily with the included 4700MaH battery but there is no power adaptor included, however the phone does accept any standard PD issued 45w charger, with that said, recharging back will take just roughly 1 hour.

Lastly, here’s the benchmark for your reference and comparison against some of the phone we have tested and reviewed.

Technical Specifications

Verdict & Conclusion

Now the Nothing Phone 2 is retailed at RM2999 but it can be purchased cheaper from some of the retail dealers and online store, and for the price that you are paying, based on the specs, aesthetics and it’s unique design approach, it is still appealing till this day and I find it quite rare to see availability of translucent back phone and this one does come with the cool Glyph LED that sets all the other phone apart, and in my honest opinion, if you are a person that appreciate such design, this one might be just for you.

For more information about the Nothing Phone 2, Click Here to find out.

Purchase links

Lazada : https://shorturl.at/gITY0

Shopee : https://invl.io/clkxywx