We tried the Nothing Phone 2: is it really the iPhone of the Android world?
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This is going to be a tough year for Nothing, the company co-founded by Carl Pei and David Sanmartin Garcia. Indeed, no: not necessarily difficult but complicated, important. More important than last. On one side it is the year of confirmationbecause getting to produce a second smartphone is already a good result, but on the other it is also the year in which you are no longer the last to arrive and in which everyone expects more. They expect confirmations, in your confirmation year.
It should be the new one to give you Phone 2, fresh presentation (full details here) and in presale in Italy from July 17, which we had the opportunity to try for a fortnight in the version with 12 GB of Ram and 256 GB of storage space and dark gray in colour. Not black, because there is no more black.
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Nothing Phone 2, the technical characteristics
Aesthetically, the phone does not differ much from previous Phone 1, which remains available (our test here): 6.7” Ltpo OLED screen with variable refresh rate up to 120 Hz, Qualcomm processor Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 with 8 or 12 GB of Ram and 128, 256 or 512 GB of memory, 4700 mAh battery and two 50MP rear camerasthe main optically stabilized and the second wide angle.
And then of course there are the about 900 leds in the backorganized according to the Phone 1 scheme but divided into a greater number of individual strips, so as to allow more variety of plays of light: they come alive when the phone rings or receives a notification, they replace the sound alerts if you put it face up below, they can work as a charge indicator or volume and even provide a visual aid when starting a timer.
How does the Nothing Phone 2 in everyday life
If from the outside everything looks pretty much the same, the data sheet highlights the 3 steps forward of the Phone 2 compared to the Phone 1, relating to display, chip and battery: these are upgrades that are clearly perceived in daily use (the telephone is more economical in consumption and in general snappier and more ready to the inputs) but which unfortunately have an impact on the price.
Predictably enough, the Phone 2 is more expensive than the Phone 1: it starts from 679 euros and we arrive at 849 (the price of the trial version is 729 euros), while last year it ranged from 499 to 579 euros. The entry threshold is 180 euros higher, but with the same specifications, the difference is 150 euros. And it seems to us completely justified, we say it immediately and clearly.
In our experience, the Phone 2 it’s not just “a copy of the iPhone with Android and lights”: it’s a really nice phone, with a nice design, well made, well built and really pleasant to use more or less in all situations. This is true regardless of the LEDs (but you quickly get used to using them for your own needs), because the play of light is not the point. The point is that everything else convinces. Starting with the software.
The phone comes to the market with an operating system based on Android 13 and called NothingOS 2.0 and right now, in our opinion, it is the best version of android out there. Better, cleaner, more useful and effective even than that of the Google Pixels, which is saying something. Already from the first configuration you have the possibility to choose whether to use the icons pack and the customized graphics from Nothing for the various screens, a soft black and white which in reality is not black and white, with a few splashes of color placed here and there in the right points. We recommend trying it (you can always go back), because it gives a great cleaning to the whole, thanks also to the never too praised possibility of hiding the name of the app from the homepage.
It obviously didn’t end there, because another really well done thing is i widgets: there are 14 custom created by Nothing, all consistent with the interface graphics and some that can also be just a shortcut to set any parameter with a single click. There is also one thing that practically does not exist in the Android world: i widget on the lock screen, to interact with without even unlocking the phone, perhaps to turn on the flashlight, put on airplane mode, activate or deactivate the hotspot. It’s a brilliant and elegant solution that we hope other companies will adopt.
How does the Nothing Phone 2 take pictures
Among the other things that we (a lot) liked about this smartphone there is certainly the autonomy: partly because the battery is more capable than that of the Phone 1, partly because the processor is less energy-intensive, partly because the Ltpo screen helps to save power, we have managed to touch the 3 days of stand-by with 4-5 hours of screen time, that’s quite a remarkable achievement. There is no power adapter in the box, but the Phone 2 supports wireless charging and 45W fast charging.
The last question to answer concerns the photographs: how does the Phone 2 take them? Basically fine. Not to win a contest or to worry iPhone, Galaxy (which however cost much more) or Pixel (which can count on the help of the so-called computational photography), but good. At times even very good and definitely better than the Phone 1: fast focus, natural and never oversaturated colors, many options and an effective Macro mode. And the rear leds that can serve as a ring light, which is an original way to get friends a surprised face before shooting.
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