Nothing Phone 2a Plus Review: is it Good Upgrade?

The Nothing Phone series began with the Nothing Phone 1, followed by the Nothing Phone 2A, a slightly cheaper version with limited glyphs. Recently, a special edition 2A was released, featuring a R2-D2 design. The Nothing Phone 2A Plus, despite its name, is the same size as the 2A, making it stand out and worth considering despite its higher price.

Design and Build Quality

Well, essentially it’s a slight refinement and a slightly higher spec version of the Nothing Phone 2A as we get a new processor, a new selfie camera, a slightly refreshed design with some new materials, and a couple of other tweaks here and there. Otherwise, it’s exactly the same: same screen, same software, same flashy flashy glyph lighting. So let’s start on the outside.

We get two new colors with this very snazzy gray and also a new refined black model. I really do like this. It kind of feels like they’ve just taken the 2A special edition—I still can’t unsee R2-D2—but kind of made it more like a monochrome flavor with a hint of silver. I really love this contrast with a kind of metallic finish on the inside.

The review guide for this tells of fusions of Nano coating and proprietary ink formulations, anthropomorphized NFC coils with a sort of eyes, brain, and body aesthetic. Marketing fluff aside, it does have a lot of character. Like the 2A, though, the 2A Plus here is glyph lighting is still reserved just for the top half of the phone. I think that cuts down on their cost a little bit compared to the Nothing Phone 2. You can see you’ve got the full back body there with its lighting. Some people think it’s a bit gimmicky, and obviously, you can only use it when the screen’s face down or away from you, but you know it sets apart from every other black glass rectangle on the market. I quite like it.

And assuming you’re pretty close to your subject, you can also use it as a bit of a fill light. But aside from the new colors and a few material tweaks, everything else is the same as the 2A: same size, same weight. It’s a 6.7-inch screen but it weighs just 190g, it’s 8.6 mm thick, Gorilla Glass 5 on the front, IP54 splash and dust resistance. So it is a big phone, but like the iPhone, the rounded corners and particularly the lighter weight actually make it very comfortable to hold.

Display Quality

The screen is still fantastic, especially at this price point. As I say, it’s 6.7 inches, 120 Hz AMOLED, with a full HD Plus resolution. The brightness peaks at 1300 nits in outdoor HDR use. I also appreciate that we have a 2160 Hz PWM (pulse width modulation), which can help reduce eye strain, particularly at lower brightnesses when you’re doom scrolling in bed at night.

New Chip: Performance

Cores	Nothing Phone 2	Nothing Phone 2a	Nothing Phone 2A Plus
Single-Core score	1723	1106	1202
Multi-Core score	4565	2554	2648

There are two headline upgrades with Nothing 2A plus, with the first one being the chip. Nothing says it should be about 10% faster, and that’s roughly what my tests show as well. Side by side with the Nothing Phone 2 and also the Phone 2A, you can see that it is a more significant boost in the graphics department, but still some way behind the regular Phone 2, which uses an aging Snapdragon 8 Plus G1. The new chip is paired with the same 8 or 12 gigs of RAM, with 128 or 256 gigs of storage.

So the new chip gives us a nice little boost and I guess makes it just a bit more future-proof, but it’s not a game-changer by any stretch. Still, though, it performed well in the games I threw at it. Diablo Immortal ran smoothly at medium settings even during some pretty heated combat, and you can also toggle on performance mode in the game menu if you don’t care about battery life and just want a few extra frames.

Battery Life Performance

Speaking of battery though, inside here they’ve squeezed in a 5,000mAh battery. Now that is the same as the regular 2A, but I’ve noticed a couple of small changes versus that. I actually ran an overnight 12-hour YouTube test at 50% brightness. That’s the only way people watch my videos if I just put on a tech chat playlist and run it through the night. But I noticed after 12 hours, this still had two percentage points more, 31% remaining versus 29%, so there was a slight boost there.

Although on the flip side, during the 3D Mark extreme Wildlife test, because we do have a slightly higher powered chip, this actually used two percentage points more battery. Overall, it probably evens out to be the same. What is different though is the charging. We now have 50W wired charging with the 2A Plus versus 45W on the 2A. Again, not a big difference, so about 10% faster charging and a full 0 to 100 will take about an hour. Still though, unfortunately no wireless charging, which is disappointing.

Camera Test

The camera won’t take too long because it’s exactly the same as the regular 2A. The only difference is the front selfie camera, which we’ll test in a second. I’m shooting this at 4K 30, still no option for 4K 60, unfortunately, but maybe for the price, we can forgive it. This is my little hometown on a beautiful day.

Switching to the front camera, the first thing I noticed is that I can now shoot in 4K with the front selfie camera on the Nothing Phone 2A Plus. It’s still limited to 30 FPS, but the regular 2A tops out at 1080p, so high resolution there. I’m holding these at arm’s length ahead of me, getting the sun directly on me. It’s very bright today. Let’s see how it copes with the, well, very shiny forehead there. What do we think? Much different now?

Even though on paper the main and ultra-wide lenses are exactly the same as the 2A, there are some very subtle differences. We’ve got a slightly stronger bokeh on the Nothing 2A Plus here, and the lighting on these petals has a more natural shadow. It’s less flat looking, as if the dynamic range has been improved. There’s the tiniest bit more texture to shots, but it’s pretty trivial.

However, switching to the front-facing camera with its new 50-megapixel sensor (up from 32 on the 2A), selfies are notably sharper with more texture and better dynamic range. While it can still look a little bit overprocessed in shots, overall it’s a decent step up. But the camera as a whole, I reckon, does a pretty good job with its 50-megapixel main lens. We don’t have a telephoto, but the high resolution of the main lens gives us a good quality 2x crop, and we also have a 50-megapixel ultrawide, so technically it’s a triple 50-megapixel setup.

Portrait shots are fine in good light with the main lens, although the bokeh can look a bit artificial. I don’t know what’s happening around these leaves, to be fair. They’ve been pretty good about improving the camera with updates, so hopefully this gets better with time. The main lens also has OIS and EIS stabilization built in, which handles these old cobbled streets pretty nicely as I walk along shooting in 4K.

One thing I have noticed, though, shooting with the camera is that if you record at 4K, you can’t change between the lenses. Whichever one you start recording at, you are stuck at, whereas you can switch between the lenses when shooting at 1080p. Also, can I pause it? Yes, I can. I can pause the video, but I can’t rotate the camera between the front and rear, though. Just a thought. My only criticism would be that there aren’t a ton of modes and options to play with, although there is an expert mode if you want to tinker. And also, of course, the smallish sensors can struggle in lower light.

Software and NothingOS

Now if you’ve used a Nothing phone before, this will all feel very familiar to you, and this is actually running Nothing OS 2.6 on top of Android 14. It is one of my favorite UIs, one of my favorite software on an Android phone. It feels as fast as a Pixel, there’s no bloatware or ads, and we get some really useful widget options. Tons of customization, whether you want a colorful, traditional look to your home screen or a more monochrome and minimalist aesthetic.

It’s just fun to play around with, and it feels like Nothing keeps adding these cool experimental features that then get baked into the next version of Android. Also, the AI-generated wallpapers are actually really good, unlike a lot of rivals. They’ve also introduced ChatGPT, so you can search with text, your voice, or images right from the home screen. And even though we have a mid-level chip inside, everything feels fast and responsive, and certainly that 120Hz refresh rate helps compared to, say, the Pixel 8a’s 90Hz.

So far so good then, but there are a few compromises with Nothing Phone 2A Plus. First, in terms of software, we only get three years of support—three years of full OS updates, which is kind of the minimum going forward at the moment. Samsung offers seven years, I think Pixel’s on six years, so it would be good to see nothing extend that support a little bit. Still, no wireless charging.

I appreciate that does cost more and they probably have to redesign the phone a little bit, but I do use wireless charges a fair bit and that is a bit of a pain point for me. There’s also no eSIM support with the 2A Plus, which is a bit frustrating, especially as I travel quite a bit. Also, it’s just not that significantly different from the 2A that we’ve had for a couple of months now—a slight refresh on the design, a slightly faster chip, a slightly better selfie camera, 5 watt faster wired charging, and a couple of tweaks. That’s about it versus the regular 2A.

Price and final Thought

The 2A starts at $399 or for the same spec, so 12 + 256, it is £349 which is 50 Quid less than the Nothing 2A plus. So at that same spec, 12 gigs of RAM, 256 storage, this is £50 more. Although actually right now on Amazon I’ve seen deals for the 2A around the 300 mark.

I think given the differences between them I would probably save £1 and go with a 2A. And actually, if you do fancy going for the 2A Plus at that 400 price point, then you’re only 20 off the Pixel 8A. Also, the Galaxy A55 is in the similar ballpark, so it does have some stiff competition at that 400 price point.

Overall though, I really like the new Nothing Phone 2A Plus. It’s got such a unique design, solid all-round performance, camera, battery, lovely software, and it’s just a fun and innovative company to invest in. So more options are great and it is a terrific phone at this price point. If you buy one you will not be disappointed and I will leave a link below.

But personally, I would probably just stick with the regular 2A, especially now that you can find some discounts on it. But what do you make of the Nothing Phone 2A Plus? Would you consider buying it? Let me know in the comments below.

80%

80%

Solid

The Nothing Phone 2A Plus offers some worthwhile upgrades and maintains the brand's unique design and smooth software experience. However, its incremental improvements over the 2A, lack of wireless charging, and limited software support might make it less appealing compared to competitors, especially considering its price $399.

Pros

1. Unique design with refined materials and new colors, maintaining a solid build and comfortable feel.
2. Excellent 6.7-inch 120 Hz AMOLED screen with high brightness and low PWM flicker.
3. Noticeable boost in chip performance compared to the 2A, handling games well.
4. Solid 5000mAh battery with slightly faster charging than the 2A.
5. mooth Nothing OS 2.6 on Android 14 with minimal bloatware and useful features.

Cons

1. Limited improvements over the 2A—primarily faster chip, slightly better selfie camera, and minor design tweaks.
2. Absence of wireless charging is a downside.
3. Only three years of OS updates compared to competitors offering more.
4. Lacks eSIM support, which could be inconvenient for frequent travelers.

• Design and Build quality

  8
• Display Quality

  9
• Software

  9
• Performance

  8
• Battery Life

  8
• Camera

  7
• Value for Money

  7