Nothing Phone (2a) is official with Dimensity 7200 Pro, Glyph design

05 March 2024

The Nothing Phone (2a) is here, and it's most of what the Nothing Phone (2) offers at a lower price. Nothing says it provides the optimal daily experience with Nothing's expertise in engineering and craftsmanship.

Before we talk specs, let's talk design. The Phone (2a) uses Nothing's first-ever internal smartphone design concept, created in 2020, just a few months after Nothing launched.

The key aspect of the design is the dual camera system, which sits inside the NFC coil and creates what Nothing calls 'the eyes'. The phone's back panel wraps around the edges at a 90-degree angle, making the device more resistant to drops. You can have the back in Black, White, or 'Milk'.

The Nothing Phone (2a) comes with Nothing's iconic Glyph interface with 26 individually addressable zones. The three lights support the Glyph Timer, notifications, the Glyph Torch and Glyph Progress.

The Nothing Phone (2a) uses a Dimensity 7200 Pro chip, co-engineered with MediaTek. The SoC is built on TSMC's newest 4nm process, while the processor ramps up to 2.8GHz.

Upfront, the phone has a 6.78-inch 10-bit AMOLED with a 1084x2412px resolution, 1,300 nits of peak brightness, and a variable 30-120Hz refresh rate. The phone runs Nothing OS 2.5 on top of Android 14, with a promised 3 years of Android updates, and 4 years of security updates.

There are three cameras - a dual 50MP system on the rear, and the same 32MP f/2.2 selfie (1/2.74-inch) as on the Nothing Phone (2). The main cameras are a 50MP f/1.88 (1/1.56-inch sensor) wide angle with OIS, and a 50MP f/2.2 (1/2.76-inch sensor) fixed-focus ultrawide.

The Nothing Phone (2a) packs the biggest battery among its peers at 5,000mAh. It recharges at up to 45W and can go to 50% in 23 minutes, and 100% in 59 minutes. Nothing says the battery will retain 90% of its capacity after 1,000 charging cycles, or over three years of daily use.

The Nothing Phone (2a) is on pre-order from nothing.tech starting today and will ship from March 12. Globally, it will come in two versions - the base has 8 GB RAM and 128 GB storage and costs €329, £319, or INR 23,999. The higher tier has 12 gigs of RAM and 256 GB storage and goes for €379/£349/INR 27,999. India will also get an exclusive 8/256GB model for INR 25,999.

US hopefuls aren't getting the Nothing Phone (2a), at least not in the general way. Interested buyers need to apply to Nothing's developer program and wait to get approved before paying $349 for the phone. Nothing says it will approve even non-devs but it's still not as straightforward as ordering online.