Nothing Phone (2) review: A true game-changer

The much-awaited Nothing Phone (2) is launched in India at a starting price of Rs 44,999. This much-hyped smartphone has finally made its way to Tech Today studio. If you are planning to buy the handset, keep reading for a detailed review.

In terms of design, it looks good and feels a lot more premium than the last one. The smartphone features a 6.7 inch flexible OLED display with LTPO and a 120Hz refresh rate. One of the best things about the phone is that you can keep the refresh rate at 1 Hz if you are not doing any graphic or display intensive task. For protection, it comes with Corning Gorilla Glass and support for HDR10+ and 100 nits of peak brightness.

Nothing Phone (2) comes with an IP54 rating for splash, water and dust resistance. It was not available in its predecessor.

The smartphone is powered by Snapdragon 8+ Gen1 chipset, which is not exactly the latest flagship chipset. Explaining the reason behind choosing this chipset, Nothing CEO Carl Pei, in an exclusive conversation with Tech Today stated, “It's about picking the right type of ingredients to make the overall package really good. You might say that we don't have the latest, highest spec processor, we still are really capable. Just like when we cook a meal, we don't throw all the ingredients onto the table or into the pot, we pick the best combination of stuff.”

Well, this could be the stroke of genius in a market like India. It is a good decision if it keeps the price down and delivers the same type of performance that you need on a daily basis. I played graphic intensive games like Asphalt, Genshin Impact and it offered a smooth gaming experience.

The Nothing Phone (2) design is an eye-catcher with its unique Glyph design. The user experience is very intuitive and smooth with the hardware improvements. It now offers a lot of customisation options when it comes to app labels, grid design, widget size, colour themes and more. My personal favourite was the weather widget that gives detailed information while keeping it fun.

The redefined Glyph interface                                                                          

The Glyph interface was not very useful in Phone (1) but the company has changed that in the new handset. If you have an essential notification or when selected contacts or apps would send you something, maybe a message or would be calling you, a light will shine persistently until you've opened it. You just want to go into DND mode, you don't have rockers over here, so you just need to turn the phone around and it is done. In this mode, you will get light-only notifications. This can be really helpful if you want a digital detox.

Another cool thing you can do is use glyph composer, which means create your own ringtone. Nothing Phone (2)’s Glyph interface can also tell how far away your delivery is, or how much longer your Uber will take without actually unlocking the phone.

Verdict 

Launched at a starting price of Rs 44,999, the Nothing Phone (2) is nearly half the price of an iPhone, and has all the features that you need to get the job done. Nothing is brave enough brand to take on the Apples and Samsungs of the world to create something.

Nothing Phone (2) is an entry point into the ecosystem that the company will be working on with attention to detail NothingOS, the glyph interface is really serving a concrete purpose. All in all, it turns out second time's a charm for Pei's Nothing. With the Phone (2), it isn't a case of “much ado about nothing”, and it seems like the startup is definitely onto something.

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