In this review, I'll be sharing my full experiences with the Nothing Phone 2a. This thing has just landed in Nepal and if you look at all the smartphones under the midrange segment you get quite a few nice options here. Such as the Redmi Note 13 Pro+ (review) which comes with a big 200MP camera and a premium design, there’s the Galaxy A35 (review) with the best camera in the segment, and Vivo V29e (review) which is a balanced midrange offering. So, yeah quite a lot of competition, right?

But I think Nothing Phone 2a is quite different from all these phones! Hold on..t's DIFFERENT, but Not the BEST!

Before going to the Nothing Phone 2a review, let's have a quick look at the specs.

Nothing Phone 2a Specifications:

• Display: 6.7-inch OLED screen, FHD+, 120Hz refresh rate
• Chipset: MediaTek Dimensity 7200 Pro 5G (4nm mobile platform)
• Memory: 8/12GB RAM, 128/256GB UFS 2.2 storage (fixed)
• Software & UI: Nothing OS 2.5 based on Android 14 (upgradeable to Android 17)
• Rear Camera: Dual (50MP main, 50MP ultrawide)
• Front Camera: 32MP sensor (hole-punch)
• Security: Fingerprint sensor (optical in-display)
• Connectivity: Dual-SIM (Nano), WiFi 6 (Dual-band), Bluetooth 5.3, GPS / AGPS / Glonass / Galileo / BDS / QZSS, USB-C, 5G
• Sensors: Accelerometer, Ambient light, E-compass, Gyroscope, Proximity, Sensor core
• Battery: 5000mAh with 45W wired charging (power adapter not provided)
• Price in Nepal: NPR 48,999 (8/256GB, Black/White), NPR 49,499 (8/256GB, Blue)
• Check the full specifications of Nothing Phone 2a here

Nothing Phone 2a Review:

Iconic design

• 76.3 x 161.7 x 8.6mm, 190 grams
• Glass front/Platic back, Plastic frames
• IP54 dust/splash resistant

The first differentiating factor of the Nothing Phone 2a is the design itself. That iconic Nothing see-through look with LED lights is always unique and refreshing to have, but what I like here is it has a solid grip to it and feels good in the hands.

The back and the frames are made of plastic, but it doesn't look and feel that cheap. The gentle curves on the back offer a good resting position and it's not a very heavy phone as well.

Glyph's not dead!

Unlike the more expensive Nothing Phone (2) that has over a dozen LED strips, it only has 3, but I don't mind a lot. These 3 LED strips serve the purpose for me!

The two LED features that I use regularly are No.1 ringtones. It just looks amazing when I get a call. And second, is for a timer that uses the lights as a countdown indicator.

Phone 2a (Left), Phone 2 (Right)

But I still think Nothing still has a lot to do here! They need to collaborate more! For instance, the Glyph progress that is supposed to track the progress of third-party apps is just limited to 2 apps: Uber and Zomato!

Likewise, there are just 2 presets for ringtones in the Nothing library and I don't see a lot of ringtones in the Nothing community as well! I would have loved it if it had, say the IPL ringtone or the Champions League anthem. That would have been super cool!

Display

• 6.55-inches FHD+ OLED panel, HDR10+
• 120Hz refresh rate
• Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection

Now as for the display, it's a solid A panel! You get a slightly thicker bezel here, but the core quality of this display is commendable! It's fairly bright too so outdoor visibility has not been an issue for me.

The touch is also superb, its X-axis vibration feedback is nice – all the apps run at 120Hz hence interacting, and scrolling with this phone feels fast and responsive. I have set the colors to “Alive” mode and I found the display doesn't go overboard in terms of saturation and has the right amount of vibrancy and white balance.

Speakers

The speakers are also pretty decent. I found the thumpy bass to be missing, but for the price, I don't want to complain that much. So, overall, you will get a very good experience for multimedia consumption… like watching movies, TV shows, Instagram reels, etc.

UI and Performance

• Octa-core Mediatek Dimensity 7200 Pro 5G SoC (4nm)
• 8/12GB LPDDR5 RAM, 128/256GB UFS 3.1 storage (fixed)
• Android 14 with Nothing OS 2.5 on top
• 3 generations OS, 4 years of security updates

The fingerprint sensor also works pretty well. It's fast and accurate. But I would have liked it if it was slightly above. But once you unlock the phone, the software experience here is top-top notch and that’s probably one of the reasons why you should consider this phone over the likes of Realme, Redmi, and Poco! Nothing is also promising 3 years of major Android updates and 4 years of security updates. So, that's sorted too!

But Initially, I found the Nothing Phone 2a to be quite slow. Be it while opening an app, navigating through the UI, or just opening the camera app, it just wasn't performing fast! But, like I said earlier, nothing has pushed 2 updates, that have improved the performance to some extent.

Performance

Still, I think the Dimensity 7200 Pro chipset that this phone is equipped with, must be able to perform slightly better! Maybe it's because of how heavy the UI is, I don't know. This is just not the best-performing phone at this price! That’s for sure!

In terms of gaming, before the update, 99% in games like PUBG and Genshin was not very good, but right now it's much better stability-wise. Still, if you game a lot, this isn't the best choice for you! For that, you might want to consider the Infinix GT 20 Pro, which will let you push more fps and graphics.

A decent battery life

• 5000mAh battery with 45W fast charging

Battery, on the other hand, is exceptional. I am easily getting like 6 to 7 hours of screen time on my heavy usage pattern, which is better than any other phones in this price bracket.

For charging, Nothing still doesn't ship with a charger inside the box, and its 45W charger is also quite pricy in my opinion. So, I used my 65W Gan charger from Ugreen which gets the phone from 0 to 100% in about an hour.

I do think, Nothing should drop the price of its official charger or should have just included one inside the box.

Cameras

• Dual camera setup at the back
• (50MP main, 50MP ultrawide)
• 32MP selfie camera (hole-punch)

OK, lastly cameras! And despite the updates, the camera performance of the Nothing Phone 2a is not quite as reliable as I expected it to be! It uses the 50MP Samsung ISOCELL sensor for both primary and ultra-wide lenses, and in this aspect, I think maybe Nothing could have gone with the Sony sensor here to get the best optimizations.

Daylight

As you can see from these samples, the photos don't have true color processing. It is slightly overprocessed and doesn't look natural. Don't get me wrong, it can pull off some good photos with plenty of details and pleasing colors sometimes, but the primary camera was a little inconsistent!

Ultrawide

Likewise, I also had high expectations from its high-res 50MP ultra-wide camera, but its performance is quite ordinary. First of all, you will notice that it to be more darker than the main camera, and the dynamic range/ details are also compromised! This ultra-wide angle lens also lacks autofocus so I missed clicking close-up macro shots here. Using the primary camera, I notice some focusing issues too. The background blur is also not done perfectly, at times.

Portraits

I like the portraits though and Nothing also provides a 2X option with which I was able to get some good results. The blur is fairly decent and the skin tone isn't that bad.

Selfies

Likewise, I like the selfies too. It uses a Sony sensor unlike the back cameras, and the processing is done nicely with good skin tone and adequate dynamic range. However, the selfie camera can only record videos in Full HD, there’s no 4K recording option and I found the quality to be just okay.

Videos

From the back cameras, you can click up to 4K 30fps from both the primary and ultra-wide lens and you can get usable footage for sharing it with friends on social media.

But one frustrating thing about the camera app on the Nothing Phone 2a is it takes 3 to 4 seconds to process the photos. It could get frustrating at times!

Nothing Phone 2a Review: Conclusion

So, overall, although the Nothing Phone 2a may not have the best display in its class, or may not be the best-performing phone, or the fact that its cameras are just ordinary, it is still the phone I can easily recommend under NPR 50,000 in Nepal. Especially for the Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha out there, who want something unique to show off!

For me, the Nothing Phone 2a does a lot of things right and provides a balanced blend between hardware and software. Everything here is like B+, and there are no glaring issues as it's usually associated with a lot of other phones at this price segment.

But, like I said in the beginning, this phone has got a lot of competition! The biggest hurdle for the Nothing Phone 2a is that you can get the Samsung Galaxy A35 for better cameras and the Redmi Note 13 Pro+ for overall value.

Nothing Phone 2a Review: Pros and Cons

Pros

• Iconic design with Glyph Interface
• Clean software experience
• Decent battery life
• Good portraits

Cons

• Not the best performance
• Average main camera
• No charger in the box