Nothing Phone 2: A Comprehensive Review
This is the Nothing Phone 2, the sequel to one of the flashiest phones to come out last year. So, what’s new on the Nothing 2, and could it be worth upgrading to? I’m James from Mend My iPhone, and let’s find out in our full review.
Design and Build Quality
The Nothing Phone 2 is a premium upper mid-range phone, and like the Nothing Phone 1, it brings nice specs and a unique design. The two phones look very similar, with a glass back dominated by the arrangement of bright LED lights. The back is again transparent, so you can see some of the internals. It’s very slightly curved, and the flat aluminum frame offers a bit of grip.
This time around, you get IP54 rated ingress protection, which is a bit more than the IP53 on the Nothing Phone 1. Another design change is the larger size due to the bigger display.
Display
It’s a 6.7-inch LTPO OLED with a 1080p resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. Because of the LTPO technology, the refresh rate is even more adaptive now, able to dial down from a smooth 120Hz all the way down to 10Hz when idling or even to 1Hz if the brightness is high enough. For some reason, though, there’s no support for high frame rate gaming here.
The Nothing Phone 2’s display is also brighter. We measured a maximum of about 500 nits with the manual slider, and this can boost to around 1000 nits in auto mode if you need it. Besides that, the Nothing Phone 2’s display is sharp, contrasty, and color accurate. It has Gorilla Glass protection and supports HDR 10+ video as well as 10-bit color.
Audio
For audio, the Nothing Phone 2 has a pair of stereo speakers. They have very good loudness, well-presented highs, and some bass too. If you’d like to hear for yourself and compare to others, you can check out the provided link.
Performance of the Nothing Phone 2
You can wake up and unlock the Nothing Phone 2 with an under-display fingerprint reader. It’s quite fast, and the phone can come with 128, 256, or 512 GB of storage, but that’s not micro SD expandable. The interface of the phone is Nothing OS 2.0 on top of Android 13. It’s customized but still organized in a similar fashion to stock Android. There are quite a few custom widgets, though, which match the overall look of the UI.
You can use large folders to free up space on your home screen while still having quick access to the apps, or you can do the opposite and blow up an app icon to widget size. Most system apps provide quick shortcuts if you tap and hold on them.
For software support, Nothing promises three years of OS updates and four years of security patches.
Glyph LEDs
Now let’s talk more about the Nothing Phone 2’s glyph LEDs. Just like before, the glyphs can light up to let you know about incoming messages, calls, and notifications. They blink in different patterns based on different ringtones, and you can assign these based on notification type and individual contacts.
Something new, though, is the composer feature, which lets you create your own custom ringtones and patterns. The glyphs can also give you status updates for things like the volume or a meter while you’re charging the phone. You can also use the glyphs as a countdown timer, and they support integration with certain third-party apps as well.
Chipset and Performance
One of the biggest upgrades on the Nothing Phone 2 compared to the previous model is the new chipset. Rather than an upper mid-range Snapdragon 778G Plus, now there’s full-on Flagship silicon, a Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1. Nothing claims that the performance is up to 80% better now, and the Nothing Phone 1 was no slouch. As expected, in benchmarks, the Nothing Phone 2 blows its predecessor away, earning scores on par with last year’s Android flagships. It’s only really bested by the new flagships sporting the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.
On top of the great peak performance, the thermal management and sustained performance are respectable too. It’s also about to get Android 15 which is soon to be released. You can read more about Android 15 release here
Battery Life and Charging
The Nothing Phone 2 has a larger battery capacity than the Nothing Phone 1’s 4500 mAh, with 4700 mAh. However, even though screen-on times have improved, a just-average standby score meant a lower overall endurance rating of 103 hours for the Nothing Phone 2. Still, that’s pretty good.
Charging has been upgraded from 33 watts to 45 watts this year, and again, you don’t get a charger in the box. With a proper adapter, we were able to charge the Nothing Phone 2 from 0 to 62% in half an hour, a notable improvement. Like last year, there’s support for wireless charging and reverse wireless charging. Dxmoark have done a battery test on the Nothing phone 2 and put it in a global ranking position of 77th which you can see here, which pouts it higher than the iPhone 12 Pro Max at 83rd, the iPhone 13 Pro at 93rd and the iPhone 13 at 105th
Cameras on the Nothing Phone 2
Now let’s go over the cameras. The Nothing Phone 2 has a 50-megapixel main camera and a 50-megapixel ultra-wide camera, pretty much the same as last year. However, there is new processing on the Nothing Phone 2, and we like it. The default 12.5-megapixel photos from the main camera are excellent, with plenty of detail and balanced sharpness. We like the natural-looking rendition of fine details like foliage.
The colors are likable, the contrast is high, and the dynamic range is wide but not over the top. There is a two-time zoom on the viewfinder sourced from the main camera. These look nicer than a simple crop and upscale, with decent detail and sharpness. The other qualities match those of the default photos.
Portrait Mode
Portrait mode shots are just alright. The subject is well-exposed and looks good, but the separation from the blurred background can be off, especially around hair or complex backgrounds.
Low-light Performance
In dark conditions, the Nothing Phone 2 will automatically use night mode processing. These shots from the main camera are great. They’re detailed and sharp, with excellent exposure and color rendition, low noise, and wide dynamic range with minimal blown highlights.
Video Recording
You can record videos from the main camera in up to 4K at 60fps. 4K videos look very good, with nice dynamic range and contrast and true-to-life colors. The detail level is good but could be better, perhaps because of the always-on stabilization.
The stabilization itself works fine, though there is a visible jello-like effect. In low light, the main camera’s 4K videos are alright. There’s good enough detail and adequate dynamic range and some visible noise too.
Ultra-wide Camera
Now let’s switch over to the ultra-wide camera. Its 12.5-megapixel photos are very good for this sort of camera, with nice detail and good contrast, balanced dynamic range, and colors that match the main camera’s. Since this camera has autofocus, you can use it to take macro close-ups.
They’re really nice; subjects come out detailed, sharp, and colorful, and there’s no noise. In low light, you again get automatic night mode shots, and these are great. There’s enough detail, good exposure and dynamic range, low noise, and lively colors. The ultra-wide camera can capture very good 4K videos during the day.
There’s plenty of detail, balanced sharpness, good contrast, and wide dynamic range. The ultra-wide also has always-on stabilization, and while it’s good for the most part, we also observe some jello effect here. At night, the ultra-wide camera can take decent 4K videos, even if they’re a bit dark.
Selfie Camera
Finally, we have selfies taken with the new 32-megapixel front-facing camera. These have a pretty wide field of view by default, and the quality is decent. There’s no noise, good contrast, and wide dynamic range, and the colors are lively. The detail and overall sharpness could be better, though.
Conclusion about the Nothing Phone 2
So there you have it. The Nothing Phone 2 goes above and beyond the Nothing Phone 1, bringing a bigger and brighter screen, a flagship chipset, faster charging, and improved camera quality. As far as flagship killers go, this is on the pricier side, but you won’t find a unique glyph setup anywhere else. If standing out from the crowd is something you’re willing to pay a premium for, then the Nothing Phone 2 is worth recommending. Thanks for reading!
Alternatives
Let’s have a look at a couple of alternatives to the Nothing Phone 2, starting with the Google Pixel Pro 9. Another option is the iPhone 16, when it finally arrives or the Samsung A55 5G. Let us know what you think, and I’ll see you on the next one.
