Nothing Phone (2a) Plus: The differences here aren’t mind-blowing

First Impressions

Nothing has framed the Phone (2a) Plus as offering improved performance and camera chops, and while that’s technically true, the differences here aren’t mind-blowing – at least from what I’ve experienced so far. 

Introduction

Nothing has revealed the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus, a spec bump on the Nothing Phone (2a) that launched earlier this year.

Nothing promises improved performance, better camera tech and, most importantly, a refreshed design with a metallic finish that really makes the phone stand out compared to the rest of the Nothing phone collection – but is it worth the extra £80 compared to the Nothing Phone (2a)?

While I’ve only spent a few hours with the phone so far, here are my initial thoughts on the £399 Nothing Phone (2a) Plus, with a full review to follow very soon.

Design and screen

• Similar look to the Nothing Phone (2a)
• New metallic grey finish dazzles
• Plastic rear doesn’t feel cheap

The Nothing Phone (2a) Plus shares plenty of similarities with the regular Nothing Phone (2a), and that includes the general design – though that’s not a bad thing.

The Nothing Phone (2a) Plus sports the same transparent look that Nothing tech is known for, with a stylised rear with components easily visible. It’s a very anthropomorphic look, with centrally placed dual cameras that look a lot like a pair of eyes, complete with a circular NFC coil behind it that looks a bit like a head. 

What’s new with the Phone (2a) Plus, however, is the finish. While the regular Phone (2a) is available in Black, Milk and the community-designed Special Edition, the upgraded phone sports a Metallic Grey look to its internal components. 

They shimmer in the light, and though it doesn’t sound like a big difference, it makes a big impact on the overall look and feel. This just feels more premium, even if it is protected by plastic instead of glass. 

It also helps that the rear panel doesn’t feel cheap and hollow like some plastic rears, instead providing a surprisingly solid, grippy experience for a smooth-finish panel.  

Nothing’s famous Glyph light system is also present and accounted for, albeit in its more minimalist form like the Phone (2a), rather than the truly light-emblazoned rear of the Nothing Phone (2). 

Still, this allows you to be alerted to incoming calls and notifications when the phone is screen-down, with custom flashes for specific apps and contacts available, and the longer LED light doubles up as a timer too. 

This all accumulates in a phone that, while very familiar, looks and feels that little bit more premium and exciting. 

You might assume that, with the Plus moniker usually found on larger models of smartphones than their regular counterparts, the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus sports a larger screen than the regular Nothing Phone (2a) – but that’s not actually the case.

In fact, the two displays are practically identical; both sport a 6.7-inch AMOLED panel with an FHD+ resolution, 120Hz refresh rate and a maximum peak brightness of 1300 nits – which is, rather ironically, lower than the 2000nits offered by Nothing’s £200 CMF Phone 1.  

That doesn’t mean that this isn’t a nice display – it looks great so far, especially with the vibrant colours and deep blacks that AMOLED tech lends itself to, and we were fans of the panel in our Phone (2a) review – but don’t plump for the Plus model if you were hoping for an even larger screen. 

Cameras

• Dual 50MP cameras on the rear
• New 50MP selfie camera
• 4K@30fps video

The Nothing Phone (2a) Plus takes the phone from a dual 50MP camera system to a triple 50MP camera system – though not all are on the rear. Instead, the new 50MP sensor can be found on the front of the phone in the form of a selfie camera, complete with support for 4K@30fps video, making it a potentially handy snapper for content creators and selfie lovers. 

Elsewhere, the OIS-enabled 50MP f/1.88 primary lens and 50MP 114-degree ultrawide match the phone’s cheaper sibling, benefiting from the seven updates to the Phone (2a)’s camera tech that Nothing has pushed out to the phone since March, improving elements like colour accuracy, consistency, camera load times and more.

You’ve also got access to the same additional shooting modes, from Action Mode for ultra-stabilised video capture, Night Mode for low-light photography and AI Portrait Optimiser that tweaks those big group selfies. 

I’ve not had a chance to delve into what the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus’ camera setup can do just yet, but you can get a good idea of rear camera performance by looking at our Nothing Phone (2a) review. 

In it, we said that while it couldn’t compete with results from the Nothing Phone (2), the Phone (2a) was “perfectly decent for the money” with natural colours and great exposure when compared to similarly priced phones. Expect similar here. 

Performance and specs

• MediaTek Dimensity 2030 Pro 5G
• Nothing OS with new ChatGPT-powered News Reporter widget
• 5000mAh battery with slightly faster charging

One of the main reasons to opt for the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus over its regular sibling is performance. The new model sports the MediaTek Dimensity 2350 Pro 5G, a chipset we’ve yet to see in any other smartphone. That’s combined with the same 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage you’ll get with the (higher specced) regular model. 

It offers a slight boost over the Dimensity 7200 Pro in the Phone (2a), both in CPU and GPU departments, at 3.0GHz and 1.3GHz respectively, though it’s not a day-and-night uptick in performance. 

At least, it doesn’t feel that way during the limited time I’ve spent with the phone so far. Just like the regular Phone (2a), it feels responsive when swiping around Nothing’s stylised OS, and scrolling through media-heavy apps is largely stutter-free. 

Where it’ll likely make a difference is in the gaming department, an area where we felt the Phone (2a)’s chipset could’ve delivered a little more, though I’ll have to run a few benchmarks in the coming days to say for sure. 

One of the main reasons to plump for a Nothing smartphone is Nothing OS, the company’s heavily stylised approach to Android. I’m a huge fan of the dot-matrix style that Nothing’s software offers, and it got even better this year with the introduction of ChatGPT integration.

The Nothing Phone (2a) Plus continues Nothing’s software journey with Nothing OS 2.6, sporting even more ChatGPT integration in the form of the News Reporter widget.

The idea is pretty simple; choose from one of eight genres, including business, entertainment and tech, and get ChatGPT to not only summarise news articles but convert them to audio for you to listen to. Then, each morning, you can get a custom news report focused on each of your chosen topics, read out in a natural tone.

It’s not exactly a game-changing feature, but it’s a great example of how Nothing is trying to do something different with its approach to software. I’d certainly take that handy ChatGPT integration over half of the features included in Samsung’s Galaxy AI toolset. 

The News Reporter widget is rolling out to all Nothing smartphones so it’s not exactly exclusive, but it’s the first time I’ve been able to play with it myself. 

Elsewhere, you can expect battery life to be on a par with that of the Phone (2a), sharing the same 5000mAh battery with the same guarantee of maintaining 90% capacity after 1000 charges, though the Phone (2a) Plus boasts ever-so-slightly faster charging at 50W compared to 45W. 

I’m not sure this is going to make a world of difference when it comes to charge times, but it should shave a few minutes off the time it takes to fully charge the device.

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A ‘hands on review’ is our first impression of a product only – it is not a full test and verdict. Our writer must have spent some time with the product to describe an early sense of what it’s like to use. We call these ‘hands on reviews’ to make them visible in search. However these are always unscored and don’t give recommendations. Read more about our reviews policy.