The Nothing Cellphone 2 is best than the Cellphone 1 in a number of small methods. However I’m nonetheless not precisely certain what it is.
By the numbers, it’s a well-equipped midrange system. It prices $599 and comes with a succesful Snapdragon processor, an enormous, smooth-scrolling display, and some extras like wi-fi charging. Up to now, so good. However then, there’s the vibe, which is at the least half of the attraction. It’s more durable to quantify however lives someplace among the many translucent rear panel design, the sunshine strip notification indicators, and the distinct Nothing OS launcher. It’s not like a daily cellphone — it’s a cool cellphone.
I believe you’ll get pleasure from utilizing it — so long as you’re not anticipating a transformational expertise
Woven into that vibe is Nothing’s origin story for the cellphone: it’s for individuals who need to be much less distracted and extra intentional about how they use their system. It’s for individuals who need expertise to be enjoyable once more. It helps you give attention to what issues.
Right here’s the place all that lands in actuality: the Nothing Cellphone 2 is a trendy cellphone for individuals who need their tech to face out. It’s not going to make you a extra targeted, intentional particular person. It’s pretty priced, thoughtfully designed, and if its vibe aligns with yours, then I believe you’ll get pleasure from utilizing it — so long as you’re not anticipating a transformational expertise.
6Verge Rating
Nothing Cellphone 2
$599
- Mild strips are a neat design contact
- Helpful always-on show with customizable information
- Good four-year software program help coverage
- Solely splash-resistant
- Not licensed on Verizon
The Cellphone 2 feels just like the system the Cellphone 1 was meant to be. Nothing appears to have ironed out some earlier points — battery life is way improved, for starters. It lasts by a day of reasonable use due to a extra power-efficient Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset and an even bigger 4,700mAh cell (up from 4,500mAh).
The 8 Plus Gen 1 is snappy; my overview unit has 12GB of RAM, and I can cruise between apps seamlessly. The bottom mannequin comes with 8GB of RAM, however I don’t suppose that will make any important distinction in day-to-day use. The 6.7-inch 1080p display is likely one of the nicest you’ll discover on any cellphone this far south of $1,000. It’s an LTPO display able to working as much as 120Hz and all the best way right down to 1Hz.
It’s larger than the 6.55-inch show on the Cellphone 1, and the bezels are just a bit slimmer this yr, too. It will get brighter in direct daylight — allegedly as much as 1,600 nits, although Nothing isn’t precisely a dependable narrator on that entrance; it initially claimed the Cellphone 1 may hit 1,200 nits earlier than strolling it again to 700. In any case, I used to be in a position to make use of the display comfortably on a hike whereas framing images in vivid sunshine.
The Cellphone 2’s general construct feels fairly sturdy — there’s Gorilla Glass on the back and front and durable aluminum rails across the sides. The sides are flat, as on final yr’s mannequin, however there’s a slight curve to the again panel so it sits extra comfortably in your hand. That’s good, however I believe it contributes to a different drawback: this cellphone is slippery as heck. Like, Google Pixel 6 and seven slippery. It slips round in my hand greater than I’d like, and if I set it down with the display aspect up on a {smooth} counter, it’s liable to shimmy proper off the sting.
Regardless of its sturdy construct, the Cellphone 2 continues to be not fairly as water- or dust-resistant as different telephones round this value. It’s IP54 rated — up from IP53 on the Cellphone 1 — which suggests it provides fairly a little bit of mud resistance however is barely splash-resistant. The Samsung Galaxy A54 5G and Google Pixel 7A, each of which value lower than the Cellphone 2, provide extra strong IP67 rankings. Type of a bummer. On the software program aspect, Nothing is promising three Android OS updates and 4 years of safety updates each different month. That’s not the perfect coverage on the market, however it’s Good with a capital G.
In different excellent news: the Cellphone 2 is absolutely launching within the US, which the Cellphone 1 solely form of did by a beta testing program. That is nice as a result of we sorely want selection in our midrange cellphone weight-reduction plan right here. It received’t be bought straight by any service, however will probably be accessible unlocked and can work on T-Cell and AT&T — however it received’t be licensed to work on Verizon. That fairly dramatically cuts down the variety of folks within the US who can take into account the Cellphone 2.
Wired charging is even quicker this yr: as much as 45W in comparison with 33W. Simply remember to BYO charging brick. Wi-fi charging continues to be supported at as much as 15W, and I believe that’s a sensible inclusion. A cellphone that appears this excessive tech and gadget-y simply wants it, and I recognize with the ability to set it down on my charging stand on the finish of the day.
One be aware although — my charger appears to reengage charging on occasion all through the evening to maintain it topped off at one hundred pc, and that makes the Glyph lights blink to substantiate charging is occurring. I are not looking for a strobe gentle on my bedside desk, however it’s straightforward sufficient to toggle the glyphs on and off within the fast settings.
The Cellphone 2 comes with the same rear digicam {hardware} setup because the Cellphone 1: a 50-megapixel f/1.9 important digicam with optical picture stabilization and a 50-megapixel ultrawide. There’s a brand new 32-megapixel selfie digicam on the entrance. The corporate says that its HDR processing has been improved, because it now makes use of extra particular person frames for every shot. Testing this out in vivid noon solar, I can affirm that the Cellphone 2 avoids committing HDR crimes, although it loses extra highlights than I’d want. General although, they’re nice-looking photos.
Nothing says that a part of its digicam software program enhancements consists of higher recognition of shifting topics — in flip, boosting the shutter velocity so that you’re extra prone to get a pointy shot. That’s important in case you’re taking photos of a shifting child or pet, notably in dim gentle the place cameras like to make use of longer exposures to let in additional gentle. You are likely to get a number of blurry images from smartphone cameras in these conditions.
I’m actually very impressed with how properly this works on the Cellphone 2 — it cranked the shutter velocity as much as 1/500sec for a collection of images of my toddler leaping out from a pile of pillows, and all of them are sharp. Element is a little bit smoothed out from noise discount because it additionally had to make use of a better ISO, however I’ll take that over a straight-up blurry photograph any day. I’d like to see different cellphone digicam makers copy this transfer from Nothing.
Not less than a part of Nothing’s acknowledged mission is that will help you take management over how a lot you utilize your cellphone, and the Cellphone 2 comes with each software program and {hardware} tweaks that will help you do this. On the {hardware} aspect, there are the glyphs: they’re damaged up into extra sections this time round, and you may compose your individual morse code-like mixtures of blinks and bloops. There’s nonetheless the helpful Flip to Glyph characteristic, which silences notifications and simply makes use of the glyphs for notification alerts.
This time, there’s additionally one thing known as the “important” Glyph: you designate sure notifications as important, and when a type of alerts arrives, a Glyph gentle will keep illuminated to let you already know. That’s helpful if you wish to go heads-down on some work however you continue to need to be interrupted to learn a textual content out of your accomplice or a Slack DM. However it’s not fairly as helpful as having completely different focus modes for various conditions since your definition of “important” interruptions is probably going completely different at completely different occasions of day. If you wish to change which apps can interrupt you, you need to go into the Glyph settings each time.
The Cellphone 2 does really provide Android’s conventional Focus mode, which helps you to disallow sure apps from sending you notifications for a time frame, however the controls are much less granular than what Nothing provides with important glyphs. You may enable sure forms of notifications to point out as an important Glyph — whereas, with Focus mode, you may solely enable or disallow the complete app.
One other new Glyph characteristic is the flexibility to point out progress and monitor sure time-based occasions — one of many gentle strips illuminates or dims progressively, like a progress bar. That is restricted to some issues for the time being, together with a silent timer and an integration with Uber. I like utilizing the timer once I steep my morning espresso within the French press: it’s the identical four-minute timer daily, and it’s silent so it doesn’t wake the remainder of the home when time’s up.
The Uber integration is neat, in concept, however I’m undecided once I’d really need to use it. The Glyph will gentle up as your Uber driver will get nearer, however to make use of it, you’d must have your cellphone face down on a desk when you wait. I are usually doing 4 different issues on my cellphone as I’m ready for an Uber, so it doesn’t appear that helpful to me. Nothing anticipates bringing extra third-party apps on board, and I can see myself utilizing it for one thing like monitoring a meals supply, which appears to be on the roadmap.
Now you can add some primary widgets to your lock display, and so they’ll stay seen on the AOD
On the software program aspect, Nothing’s Android OS pores and skin now consists of an choice to show all your app icons to monochrome, and it allows you to arrange them into folders with little dot-matrix cowl icons. The thought is to tamp down the distractions from colourful app logos. Personally, I felt a little bit bit misplaced each time I opened up the app drawer in search of one thing particular and got here face-to-face with a wall of black-and-white icons. I suppose I depend on coloration to identify the app I’m in search of rapidly, and sadly, the shortage of colourful logos didn’t make me any much less liable to senseless Instagram scrolling.
Nothing’s up to date always-on show is rather more useful: now you can add some primary widgets to your lock display, and so they’ll stay seen on the AOD. There are a couple of climate widgets you may add for extra element on the day’s forecast, a clock you may set to maintain tabs on one other time zone, and fast settings shortcuts. Notification icons seem under all of this as they usually would. If there’s one factor that was simplest at stopping me from selecting up the cellphone and getting sucked into an unscheduled social media scrolling session, it’s the information-rich AOD — not the glyphs.
What this boils right down to is that the Cellphone 2 has two programs for notifications: one based mostly in software program and one based mostly in {hardware}. The corporate appears to need us to embrace the latter extra, however I had a tough time with it myself. It’s such a reflex to set my cellphone down with the display going through up that I needed to remind myself to flip it over.
And I usually need extra data than much less — even when the important Glyph lights up, I decide the cellphone up and often find yourself simply dismissing the notification that triggered it as a result of it wasn’t all that necessary in any case. It looks like much less of a distraction to only look on the show, learn the Slack notification that simply arrived, and dismiss it.
It’s such a reflex to set my cellphone down with the display going through up that I needed to remind myself to flip it over
I requested Nothing CEO Carl Pei why he felt it was necessary to develop this hardware-based notification system on the again of the cellphone somewhat than one thing like Apple’s Dynamic Island, placing progress indicators and updates on the display, the place your consideration often is. He stated that if notifications are on the display, “Then there’s at all times the temptation to only do one thing else in conjunction to checking for that standing.” The various hours of display time I log daily are likely to agree with that assertion.
The Cellphone 2 is designed to step by step “nudge” folks towards Nothing’s imaginative and prescient of placing your cellphone down extra typically, Pei instructed me. The 2-ish weeks that I’ve been utilizing the cellphone aren’t actually sufficient time to say whether or not I’ve modified my cellphone habits considerably. However thus far, I haven’t. Perhaps it’s my anxious mind demanding extra data once I see an “important” Glyph seem. Perhaps it’s the truth that I’m additionally utilizing a Pixel Watch that already lets me triage notifications with out selecting up the cellphone. Perhaps I’m too used to having all of my notifications seen without delay. It’s in all probability all the above.
I believe you in all probability already know if the Nothing Cellphone 2 is for you. When you recognize the eye-catching design and a no-screen focus mode sounds interesting — and also you’re not on Verizon — you then’ll be loads proud of this system. The little upgrades all through the {hardware} and software program make a major distinction. I didn’t really feel fairly as very like a beta tester utilizing Cellphone 2 as I did with Cellphone 1.
Going again to the numbers for a minute, the Nothing Cellphone 2’s clearest competitor within the US might be the also-$599 Google Pixel 7. I can’t consider a cellphone extra not like the Cellphone 2. If Nothing desires to make your life simpler utilizing {hardware} and good old style blinking lights, then Google’s more-software-is-better strategy is about as far-off as you will get. So we may go down the spec listing, however I believe your private tech ideology might be a greater compass right here. In case that doesn’t suffice: the Pixel 7 has an IP68 score and a greater general digicam system however a worse display.
Your private tech ideology might be a greater compass right here
The Cellphone 2’s entire deal can be a little bit tiresome if the system itself wasn’t good. That’s not the case. This can be a completely good midrange cellphone, and it’s attempting to do one thing a little bit completely different. I recognize that. I simply don’t suppose it’s for me — however possibly I’m a misplaced trigger. On the very least, I recognize having Nothing formally on the scene within the US, even when the Cellphone 2 isn’t fairly my vibe.
Pictures by Allison Johnson / The Verge
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