Review: Nothing Phone (2)

“What the hell was that?”

Those were the first words out of my friend’s mouth when he saw the back of my smartphone burst to life with a flashing pattern of lights. This is, arguably, one of the main reasons you would want the Nothing Phone (2). It’s quite literally a flashy Android phone that looks different from almost anything you’ll find in a carrier store today.

Nothing, founded by Carl Pei of OnePlus fame, is launching its second phone and for the first time releasing it in the US. For $599, it undercuts much of the flagship market, despite offering top-end features. This value proposition is something OnePlus was known for, but the competition for midrange handsets is stiffer these days. Both the Google Pixel 7A and Samsung Galaxy A54 are cheaper, and the OnePlus 10T and upcoming Asus Zenfone 10 aren’t much more expensive. But while the Nothing Phone (2) has its hangups, it trumps all of its peers on sheer style—with unique hardware and slick software—and is a great improvement over the Nothing Phone (1).

There are subtle design differences between the Phone (2) and its predecessor. The color options are now white or a lovely gray, and you still get the exposed look on the rear that, by itself, makes the Phone (2) unique. I love it when a phone does something to stand out—death to drab phones! The LEDs are split up a bit, partly because there are more addressable zones to light up.

These white LEDs flash in a specific pattern when you get a notification, and there’s a Flip to Glyph mode that automatically puts your phone on silent while allowing you to use the lights for alerts. This was already available on its predecessor, but there’s one big improvement: Essential Glyph Notifications.

This new feature lets you select granular notifications that persistently stay lit up on one of the LEDs when your phone is face down. The LED stays on until you pick up your phone and read or dismiss the notification. If I’m having lunch with a friend but don’t want to miss potentially important messages from my wife via Telegram, I can specifically choose notifications from our conversation to light up on the rear LED. Other Telegram notifications won’t stay persistently lit up—just those from my wife.

The only issue is that from the main Glyph settings page it’s not immediately clear how granular you can go in notifications. You can certainly select notifications from, say, Instagram Direct Messages (and not Direct Message Requests), but in apps like Telegram and Facebook Messenger, you can choose specific conversations. These don’t always show up in the Glyph settings, so when a notification comes through, you’ll need to press and hold the down arrow on the notification itself to mark it as an “Essential Glyph” notification.

Glyph lights also work with the Glyph Timer, which you can set to your preferred length and start by turning the phone face down. One of the LED strips will light up and begin fading in correspondence with the timer. No need to look at your phone! The LEDs can now also be integrated with third-party apps, although Nothing only worked with Uber at launch. Right now, if you call an Uber driver, you won’t have to keep checking the app to see how far away they are—just look at the LED strip to see the driver’s progress. It worked perfectly on the few rides I booked last week, though I inevitably had to check my phone to make sure I knew my driver’s name and license plate.

Still, these little features are clever ways to help you stay present and avoid unnecessarily checking your phone. One problem? It’s hard to erase years of muscle memory of putting a smartphone face up. Too often I just … forgot that Glyph lights are a thing. You’ll need time to get used to it. Also, if Nothing wants me to put its phone face down on every surface imaginable, the least it could do is include a clear case that would keep the Gorilla Glass 5 screen contact-free. I don’t see any scratches yet, but they seem inevitable.

Not using the phone is a big part of Nothing’s ethos—the company wants to make its software and hardware more “intentional” so that you’re only using your handset when you need it. Its new monochrome interface is part of that play. It takes a page from Google’s “Bedtime Mode” in Android, which converts the phone’s software to grayscale to discourage you from doomscrolling before bed. There are no app labels either.

However, after using a permanently grayscale interface for a few weeks, I don’t think this works. I’m already using my phone less because my favorite third-party Reddit client shut down (and I will not be downloading Reddit’s official app, thank you very much), but when your whole phone is monochrome all the time, I don’t necessarily get that Pavlovian jolt as I do with Bedtime Mode that I should really go to sleep. Instead, it just feels like a really elegant design.

Looks are where I have to give Nothing props. Nothing OS 2.0 is gorgeous, particularly with many of Nothing’s own widgets. Even more amazingly, you can put these widgets on the lock screen, and it looks far better than anything I’ve ever seen on any other Android phone. The notification and ringtone sounds are also unique. Nothing has also introduced a “Glyph Composer,” and I spent far too long making a few custom ringtones and notification alerts. It reminds me of the good old days of Android, which fostered a “do-whatever-you-want-with-your-phone” mentality.

The fundamentals of the Nothing Phone (2) are pretty great overall. The 6.7-inch AMOLED screen has a fluid 120-Hz screen refresh rate that looks excellent and gets comfortably bright on sunny days. The 4,700-mAh battery cell easily lasted me a full day—after four hours of screen time, I usually had over 40 percent left in the tank. It can easily last a full day and a half.

It’s now powered by last year’s flagship processor, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, with 8 GB of RAM (128 GB of internal storage). It’s snappy and feels like one of the most responsive phones I have ever used, with speedy animations and quick app launches. It’s super smooth.

There’s wireless charging and NFC support for making contactless payments, and Nothing is promising three Android OS updates, along with four years of security updates. That isn’t as good as what Google and Samsung offer, but it’s pretty close. Sadly, it’s not a complete package. You’re only getting an IP54 water resistance rating, despite comparably priced phones like the Google Pixel 7 having a more robust IP68 rating. This means it’ll be fine in the rain, but you do not want your Phone (2) to be submerged in water. Perhaps more importantly, this phone will only work on AT&T and T-Mobile’s networks. There is no Verizon support.

What of the cameras? Here we have a nice improvement over Nothing’s predecessor. But whether you use the 50-megapixel primary camera, 50-megapixel ultrawide, or 32-megapixel selfie camera, they are still inferior to the cameras on the cheaper Google Pixel 7A. Yes, most current phones at this price can take some great photos, especially if your subject is photogenic, and I snapped a lot of images I was happy with on the Nothing Phone (2). But there are inconsistencies in the image quality at times, particularly when you have a lot of motion in your key subject, like a dog that won’t sit still. Portrait mode feels like it often requires more light, and I’ve seen a ton of chromatic aberration on the edges of trees, where the color is distorted and purplish.

For $100 less, the Google Pixel 7A has superior cameras and a much better water resistance rating, will get security updates for longer, and works on every major carrier in the US. Oh, and the Pixel 7A has lots of useful software smarts. It’s the better value. The Phone (2) wins points on better battery life, snappier performance, and the useful (and fun) light effects. Which handset is actually better comes down to your preferences. I’m just happy there’s more choice than ever before.