Despite being one of the most recent startup in the smartphone space, London-based Nothing had already impressed many consumers and reviewers alike when the company launched it’s first-generation’s Phone (1) last year. Reason being is simple, the Phone (1) was an absolute art piece, sporting a trendy transparent design that was beyond of imagination.
Fast-forward one year, Nothing is now back with the new Phone (2) that brings along several noteworthy updates that make an already great device even better. So if you’re in the market for a new smartphone, here are five big reasons why you should consider getting the new Phone (2) as your next daily driver!
1) Design That Stands Out Of The Crowd
For me, one of the most compelling reason to get the new Phone (2) is perhaps the design of the smartphone that offers a breath of fresh air in the sea of similar-looking smartphones.
The Phone (2)’s design is nothing like what we’d seen in the past. It features a semi-transparent glass which not only gives you a glimpse into some of it’s internal components, but also showcases the unique “Glyph Interface” made up of microLEDs stripes which blink in combination whenever you received a notification or call.
Speaking of phone calls, users are given the ability to customize the way they want these microLEDs stripes to light up within the phone’s setting where you’ll find 10 preset ringtones, each with a dedicated Glyph pattern that lights up in sync with the ringtone.
While this might sounds gimmicky at the start, it does have it’s real life functionalities. For instance, it often helps to prompt me if I didn’t hear the ringtone whenever I was dining in a noisy food place. Of course, that’s provided you place the back of the phone facing upwards to keep the Glyph Interface visible.
Notifications-aside, there are also other intuitive use cases for the Glyph interface where it can be used as an charging indicator that gives you a rough idea of the battery level, or be used to fill light when snapping close-up photos of subjects in poorly-lit environment.
2) A Phone That Feels Premium On Hand
The new Phone (2) might not be an expensive smartphone, but everything about the phone’s exterior screams premium from it’s aluminum-clad frame to the Gorilla Glass back which give you the impression that you’re holding on to a smartphone that’s twice it’s price.
@playfuldroid Nothing Phone (2) unboxing ? #NothingPhone2 #Nothing #Smartphone #Unboxing ? Edm – TonsTone
Similar to last year’s model, the Phone (2) settles with a boxy flat-edge design that offers the right amount of grip to prevent it from slippering especially when you’re holding or using the phone with one hand. Likewise, such design also solves the issue of accidental touch which occasionally happens to me when using smartphones with curved display.
To protect the phone against minor splash of water or light drizzle, the Nothing Phone (2) also comes with a slightly improved IP54 rating for dust and water resistance. That’s certainly a nice feature to have on a smartphone of this price point.
3) High-end Display for Entertainment
The front side of the phone is an equally high-end affair. It comes with a vibrant 6.7” OLED display that offers excellent viewing angles and peak brightness which allow the screen to stay legible regardless of lighting condition. Unlike last year’s model, the new Phone (2) adopts a centered punch-hole cutout to accommodate it’s 32 megapixels front-facing camera that will be used for selfies and video calls.
The screen itself supports an impressive FHD+ screen resolution along with an ultra-fast 120Hz refresh rate that promises sharp and smooth visuals when streaming your favorite drama or playing your favorite game title. To make things even better, the phone also comes along with HDR10+ support for compatible media contents on streaming apps such as Netflix.
Last but not the least, the front display is also reinforced by an extra layer of Gorilla Glass 5 to protect the screen against accidental drop or scratches.
4) All-Scenarios Camera System
On the imaging side of things, the Nothing Phone (2) features a versatile dual-cam system lead by a 50 megapixels main camera and a 50 megapixels ultra-wide unit for landscape and close-up photography.
The main camera uses Sony’s flagship IMX890 sensor that’s able to capture flattering photos with excellent details and dynamic range regardless of lighting conditions. Likewise, the presence of OIS stabilization also makes it much easier to capture sharp-looking photos in shaky scenarios which would normally results in a blurry mess.
To improve the overall color science of the photos, the new Phone (2) leverages an Advanced HDR algorithm which automatically captures 8 frames with different levels of exposure and fuses a final image that captures the most true-to-life result by selecting the best details in each frame.
Even though the ultra-wide camera uses a different Samsung JN1 sensor, it’s still capable of snapping decent-looking photos which you’ll be proud to share on social medias. More importantly, this camera doubles up as a macro camera that allows you to capture impressive close-up photos of floras and faunas without needing a dedicated macro camera.
5) All The Power You Need Under The Hood
The new Phone (2) is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset which boasts better performance than last year’s Snapdragon 778+ on the Phone (1). It’s a high-end chipset which has no issue handling intensive workload be it mobile gaming or video editing.
Likewise, the phone also did remarkably well in terms of thermal management by keeping the phone’s temperature within an acceptable range even when running at peak performance. This is important as it helps to reduce the risk of thermal throttling which would otherwise lead to a significant slow down in phone’s performance.
Apart from it’s capable chipset, the Phone (2) is also backed by a respectable 4,700mAh battery which never fails to provide me with at least a day’s worth of battery life under moderate usage. This will be supplemented by a blazing fast 45W wired charging support which tops a completely flat battery from 0 to 100% in slightly less than an hour.
Unlike most other devices within it’s price point, the Nothing Phone (2) also features support for 15W Qi wireless charging as well as 5W reverse charging which allows you to use the phone’s battery to recharge your wireless headset or smartwatch.
Pricing & Availability
In Singapore, the Nothing Phone (2) is priced starting from S$999 for the 12GB+256GB trim and goes up to S$1,099 for the top-of-the-line model with 12GB+512GB configuration. It’ll be available for purchase via Nothing’s official website, as well as official stores on both Shopee and Lazada.
