Nothing has launched its first smartphone in the US, the Phone 2 — a move that’s been on everyone’s mind since the company was founded by Carl Pei, who previously led phone maker OnePlus to domestic (and global) success.
It’s also a move that’s Historically proven difficult for newer manufacturers outside of the country.So, the question now is whether or not Pei and Co have done enough to convince a market heavily comprised of iPhone and
Samsung Galaxyusers to make the switch. From my week of testing, I’d say the Phone 2 is off to a promising start, but there’s still plenty of room to grow.
What’s new with this model
In ZDNET tradition, I’ll start by covering the newest, distinguishing features of the Phone 2, followed by a breakdown of what features and improvements I’d like to see in the next model.
1. Glyph Interface gets a glow-up
The Glyph Interface is the Nothing Phone’s killer feature. From this point forward, any other phone that has something even remotely similar to the Glyph Interface is considered a copycat. And I can see the company riding that dominance for as long as possible.With the
iPhone 2, there’s now an assembly of 33 LEDs compared to last year’s 12, as evident by the additional isolated strips throughout the backing. For the unacquainted, the Glyph Interface serves as an LED indicator, pulsating depending on the notifications you receive, from phone calls to text messages. It also flexes as a charging status indicator and fill light for photos and videos.This year’s version gets even more functional.
For example, you can now customize your own Glyph patterns via Glyph Composer, where Teenage Engineering’s influence is most prevalent. With more LEDs on the back, one of the longer strands of light serves as a progress bar for timers and volume levels. Personally, I found the more granular lighting system to be the perfect Pomodoro timer, a productivity technique that encourages incremental breaks every 25 minutes.
Nothing has also opened up its Glyph system to app developers so that the progress bar effect can also represent incoming Uber rides and other services. It’s very neat, whether you see yourself using it or not.Ultimately, my perception of the Glyph Interface remains neutral. I love that I can get a sense of what’s happening without flipping to my
phone screen, but that also requires me to pay attention to what pattern is pulsating on the back, which I often find myself missing by the time I glance over.
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Nothing’s fix for this issue is a new “Essential notifications” option that allows you to designate the upper right LED strip to a specific app or set of apps. I currently have it paired with Messages and WeChat, since that’s what I mainly use to communicate with my family and partner. Now, whenever the Phone 2 goes all disco party mode on me, I look for that particular LED indicator to decide if it’s worth flipping the device over or not.
2. Nothing OS 2.0 makes software fun againOver the past few years, Android manufacturers have slowly but surely retreated from heavily-skinned user interfaces to more neutral appearances, giving up uniqueness for broader appeal.
With Nothing OS 2.0 (layered over Android 13), the company strikes the perfect balance of customizability and burdenlessness. I’d go as far as to say that this is my new favorite approach to Android.For one, most software elements like settings menus and quick panel toggles remind me of Google’s Pixel phones, and bloatware is pretty much non-existent. Where Nothing really flexes its software muscles is through lock screen and home screen customizations.
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The native widgets for weather, clock, and quick settings are surprisingly adequate, the ability to revisualize app folders makes them easier to discern, and the latest Nothing Icon Pack ties everything together with both light and dark color schemes. is how virtually every app that I downloaded, including the more niche ones, was automatically treated with Nothing’s monochromatic look and feel. Oh, and about the lock screen:
The Phone 2 lets you place widgets within a 2 x 4 grid, similar to the interactive lock screen on iOS 16. From all the various Android phones I’ve tested over the years, this is easily the best implementation of lock screen widgets I’ve used, and I’ll likely miss having it after my review period ends.3. Improvements in virtually every wayHolding up the Nothing Phone 2 while it’s glowing.From the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 to the larger 4,700mAh battery to the brighter display, Nothing upgraded virtually every facet of last year’s Phone 1’s internals.
And that tallies up to a well-rounded, no-fuss Phone 2 that both iOS and Android users will enjoy using.For the record, I don’t look to the usual performance benchmarks to judge how capable a phone is. The difference in scoring between the Phone 2 and, say, Samsung’s Galaxy S23 Ultra means nothing if your use cases revolve around web browsing, messaging and calling, taking photos and videos, and playing games. In fact, I tested the same Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 on the more recent Motorola Razr Plus, and the chipset proved to be reliable enough to handle quick app changes and multitasking.
The display now ramps up to 1,600 nits of peak brightness (from last year’s 1,200), which I’ve found very reliable for outdoor use and navigation when docked in my car. The 120Hz OLED panel gets impressively bright and spectacular dim when you need it to be, which is not something I can say about all modern-day phones.
I often find adaptive brightness settings to be too aggressive or delayed, but the ambient sensor on the Phone 2 is both reactive and tunes things just right. More importantly, I’ve been able to squeeze about a day and a half with the Phone 2, something I wasn’t expecting to do when I first saw the 4,700mAh value and compared it with most flagship Androids that field 5,000mAh ratings.