One smartphone is like the other: Many devices can now hardly be distinguished from one another, their design is so similar. In front a display that spreads over the entire surface, behind a back made of glass, plastic or aluminum with two or three camera lenses. That was it.
And then there’s the Nothing Phone, now in its second generation – and refreshingly different. Nothing simply calls its new model Phone (2).
If you know the first Nothing Phone, you have to look closely to see the changes. The angular design, which is also known from the iPhone, has remained. The display has grown slightly from 6.55 inches to 6.7 inches (17 centimeters).
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However, the glass on the back is now curved, which makes it much more comfortable to touch. In general, the back is still the star of the smartphone: because it is transparent.
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And there’s more: Fortunately, Nothing has stayed with its LED elements under the glass on the back, which made the first model so special.
Six more elements have even been added, so there are now eleven. The manufacturer calls this Glyph. Depending on the setting, all or individual LED elements can light up briefly when there are calls from certain people or messages from certain apps.
Light cues are just gimmicks
Users can now compose the light pattern themselves in the so-called glyph composer, which is fun. If the cell phone is lying on its back on the table and someone is calling, the LEDs flash according to individual preferences and play short tones. More personalization is hardly possible.
But the test shows that this is just a gimmick. Many light compositions can be created here and assigned to individual contacts. But remembering afterwards which signal sequence belongs to which contact is really difficult.
Some compositions are already given. Nothing has teamed up with the music group Swedish House Mafia so that smartphone users can mix electronic music sounds into their ringtones. The Glyph Composer is also available as an app in the Google Play Store, so owners of the first generation of devices can also use it to compose.
Users can compose the light pattern on the back of the Nothing Phone (2) themselves
Quelle: Nothing
If you want to do without this gimmick, you can switch off the LEDs completely. But there are also some useful applications for it. For example, the course of a set timer can be displayed with an LED strip that slowly goes out. LED strips also show how full the battery is while charging.
App developers can also access this function, but the range is still very limited. We only found the ride-hailing service provider Uber here: the closer the driver gets, the shorter the LED strip becomes.
Dual camera is only mediocre
As with its predecessor, Nothing relies on a double camera with an ultra wide-angle and a wide-angle lens on the back. The results are very solid, but cannot keep up with high-end devices from Samsung, Google or Apple and show some weaknesses, especially in low light.
Nothing gets a double zoom out of the wide-angle lens, which is okay. However, you shouldn’t zoom in on objects much closer, because the digital zoom then leads to severe quality losses.
Videos are now also possible in the high 4K resolution with 60 frames per second, previously it was only 30 frames. The resolution of the selfie camera has doubled to 32 megapixels.
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In contrast to the first model, the new Nothing Phone now has a really powerful processor in addition to a larger battery, which was already installed in the flagship models of the competitors last year. The device reacted in the test without any delay.
The new 6.7-inch display in the Nothing Phone (2) with a very slim bezel is a real strength. It is sharp, very bright, shows pleasant colors and good contrast. The refresh rate is dynamic and ranges from one to 120 frames per second. This enables an always-on display as well as very smooth movements, for example when scrolling.
Focus is on conscious use
Users can choose whether they want to unlock the device via the fingerprint scanner in the display or via face recognition. Both worked reliably in the test.
The device runs the Nothing OS 2.0 software, which is based on Android 13. Nothing goes to great lengths to implement its own design language, which we find largely successful.
In particular, the monochrome icons and widgets on the start page are unusual. Colorful symbols should actually tempt people to hold their smartphones in their hands frequently and for long periods of time. Nothing goes in the opposite direction with a focus on conscious use.
The user interface of the Nothing Phone (2) also has its own design
Quelle: Nothing
Unfortunately, not all apps with their icons fit into this monochrome design, which in turn spoils the overall impression somewhat when there is a colorful break on a largely black-and-white start page.
Nothing promises Android updates for three years and security patches for four years, which should come every two months. It’s not bad, but you can do better. Samsung and Google are going a year further with security updates. Samsung even delivers for four Android updates.
Conclusion: The Nothing Phone (2) is a real asset in the mostly monotonous world of smartphones. Anyone who attaches great importance to a special design will be well served with this eye-catcher. Playing around with the glyph system on the back is fun.
But the phone (2) is not as cheap as the first model. Depending on the memory equipment, it costs between 659 euros and 799 euros. The most expensive version is 250 euros more than the previous model. These are proud prices for a smartphone that is only splash-proof but not waterproof and has no telephoto camera. With these prices, Nothing comes dangerously close to the higher-end smartphones of the competition, which offer more performance, especially when it comes to the camera.
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