Nothing Phone (2a) Plus review

GSMArena Team, 07 August 2024.

Nothing OS 2.6 on top of Android 14

The Nothing Phone (2a) runs on Android 14 with the latest version of Nothing's custom OS skin on top. That would be Nothing OS 2.6 at the time of writing.

The Nothing Phone (2a) Plus gets the same level of software support as the Nothing Phone (2a) and the regular Nothing Phone (2). That is to say - three years of software updates and four years of security patches.

Nothing Phone (2a) Plus review

Nothing OS continues to be very "clean" in terms of feature customization and thus near to AOSP. However, at the same time, it is heavily visually customized with a very distinct look and feel. Nothing's signature dot matrix font and overall aesthetic surrounding it permeate the UI. You get a whole slew of custom widgets (24 in total) from everything from clocks and calendars to contacts and weather, so you can retain that consistent Nothing look.

Nothing Phone (2a) Plus review

The notification shade and quick toggles are also as much AOSP as they are Nothing. With Nothing OS 2.5, the top two big quick toggle areas were changed from circles to squares with rounded corners.

Nothing Phone (2a) Plus review

Another relatively new addition to Nothing OS is the custom icon pack that, expectedly, is monochrome and has a consistent look.

There is an Always-on Display available, and it, expectedly, sticks to the general aesthetic as well. There are a slew of lockscreen widgets to choose from as well.

Nothing Phone (2a) Plus review

Nothing OS has a Monochrome UI option for those wanting an even more exclusive, unique experience. It is part of the Do Not Disturb and Bedtime routines, but you can set it up for you however you prefer. The monochrome UI is a display option, and it doesn't affect the UI exactly, so if you take a screenshot or a picture, it will still be colorful.

In a bid to innovate and be a part of the "trendy crowd," Nothing is constantly trying its hand at some advanced and experimental features. Our review unit is missing the "Connect to Tesla" menu that the Nothing Phone (2) had, so perhaps that didn't pan out. However, the experimental AirPods support is still present. So is the "Glyph Progres" feature that integrates with third-party apps and allows you to track your Uber's progress from the back of your phone.

There are some less experimental hardware OS-level integrations available as well, like through the Nothing X app, which supports a number of headphones like the Ear (1), Ear (stick), Ear (2) and CMF Buds, Neckband Pro and Buds Pro.

Nothing Phone (2a) Plus review

The most custom aspect of the Nothing OS is the inclusion of the Glyph Interface, which controls the LEDs on the back of the phone. First, the feature is optional, so you can just turn it off or schedule it if it bothers you at night. You can also adjust the brightness of the LEDs, which can get seriously bright, even at the default medium brightness.

At present, the Glyph Interface can be used primarily for notifications and alerts. The Glyph Menu contains Brightness, Ringtones, Notifications, Flip to Glyph, Glyph Timer, Composer shortcut for custom Glyph ringtones, and Visual Feedback for Volume control, Charging meter, Google Assistance, Music Visualizer and third-party apps (Uber, Zomato and Google Calendar for now).

You can check out a more in-depth explanation of all of the neat Glyph options in our Nothing Phone (2) review. These haven't really changed that much.

As far as bloatware is concerned, the Phone (2a) Plus has none of it to speak of, assuming you don't count the ever-increasing mandatory Google apps as bloatware. The only custom apps on the phone are the Camera, Weather, and Recorder apps. These expectedly share a cohesive design. The Nothing X app was pre-installed on our unit as well, but if yours is missing, it is available on the Google Play store.

Benchmarks and performance

One of the key upgrades the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus brings to the table is a new chipset. The Dimensity 7350 Pro 5G was co-developed with MediaTek and exclusive to Nothing. Despite its naming, the chip is actually a lot closer to the Dimensity 7200 than the 7300. In fact, it is basically a souped-up version of the Dimensity 7200.

Nothing Phone (2a) Plus review

The Dimensity 7350 Pro is a 64-bit ARMv9-A chip made on TSMC's modern 4nm node. The CPU configuration consists of two ARM Cortex-A715 cores, clocked at up to 3.0 GHz, plus another six Cortex-A510 cores, working at up to 2.0 GHz. Like the Dimensity 7200, the 7350 Pro has a Mali-G610 GPU onboard, but it's an overclocked one working at up to 1.3 GHz. Nothing claims that the Dimensity 7350 Pro inside the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus is nearly 10% faster in CPU tasks than the Nothing Phone (2a) and up to 30% faster in GPU tasks.

The Nothing Phone (2a) Plus comes with 256GB of non-expandable onboard UFS 2.2 (as per our testing) storage and either 8GB or 12GB of LPDDR4X RAM. Nothing offers up to 8GB of RAM boost or virtual RAM.

Let's get to some actual benchmarks, starting with GeekBench and CPU tests. The Dimensity 7350 Pro holds its ground really well. As advertised, it is a bit more powerful than the Dimensity 7200 Pro inside the Nothing Phone (2a).

The single-core performance of the Dimensity 7350 Pro is basically on the same level as the Dimensity 8200. The multi-core performance isn't as impressive, but you still get a bit better performance than the Dimensity 7200 Pro inside the Nothing Phone (2a).

GeekBench 6

  • Multi-core
  • Single-core
Poco F6 Poco F6
4883
Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 256GB, 8GB RAM
Poco X6 Pro Poco X6 Pro
4696
Dimensity 8300 Ultra 256GB, 8GB RAM
Realme GT 6T Realme GT 6T
4648
Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 256GB, 12GB RAM
Pixel 8 Pixel 8
4404
Google Tensor G3 128GB, 8GB RAM
Nothing Phone (2) Nothing Phone (2)
4219
Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 256GB, 12GB RAM
vivo V30 Pro vivo V30 Pro
3575
Dimensity 8200 512GB, 12GB RAM
Galaxy A55 Galaxy A55
3350
Exynos 1480 128GB, 8GB RAM
Nothing Phone (1) Nothing Phone (1)
3091
Snapdragon 778G+ 256GB, 12GB RAM
Poco X6 Poco X6
2945
Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 512GB, 12GB RAM
Motorola Edge 50 Fusion Motorola Edge 50 Fusion
2938
Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 512GB, 12GB RAM
Galaxy A35 Galaxy A35
2931
Exynos 1380 128GB, 6GB RAM
Nothing CMF Phone 1 Nothing CMF Phone 1
2920
Dimensity 7300 256GB, 8GB RAM
Galaxy A54 Galaxy A54
2797
Exynos 1380 128GB, 8GB RAM
Realme 12 Pro+ Realme 12 Pro+
2769
Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 512GB, 12GB RAM
Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G
2751
Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 512GB, 12GB RAM
Nothing Phone (2a) Plus Nothing Phone (2a) Plus
2648
Dimensity 7350 Pro 256GB, 12GB RAM
Redmi Note 13 Pro+ 5G Redmi Note 13 Pro+ 5G
2597
Dimensity 7200 Ultra 512GB, 12GB RAM
Nothing Phone (2a) Nothing Phone (2a)
2592
Dimensity 7200 Pro 256GB, 12GB RAM
Poco F6 Poco F6
1986
Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 256GB, 8GB RAM
Realme GT 6T Realme GT 6T
1834
Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 256GB, 12GB RAM
Nothing Phone (2) Nothing Phone (2)
1725
Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 256GB, 12GB RAM
Pixel 8 Pixel 8
1668
Google Tensor G3 128GB, 8GB RAM
Poco X6 Pro Poco X6 Pro
1498
Dimensity 8300 Ultra 256GB, 8GB RAM
vivo V30 Pro vivo V30 Pro
1211
Dimensity 8200 512GB, 12GB RAM
Nothing Phone (2a) Plus Nothing Phone (2a) Plus
1200
Dimensity 7350 Pro 256GB, 12GB RAM
Galaxy A55 Galaxy A55
1142
Exynos 1480 128GB, 8GB RAM
Nothing Phone (2a) Nothing Phone (2a)
1127
Dimensity 7200 Pro 256GB, 12GB RAM
Redmi Note 13 Pro+ 5G Redmi Note 13 Pro+ 5G
1098
Dimensity 7200 Ultra 512GB, 12GB RAM
Nothing Phone (1) Nothing Phone (1)
1074
Snapdragon 778G+ 256GB, 12GB RAM
Nothing CMF Phone 1 Nothing CMF Phone 1
1028
Dimensity 7300 256GB, 8GB RAM
Galaxy A35 Galaxy A35
1025
Exynos 1380 128GB, 6GB RAM
Poco X6 Poco X6
1024
Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 512GB, 12GB RAM
Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G
1019
Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 512GB, 12GB RAM
Motorola Edge 50 Fusion Motorola Edge 50 Fusion
1017
Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 512GB, 12GB RAM
Galaxy A54 Galaxy A54
1008
Exynos 1380 128GB, 8GB RAM
Realme 12 Pro+ Realme 12 Pro+
958
Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 512GB, 12GB RAM

AnTuTu is a much more compound benchmark with GPU and memory tests, to name a few. The Nothing Phone (2a) Plus does very well in this benchmark, with middle-of-the-road performance within its price range. The Nothing Phone (2a) Plus is quite comparable to the Redmi Note 13 Pro+ and its Dimensity 7200 Ultra chipset. The Nothing Phone (2a) Plus is also comparable in AnTuTu performance to the original Nothing Phone (1) with its Snapdragon 778G+, but the Nothing Phone (2) still scores much, much better.

It is perhaps worth noting that Nothing claims the Phone (2a) Plus can surpass 805,000 points on AunTuTu, but we couldn't get quite that high of a score.

AnTuTu

  • v9
  • v10
Realme GT 6T Realme GT 6T
1114911
Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 256GB, 12GB RAM 1264 x 2780 px
Poco F6 Poco F6
1028789
Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 256GB, 8GB RAM 1220 x 2712 px
Pixel 8 Pixel 8
926801
Google Tensor G3 128GB, 8GB RAM 1080 x 2400 px
Nothing Phone (2) Nothing Phone (2)
895434
Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 256GB, 12GB RAM 1080 x 2412 px
vivo V30 Pro vivo V30 Pro
841083
Dimensity 8200 512GB, 12GB RAM 1260 x 2800 px
Redmi Note 13 Pro+ 5G Redmi Note 13 Pro+ 5G
683899
Dimensity 7200 Ultra 512GB, 12GB RAM 1220 x 2712 px
Galaxy A55 Galaxy A55
635598
Exynos 1480 128GB, 8GB RAM 1080 x 2340 px
Nothing Phone (2a) Plus Nothing Phone (2a) Plus
620762
Dimensity 7350 Pro 256GB, 12GB RAM 1080 x 2412 px
Nothing Phone (1) Nothing Phone (1)
592789
Snapdragon 778G+ 256GB, 12GB RAM 1080 x 2400 px
Nothing Phone (2a) Nothing Phone (2a)
578493
Dimensity 7200 Pro 256GB, 12GB RAM 1080 x 2412 px
Nothing CMF Phone 1 Nothing CMF Phone 1
536089
Dimensity 7300 256GB, 8GB RAM 1080 x 2400 px
Realme 12 Pro+ Realme 12 Pro+
534782
Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 512GB, 12GB RAM 1080 x 2412 px
Poco X6 Poco X6
533112
Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 512GB, 12GB RAM 1220 x 2712 px
Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G
523746
Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 512GB, 12GB RAM 1220 x 2712 px
Galaxy A35 Galaxy A35
522829
Exynos 1380 128GB, 6GB RAM 1080 x 2340 px
Motorola Edge 50 Fusion Motorola Edge 50 Fusion
520319
Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 512GB, 12GB RAM 1080 x 2400 px
Galaxy A54 Galaxy A54
506678
Exynos 1380 128GB, 8GB RAM 1080 x 2340 px
Poco F6 Poco F6
1497886
Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 256GB, 8GB RAM 1220 x 2712 px
Realme GT 6T Realme GT 6T
1413668
Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 256GB, 12GB RAM 1264 x 2780 px
Poco X6 Pro Poco X6 Pro
1396547
Dimensity 8300 Ultra 256GB, 8GB RAM 1220 x 2712 px
Pixel 8 Pixel 8
1158631
Google Tensor G3 128GB, 8GB RAM 1080 x 2400 px
vivo V30 Pro vivo V30 Pro
972568
Dimensity 8200 512GB, 12GB RAM 1260 x 2800 px
Nothing Phone (2) Nothing Phone (2)
972126
Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 256GB, 12GB RAM 1080 x 2412 px
Redmi Note 13 Pro+ 5G Redmi Note 13 Pro+ 5G
779812
Dimensity 7200 Ultra 512GB, 12GB RAM 1220 x 2712 px
Nothing Phone (2a) Plus Nothing Phone (2a) Plus
774023
Dimensity 7350 Pro 256GB, 12GB RAM 1080 x 2412 px
Galaxy A55 Galaxy A55
726158
Exynos 1480 128GB, 8GB RAM 1080 x 2340 px
Nothing Phone (2a) Nothing Phone (2a)
684574
Dimensity 7200 Pro 256GB, 12GB RAM 1080 x 2412 px
Realme 12 Pro+ Realme 12 Pro+
660920
Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 512GB, 12GB RAM 1080 x 2412 px
Nothing CMF Phone 1 Nothing CMF Phone 1
646635
Dimensity 7300 256GB, 8GB RAM 1080 x 2400 px
Poco X6 Poco X6
605803
Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 512GB, 12GB RAM 1220 x 2712 px
Galaxy A35 Galaxy A35
603441
Exynos 1380 128GB, 6GB RAM 1080 x 2340 px
Galaxy A54 Galaxy A54
589448
Exynos 1380 128GB, 8GB RAM 1080 x 2340 px
Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G
581979
Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 512GB, 12GB RAM 1220 x 2712 px
Motorola Edge 50 Fusion Motorola Edge 50 Fusion
580458
Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 512GB, 12GB RAM 1080 x 2400 px

The Nothing Phone (2a) Plus also has great GPU performance. The Dimensity 7350 Pro actually has the same four-core Mali-G610 MC4 GPU inside the Dimensity 7200 Pro in the Nothing Phone (2a). However, the one inside the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus is overclocked to 1.3 GHz and this shows in the 3D Mark scores. That being said, you can get much better graphical performance from other phones in the price segment.

3DMark (offscreen)

  • Wild Life (1440p)
  • Wild Life Extreme (2160p)
Poco F6 Poco F6
11443
Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 Adreno 735 1220 x 2712 px
Nothing Phone (2) Nothing Phone (2)
8809
Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 Adreno 730 1080 x 2412 px
Pixel 8 Pixel 8
8638
Google Tensor G3 Immortalis-G715s MC10 1080 x 2400 px
Poco X6 Pro Poco X6 Pro
8352
Dimensity 8300 Ultra Mali G615-MC6 1220 x 2712 px
vivo V30 Pro vivo V30 Pro
6693
Dimensity 8200 Mali-G610 MC6 1260 x 2800 px
Nothing Phone (2a) Plus Nothing Phone (2a) Plus
4795
Dimensity 7350 Pro Mali-G610 MC4 1.3GHz 1080 x 2412 px
Redmi Note 13 Pro+ 5G Redmi Note 13 Pro+ 5G
4341
Dimensity 7200 Ultra Mali-G610 MC4 1220 x 2712 px
Nothing Phone (2a) Nothing Phone (2a)
4131
Dimensity 7200 Pro Mali-G610 MC4 1080 x 2412 px
Galaxy A55 Galaxy A55
3831
Exynos 1480 Xclipse 530 1080 x 2340 px
Nothing CMF Phone 1 Nothing CMF Phone 1
3142
Dimensity 7300 Mali-G615 MC2 1080 x 2400 px
Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G
3107
Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 Adreno 710 1220 x 2712 px
Realme 12 Pro+ Realme 12 Pro+
3081
Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 Adreno 710 1080 x 2412 px
Poco X6 Poco X6
3032
Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 Adreno 710 1220 x 2712 px
Motorola Edge 50 Fusion Motorola Edge 50 Fusion
3025
Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 Adreno 710 1080 x 2400 px
Nothing Phone (1) Nothing Phone (1)
2921
Snapdragon 778G+ Adreno 642L 1080 x 2400 px
Galaxy A54 Galaxy A54
2818
Exynos 1380 Mali-G68 MP5 1080 x 2340 px
Galaxy A35 Galaxy A35
2751
Exynos 1380 Mali-G68 MP5 1080 x 2340 px
Poco F6 Poco F6
3110
Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 Adreno 735 1220 x 2712 px
Realme GT 6T Realme GT 6T
2955
Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 Adreno 732 1264 x 2780 px
Pixel 8 Pixel 8
2450
Google Tensor G3 Immortalis-G715s MC10 1080 x 2400 px
Nothing Phone (2) Nothing Phone (2)
2449
Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 Adreno 730 1080 x 2412 px
vivo V30 Pro vivo V30 Pro
1815
Dimensity 8200 Mali-G610 MC6 1260 x 2800 px
Nothing Phone (2a) Plus Nothing Phone (2a) Plus
1377
Dimensity 7350 Pro Mali-G610 MC4 1.3GHz 1080 x 2412 px
Redmi Note 13 Pro+ 5G Redmi Note 13 Pro+ 5G
1193
Dimensity 7200 Ultra Mali-G610 MC4 1220 x 2712 px
Nothing Phone (2a) Nothing Phone (2a)
1151
Dimensity 7200 Pro Mali-G610 MC4 1080 x 2412 px
Galaxy A55 Galaxy A55
1024
Exynos 1480 Xclipse 530 1080 x 2340 px
Nothing CMF Phone 1 Nothing CMF Phone 1
851
Dimensity 7300 Mali-G615 MC2 1080 x 2400 px
Galaxy A54 Galaxy A54
808
Exynos 1380 Mali-G68 MP5 1080 x 2340 px
Galaxy A35 Galaxy A35
806
Exynos 1380 Mali-G68 MP5 1080 x 2340 px
Realme 12 Pro+ Realme 12 Pro+
799
Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 Adreno 710 1080 x 2412 px
Motorola Edge 50 Fusion Motorola Edge 50 Fusion
793
Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 Adreno 710 1080 x 2400 px
Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G
792
Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 Adreno 710 1220 x 2712 px
Poco X6 Poco X6
792
Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 Adreno 710 1220 x 2712 px
Nothing Phone (1) Nothing Phone (1)
767
Snapdragon 778G+ Adreno 642L 1080 x 2400 px

We've discontinued GFXBench graphics benchmarking as the app is often banned/blacklisted on the phones we receive for review. The graphics performance ranking in 3D Mark is just as meaningful, so we suggest you refer to that one instead.

On a practical level, the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus offers great performance. It chewed through basically every task we threw at it, including gaming, even with more demanding titles. That being said, we aren't sure that the performance uplift compared to the Nothing Phone (2a) is enough to justify one over the other.

Thermal-throttling

The Nothing Phone (2a) Plus has excellent thermal management. The MediaTek 7350 Pro doesn't seem to kick out too much heat, which is interesting, given that it is overclocked. The phone handles heat over time very well, with little throttling and performance loss.

Thermal-throttling - Nothing Phone (2a) Plus review Thermal-throttling - Nothing Phone (2a) Plus review Thermal-throttling - Nothing Phone (2a) Plus review
Thermal-throttling

It actually left us quite impressed in this department. The surface of the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus doesn't really get hot either.

Reader comments

  • Anonymous
  • 20 Nov 2024
  • XZ%

Camera. Picture quality very bad...

I like the phone but woohoo price is at least 100 EUR too high. Should be max 299,99

For what should be the most important factor, security updates and an OS which is miles better than HypesOS. Also let important but still somewhat, her Android versions. They do more than most think even if not visible up front.