Figuring out nothing concerning the Nothing Cellphone 2a previous to reviewing it, I had few expectations.
Certain, my colleague has reviewed (and raved about) the flagship Nothing Cellphone 2, and I’m a fan of the model’s YouTube channel the place Nothing CEO Carl Pei generally chats about criticism they’ve gotten or the tech.
However all I’ve actually recognized the model for are its funky LED lights (Glyphs, they name it) and clear design.
So, what’s actually in a Nothing cellphone, and a budget-friendly one besides?
See Nothing, know Nothing
I’m not as swayed by the see-through design as my colleague is, though I do respect how visually completely different it’s in comparison with the bunch of price range, mid-range, and flagship telephones on the market.
It definitely provides the model its personal identification—I’m assured I might clock a Nothing cellphone mannequin within the wild, versus questioning which technology of iPhone I’m taking a look at (bombastic aspect eye at iPhones 11 to fifteen).
And it’s not simply the truth that I can see what’s underneath the hood of the cellphone (considerably). Nothing has really switched up its digicam placement too.
The twin digicam setup is now vertically smack-dab in the course of the cellphone, and also you’ll both adore it or hate it.
One hater lovingly described it on-line, “Seems like a deformed cyclops that by accident had two eyes grown aspect by aspect actually shut to one another, tf is that this”.
Very imaginative, however anyway. The selection of only a dual-camera setup is a daring one in an age the place a triple-camera setup is predicted to be the norm.
Nothing beforehand defined this resolution behind all their telephones to this point, saying that they didn’t wish to observe the group and add extra issues only for the sake of getting extra.
One other level of be aware consists of the curved plastic again (no wi-fi charging characteristic to be discovered right here), so that you’d desire a case for that if you happen to’re fearful about sturdiness.
On the entrance is a Corning Gorilla Glass 5, and the cellphone comes with a pre-applied display protector too.
Nothing pleases in efficiency
As an Android consumer, the expertise of utilizing the Nothing cellphone feels fairly par for the course, however with extra customisation than I’m used to on my Samsungs.
For instance, you’re even in a position to alter the scale of your widgets, or change up the way in which your icons look (to a sure extent).
Whether or not you need your homescreen to seem like essentially the most organised factor on this planet or scare/disgust anybody who a lot as glances at your display, the selection is yours.
And now that my grotesquely enormous Digicam icon has caught your eye, right here’s the low-down on the cameras.
You get a 50MP large, 50MP ultrawide, and 32MP selfie digicam, that are all fairly good by my requirements.
The HDR is strong, and the post-image processing provides every image a reasonably excessive distinction. Within the picture under, the image to the left of the slider is non-HDR, and the precise one is HDR.
In my view, the images are similar to some flagship cameras.
General, no complaints right here.
Geared up with a Mediatek Dimensity 7200 Professional chipset, I’m additionally impressed with how the cellphone handles informal gaming. I didn’t really feel any vital heat-up even after an hour on the best graphic settings.
Though there was some stuttering as I performed Honkai: Star Rail, it didn’t wreck the gaming expertise.
Battery life on the Nothing Cellphone 2a is one other plus, because the 5,000mAh battery is sufficient to carry you effectively previous a day if you happen to’re not operating battery-hungry apps on it.
One thing to nitpick over
If I needed to nitpick what I didn’t like concerning the cellphone, there could be two important issues to level out.
First, the way in which YouTube’s UI appears to be like in panorama mode whereas I’m watching a video on the Cellphone 2a. Take a look at the image under and inform me that the way in which the settings icon is snuggled up in opposition to the border of the cellphone doesn’t trouble you.
It’s really odd, and it’s tougher to press the icon too, particularly you probably have a thick cellphone case. As somebody who spends fairly a little bit of my free time on YouTube, that is one thing that irks me, and I hope to see no matter that is addressed within the Nothing cellphone I evaluate.
One other factor I don’t fairly like concerning the Nothing Cellphone 2a is how there’s no native Gallery app in your images. There’s solely Google Photographs, so by default, something you snap or save goes straight to the cloud.
Some folks could favor this, however I don’t. I don’t want to have the whole lot on the cloud, and I discover it extremely foolish that when I take advantage of up my free 15GB of storage for my Google Photographs, I might need to pay in an effort to preserve extra images on my cellphone.
I did study which you could entry your photographs by Settings so maybe the cloud storage factor isn’t as large of a problem as I feel it’s, however critically, this methodology is equally as annoying.
Fortunately, it does seem to be one thing could also be within the works, however there’s nonetheless nothing official for now.
Verdict
The Nothing Cellphone 2a additional builds upon the 2 issues I feel the model stands for: simplicity, and identification.
I say simplicity within the sense that the cellphone cuts out bloatware and frills to deal with doing the fundamentals effectively. You can take the shortage of a local Gallery app for example for this.
Fairly than offering a Gallery app and Google Photographs, you get simply the latter, in an effort to snap photos and save them on the cloud concurrently, relatively than swap from app to app. Some folks will love this, whereas others could hate this.
Id-wise, the cellphone carries a branding that’s unmistakably Nothing, from the clear design to the glyphs and the customisability it provides customers.
I feel it’s clear that Nothing remains to be a budding model, and whereas the consumer expertise isn’t excellent but, it’s well-rounded sufficient. This one’s for these prepared to look previous its present shortcomings to have a dependable and acquainted (but completely different) cellphone.
The Nothing Cellphone 2a is available in two colors for Malaysia: Black, and Milk, and is priced at RM1,699.
Study extra concerning the Nothing Cellphone 2a right here.
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