Il Nothing Phone (2a) Plus enters the mid-range smartphone market with an unmistakable design, promising performance and a refined user interface, but will it be enough to stand out in an increasingly competitive landscape? It represents a valid option for users looking for an alternative to the more established brands?
The unmistakable touch of Nothing
The design of the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus is undoubtedly one of its strong points. The company has decided to keep the same shape and size as its predecessor, the Phone (2a), but has introduced some new touches of style which make it even more captivating.
The transparent back, with its intricate patterns and metallic accentsis a real pleasure for the eyes and gives the smartphone a futuristic and distinctive look. The device is available in two colors: black and silver. In both cases, the metal parts are in a shiny gray, which adds an extra touch of elegance.
Despite its generous dimensions, the Phone (2a) Plus is surprisingly easy to handleThe plastic frame has a finish that offers excellent grip, while the chamfered back panel and light weight help make the device convenient to use even for long periods.
However, it is important to note that the smartphone is made entirely of plasticwhich makes it a bit of a fingerprint magnet. Additionally, the IP54 certification provides only limited protection against dust and splashes of water, so it is advisable to avoid exposing it to extreme conditions.
The iconic LED interface is not missing Glyph. Unfortunately, the latter is the same as the Phone (2a) and does not offer the same versatility and spectacularity as the LED lights of the Nothing Phone (2).
Il display AMOLED and 6.7 inches of the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus is another highlight. With a resolution of 2412 x 1084 pixel and a density of approximately 394 pixels per inch, offers sharp and detailed images. The refresh rate of 120Hz and the peak brightness of 1300 nit ensure a smooth and pleasant viewing experience, even under direct sunlight.
There are smartphones that can reach higher brightness peaks but only for a short time and on a small portion of the display. In everyday life, smartphones in this price range have a brightness comparable to that of the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus. The quality of the panel is therefore in line with what you might expect from a product in this price range.
Il optical fingerprint readerlocated under the display, is the same as the Phone (2a) and works relatively quickly and precisely.
An appreciable upgrade
The beating heart of the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus is the new processor Dimensity 7350 Prodeveloped in collaboration with MediaTek and therefore exclusive to this model. According to Nothing, this chipset offers a 30% improvement in GPU speed e 10% CPU performance boost compared to the Dimensity 7200 Pro present in the Phone (2a).
In benchmarks, however, the improvement is not as dramatic as promised. The Phone (2a) Plus falls behind the Pixel 8a with its Tensor G3 processor, but beats the Galaxy A55 with Exynos 1480 in terms of graphics performance.
In everyday use, the smartphone It generally behaves very smoothlyalthough you can occasionally notice some slowdowns when pushed to the limit of its capabilities. Overall, the user experience is pleasant, thanks also to the excellent responsiveness of the touch screen.
As for gaming, the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus can handle casual games without any issues, while more demanding titles will require you to lower the graphics settings to get a 60 fps experience. This is nothing unusual and happens with pretty much everything in this price range.
They accompany the chip well 8GB LPDDR4X RAM e 256GB of internal memory UFS 2.2the latter being the likely cause of the occasional slowdowns we encountered.
| Smartphone | Geekbench 6 | AnTuTu | AiTuTu | 3DMark | ||
| Single-core | Multi-core | Wild Life Extreme | Wild Life Extreme Stress Test | |||
| Nothing Phone (2a) Plus | 1223 | 2657 | 773830 | Mistake |
1369 (8,20 fps) |
1374 – 1363 (99,2%) |
| Nothing Phone (2a) | 1139 | 2600 | 690297 | 86714 |
1156 (6,93 fps) |
1155 – 1151 (99,6%) |
| Nothing Phone (2) | 1743 | 4589 | 1040354 | 3017497 |
2779 (16,60 fps) |
2805 – 1695 (60,4%) |
| OnePlus Nord 4 | 1164 | 3852 | 1088133 | 616806 |
2930 (17,55 fps) |
2999 – 1629 (54,3%%) |
| POCO F5 | 1246 | 4205 | 945848 | 1208210 |
1965 (11,80 fps) |
1970 – 1964 (99,7%) |
The Nothing Phone (2a) Plus comes with a 5000mAh batterythe same capacity as its predecessor. Nothing claims that the battery will retain 90% of its capacity even after 1,000 charging cycles, provided it is used under normal conditions.
In our tests, the smartphone has shown to have improved, even if only marginally, also in energy management, reaching 16:56 hours into our test versus the 4:00 pm mark of the previous model.
A significant improvement over the Phone (2a) is charging. 50W wired fastwhich allows you to reach 70% charge in just 30 minutes. Unfortunately, this model also Does not support wireless charging and does not include a charger in the package.
A clean and customizable interface
Nothing’s new Plus performs Android 14 with the interface Nothing OS 2.6. The user interface features a clean, minimalist design, with the option to choose between a custom Nothing theme and the default Android style.
One of the most interesting new features is the widget Nothing Newswhich offers short summaries of the main news stories from 7 selectable categories, read aloud by the computer voice of Nothing CFO Tim Holbrow. Unfortunately there is no way to change the voice of this assistant and the news of the day will be read only in english (for now).
There are no third-party applications (bloatware) outside of what you would expect, like the entire suite of Google apps. Nothing promises 3 years of Android updateswhich for a young company is a sufficient result.
Decent cameras, but not exceptional
The Nothing Phone (2a) Plus features a 50MP triple camerawhich includes a 50MP main camera with optical image stabilization (OIS), a 50MP ultra-wide camera with a 114-degree field of view, and a 50MP front-facing camera with an 81.2-degree field of view.
Following the trend of the best modern cameraphones, the rear cameras offer two shooting modes: Natural and Vivid. The latter automatically applies some real-time corrections, such as reducing the brightness of highlights to improve the layering of colors in the sky. The difference between the two modes is subtle, but noticeable.
Photos taken with the main and ultra-wide cameras are generally of good quality, with sharp details and natural colorsalthough sometimes a little too dull. At night, the sharpening and noise reduction algorithm tends to make lines too sharp and details blurry, but generally the Phone (2a) Plus does a great job of making the most of the information arriving at its sensors. Portrait mode does a good job of separating the subject from the background, but the bokeh effect is not always convincing. The front-facing camera is good but not always able to return the sharp images you would expect.
Can record video in 4K a 30 fps with the rear cameras. Image quality is generally very good, although fast movements can cause blurring. Stabilization is effective, but not comparable to that of more expensive smartphones. Videos recorded at 1080p at 60 fps are more stable, but colors tend to be slightly oversaturated.
Conclusions
Overall, the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus It’s an interesting device for those looking for an alternative to the more famous brands and appreciate a distinctive design and a refined user interface. However, if the quality of the camera is a priority, the Google Pixel 8a, despite being slightly more expensive, could represent a more balanced choice.
The care that Nothing has put into this smartphone is appreciable. and surely whoever buys it will not be disappointed in any way. The improvements compared to the previous model are marginal but welcome. It is a perfect smartphone for those who come from a Nothing Phone (1) and want to take a small step forward, or for all those who want to try out the user experience prepared by the London brand without aiming for the more expensive Nothing Phone (2).
Source: www.tomshw.it
