Nothing Phone (2a) Plus review

Familiar dual camera setup with a new selfie cam

The Nothing Phone (2a) Plus borrows its rear camera setup from the Nothing Phone (2a). It has a similar camera setup to the Nothing Phone (2), but not identical. There are two 50MP snappers on the back of the 2a - a main and an ultrawide. However, the ultrawide on the 2a lacks autofocus and hence macro capturing capabilities, which is a thing on the regular Nothing Phone (2). There are some differences in sensors as well.

The Nothing Phone (2a) Plus uses a Samsung ISOCELL GN9 (S5KGN9) for its main camera. The ultrawide sensor is the Samsung ISOCELL JN1 (S5KJN1). Finally, we have the upgraded selfie camera. While the Nothing Phone (2a) has a 32MP Sony IMX615 camera, the same as the Nothing Phone (2), the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus has a new 50MP snapper. It actually uses the Samsung ISOCELL JN1 (S5KJN1 sensor as well. In practical terms, besides the upgrade in resolution, you now also get 4K@30fps video capture on the selfie cam.

• Wide (main): 50 MP Samsung ISOCELL GN9 (S5KGN9) f/1.9, 1/1.56", 1.0µm, PDAF, OIS; 2160p@30fps
• Ultra wide angle: 50 MP Samsung ISOCELL JN1 (S5KJN1), f/2.2, 1/2.76", 0.64µm; 2160p@30fps
• Front camera: 50 MP Samsung ISOCELL JN1 (S5KJN1), f/2.2, 1/2.76", 0.64µm; 2160p@30fps

The default Camera app is close to what you'd find across the latest Realme and OnePlus smartphones use. Swiping on the viewfinder or the scroller below switches between modes, while the additional ones can be found under the "More" sub-menu. Flash and timer are available on the opposite of the viewfinder side, but you can expand more settings like resolution (12MP/50MP), aspect, Ratio, Live Photo, and advanced settings.

Expert mode is available. It only works on the main camera, though. The shutter speed can go as low as 32 seconds. RAW capturing is available, too.

You can use either the LED flash or the Glyph LEDs across a variety of occasions, such as video capturing, portraits, and photos.

Daylight photo quality

Main camera

While the main camera on the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus uses the same Samsung GN9 sensor as the one inside the Nothing Phone (2a), and both capture photos in 12.5MP by default, Nothing seems to have tweaked the processing a bit from one phone to the other. The main camera does pretty well overall.

The frame has plenty of detail, and the sharpening isn't as aggressive as it used to be, which is a plus. However, the more laid-back processing has resulted in some noise on surfaces. It's nothing drastic, but it's still worth noting. The contrast and dynamic range are decent, but they could be better. Also, the main camera has this tendency to overexpose slightly.

Nothing Phone (2a) Plus: 12.5MP main camera samples

The Nothing Phone (2a) Plus has two camera color modes to choose from. The default natural one does, indeed, result in quite natural colors. Perhaps not exactly "true-to-life," but pretty close. Vivid mode ups the saturation a bit, but not aggressively so. If you want your shots to have a bit more "pop" and look good on an AMOLED screen, then this is the way to go.

Nothing Phone (2a) Plus: 12.5MP main camera Vivid color mode samples

You can force the main camera to capture in its full 50MP resolution. You get slightly more fine detail as a result, but not enough in our book to justify the huge file size.

Nothing Phone (2a) Plus: 50MP main camera samples

Having so much resolution available is still beneficial in other ways like digital zooming. Even though the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus lacks a dedicated telephoto camera, it still captures some pretty clean and detailed 2x zoomed photos. Quality is nearly identical to 1x shots.

Nothing Phone (2a) Plus: 12.5MP main camera 2x zoom samples

The main camera does pretty well with people and faces. Skin tones come out looking nice and natural. There is some skin texture coming through as well. You can capture portraits with the main camera at both 1x and 2x zoom. Both look pretty great.

Nothing Phone (2a) Plus: 12.5MP main camera portrait 1x and 2x samples

Subject detection and separation rarely trip up, and the background blur is quite convincing overall.

Ultrawide camera

The 50MP ultrawide camera captures 12.5MP stills as well due to pixel binning. These are decent overall but mostly unimpressive. The detail is okay, and so are colors.

There is some noise and softness, especially on uniform surfaces, but nothing too excessive.

Nothing Phone (2a) Plus: 12.5MP ultrawide camera samples

Just like the main camera, you can force the ultrawide to capture in 50MP resolution. You probably don't want to do that, though, since there is no clear benefit to detail, and you just end up with large files.

Nothing Phone (2a) Plus: 50MP ultrawide camera samples

Selfie camera

The Nothing Phone (2a) Plus gets a new higher-resolution 50MP camera. It uses the potent Samsung JN1 sensor, but oddly enough, it still lacks autofocus. The camera captures 50MP stills by default, which is also kind of weird. As a result, you end up with pretty large file sizes.

Quality-wise, while the selfies aren't perfect, they are pretty solid overall. Skin tones and texture look great, and there are plenty of fine details. Dynamic range and contrast are also very decent.

Nothing Phone (2a) Plus: 50MP selfie camera samples

We would have been perfectly happy with this new camera if it hadn't been for the weird full-resolution capture. Autofocus would have been a great addition, but the focal plane is pretty wide and forgiving as things stand.

Low-light camera quality

The main camera on the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus holds up well in lowlight conditions. There is plenty of detail in the frame and pretty low noise. Shadows are well-developed, and so are highlights. Light sources in particular are reasonably well-contained.

Colors look quite natural and true to life.

Nothing Phone (2a) Plus: 12.5MP main cam night mode samples

The low-light 2x photos are similar to 1x ones in overall quality.

Nothing Phone (2a) Plus: 12.5MP main cam night mode 2x zoom samples

The ultrawide camera captures decent lowlight photos but doesn't particularly excel in these conditions. Detail is good, but the frame also has plenty of noise. Dynamic range is surprisingly good, with well-developed shadows and highlights.

Nothing Phone (2a) Plus: 12.5MP ultrawide cam night mode samples

The new selfie cam struggles surprisingly badly in low-light conditions. Focus seems to be a major issue. Other than that, colors look good, and there is a good amount of detail.

Nothing Phone (2a) Plus: 50MP selfie cam night mode samples

Video capture quality

The Nothing Phone (2a) Plus can capture 4K@30fps video with its main and ultrawide cameras, just like the Nothing Phone (2a). But now, the new selfie camera can capture 4K@30fps as well. By default, it records in a standard AVC/h.264 video stream at around 50 Mbps with stereo 48 kHz AAC audio inside an MP4 container. You can opt for HEVC/h.265 instead to save on some space.

You can check out the playlist below, which includes multiple video samples.

The 4K video from the main camera looks pretty great overall. Detail is good, though it could be better. There is practically no noise. Colors are pretty natural, which is great to see coming from the Nothing Phone (2a). Dynamic range and contrast are good. At 2x zoom, videos look decidedly softer with more visible sharpening.

The ultrawide camera also does surprisingly well with video capture. Detail is great for an ultrawide. The colors are, again, a bit warmer than in the main camera, but still look good. 4K videos from the new selfie camera look great with plenty of detail, great colors, dynamic range and contrast.

All of the cameras have some form of EIS enabled by default. It works pretty well, but unfortunately, it does introduce noticeable focus hunting on the main camera. There is an action mode for even more dynamic shots.

The main camera captures solid lowlight videos with plenty of detail, well-developed shadows, and highlights. Some surfaces are a bit grainy but nothing too severe.

The ultrawide holds up surprisingly well in low light as well. Sure, it is grainier and noisier still with less detail and frequently blown-out light sources, but it is perfectly usable with surprisingly well-done shadows.