Nothing has made something of itself in just a couple of years. While its first products were all earbuds, founder and OnePlus alumini Carl Pei’s first love was phones. The upstart’s rookie effort in the Phone (1) seemed to play its cards right with the Glyph, a focus on features over specs, and mid-range pricing. Its success enabled Pei to grow the Nothing team and put out a premium Phone (2) the following year.
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But as the company heads into its sophomore phase, it may want to address the needs of the cost-conscious bloc of its audience who became fans because of the Phone (1). And it may do so with something that isn’t just a cut-down version of the original, but an evolutionary step. That’s where the Nothing Phone (2a) is reportedly going to come into play. And, supposedly, we don’t have to wait long to see it in action. Here’s what we know so far.
Nothing phone (2)
The Nothing Phone (2) may end up costing more than the Nothing Phone (2a), but if you need something sooner, you might want to check around for deals.
Nothing Phone (2a) name
Follows Phone (1)
Nothing CEO Carl Pei is a Pokémon obsessive and a known connoisseur of Easter eggs (via Android Police), so when he posted a new year’s greeting on X (formerly Twitter) teasing a new product, fans were already looking for hints based on an attached low-res dot-matrix rendering. Keener eyes were able to make it out to be Aerodactyl — Number 142 being a first-gen classic — and started aiming their eyes towards an ‘a’ variant of the recently-released Nothing Phone (2).
Pei confirmed fans’ findings weeks later before the company published a community update on February 1, officially announcing the Nothing Phone (2a). Aerodactyl was also officially acknowledged as a product codename, following in the footsteps of the Phone (1)’s “Spacewar” and Phone (2)’s “Pong.”
Nothing Phone (2a) release date
- Probably MWC Barcelona, February 26-29, 2024
How soon is soon?
In its announcement messaging across its various platforms, Nothing is keeping mum on a launch date. But we believe the company has already tipped its hand as multiple sources are pointing to a launch event at Mobile World Congress 2024 in Barcelona starting Feb. 26 — no word on when sales could begin, though. If true, the Phone (2a) would be the first prominent, honest-to-goodness smartphone launch from the show floor (or at a nearby venue) in years. We’ll have a crew on the ground for complete coverage.
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Nothing Phone (2a) pricing and availability
Back to square (1)?
Two sources seem to agree on pricing: WinFuture editor Roland Quandt and Indian leaks blogger Yogesh Brar are calling for the Nothing Phone (2a) to hit $400/€400. For reference, the Phone (2) was priced at $699 while the Phone (1), which was available only in Europe and India, was £399 in the UK.
As for potential availability, developer/leaker Kamila Wojciechowska has claimed that Nothing is developing four regional variants for Europe, Japan, India, and the rest of the world. Supposedly, the Japanese SKU was added on from the three that were made for the Phone (2). While that’s an encouraging sign that North America might be included in Nothing’s scope for the Phone (2a), Quandt expressed some doubt about US availability when asked by a commenter — though that may just be a function of his site’s (and sources’) Europe-focused remit.
Nothing Phone (2a) design and features
Glyph v2(a)
In the early rounds of intel, we’ve been hearing that the 2a is going big on centering itself. Like, seriously: the punch hole selfie camera moves from the top-left corner to the center, the dual rear cameras move from the top left to the center, and even the characteristic Glyph lights are now centered around the rear cameras (which have moved down slightly so that they can accommodate the new design).
Gone is the ‘G’ shape with extraneous strokes — Android developer and 9to5Google contributor Dylan Roussel posted up pieces of demonstrative animation depicting the Glyph as a simpler three-section circle-esque shape. There’s a straight, vertical line at the 90-degree position, a curved stub section at 120-degree, and a long curved filament at 315 degrees. Presumably, as with the previous Glyph, LEDs will continue to show different statuses, such as volume and alert modes.
In February, we finally got our first look at the design of the Phone (2a)’s rear panel courtesy of OnLeaks and SmartPrix with the latter claiming that the Glyph wpuld be omitted. Furthermore, the cameras appear to have returned to the top-left corner. As The Verge pointed out, Nothing’s Akis Evangelidis said a lot by saying very little in an post on X shortly after the claim was published.
Mere hours later, longtime leaks blogger Evan Blass dropped an image of his own showing the 2a with the centered camera-and-glyph look. So far, the preponderance of the evidence seems to be pointing towards change rather than more of the same for Nothing.
With the glyph integral to the Nothing software experience, we’ll take this opportunity to mention that the 2a is meant to launch with Nothing OS 2.5 on top of Android 14. Among the mundane bug fixes and optimizations, users will find new home screen widgets, customization options and UIs, wallpapers, volume controls, gesture controls, and shortcuts that weren’t on board the last major update.
We’ll have to see if a dot-dot update is due when the Phone (2a) comes around with its new glyph design … assuming everything above checks out. Funnily enough, new wallpapers for the Phone (2a) have been leaked by Smartprix/Wojciechowska.
If you’re wondering about the colors on offer, they’ll almost certainly be black and white.
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Nothing Phone (2a) specs
A get for MediaTek
Early reports suggested that the Phone (2a) was being worked under two codenames, PacMan and Aero, and a model number of A142. As we mentioned above, the company went official with Aerodactyl as “a codename” for the 2a — perhaps the other codenames are being used on different internal surfaces. Following down the vein of model numbers, A142 also marks a departure from the Phone (2)’s A065 and Phone (1)’s A063.
In the company’s pre-launch announcement, Nothing marketing lead Akis described the product:
With Phone (2a), we’ve really doubled down on the core user experience – performance, camera, you name it. And it’s also kind of leveraging some of the most loved features of Phone (2) while ensuring it delivers on a clear upgrade compared to Phone (1) on every single front.
Whereas Nothing’s first two phones ran with Snapdragon 8 series chipsets from Qualcomm, the 2a is reportedly running with MediaTek’s Dimensity 7200, released in February 2023 and meant to go up against the Snapdragon 7 series.
Smartprix (on behalf of Kamila Wojciechowska) claims that it will be equipped with a 120Hz AMOLED display with resolution of 1084 × 2412 from Chinese manufacturers Visionox and BOE. Numbers from a photo posted by Yogesh Brar of what’s been said to be some sort of manufacturing validation unit claims the panel spans 6.7 inches. It’s important to point out that these are the same specs for the Phone (2)’s screen.
Roland Quandt reports the Phone (2a) will come in two memory configurations: 8GB of RAM with 128GB of storage and 12/256.
MySmartPrice notes a certification from TÜV Rheinland indicating that the Phone (2a) will charge at up to 45W.
Nothing Phone (2a) cameras
New location(?), same great taste
Smartprix and Wojciechowska are saying that the two cameras feature 50MP sensors: the Samsung S5KGN9 is a 1/1.5-inch sensor that will be fitted under a wide-angle lens — this replaces the ever-so-slightly smaller 50MP Sony IMX890 on the Phone (2) — while the S5KJN1 will be 1/2.76 inches across and be used for ultrawide shots. Sony does stick around to provide its 32MP IMX615 for the selfie side.
The OnLeaks picture suggests that the cameras will remain in the top-left corner, but earlier renderings depict them sitting center stage. Either may be true at some point in the ideation and development pipeline, but we’ll have to see how things pan out.
Nothing Phone (2a) rumors: What’s happened so far?
Here are the stories we’ve been tracking about the new budget phone:
February 5, 2024: A Glyph-less render, responses from Nothing and Evan Blass
Smartprix posts an OnLeaks render of the 2a’s rear design and claims that the Glyph interface has been dropped. Nothing’s Akis Evangelidis posts a vague ellipsis on X (via The Verge) shortly after the story goes live. Evan Blass responds with a 2a render of his own showing the centered rear design.
February 1, 2024: The pre-release tease
Nothing teases the Phone (2a) for the first time.
January 27, 2024: Charging speed certification
MySmartPrice notes a tech certification from TÜV Rheinland indicating that the 2a may charge at up to 45W.
January 24, 2024: The Aerodactyl post
Pei confirms that he posted a black-and-white dot-matrix rendering of the Pokémon Aerodactyl.
January 1, 2024: Carl Pei teases Phone (2a) for the first time
Nothing’s CEO posts a vague message about an upcoming product for the year.
December 28, 2023: Configurations, colors, pricing, but a question about the US
Roland Quandt of WinFuture posts to X some intelligence and some uncertainty. This is your obligatory reminder that X was once known as Twitter.
December 23, 2023: Firmware dump
Developer Kamila Wojciechowska shares wallpapers, specs, and other findings via Smartprix as well as supposed firmware from the Phone (2a) on her X account.
December 16, 2023: Validation unit leaked in detail
Indian blogger Yogesh Brar shows off a production validation testing unit and some specs of the Phone (2a) on X (via Tom’s Guide).
December 15, 2023: Nothing going MediaTek on Phone (2a) with new Glyph design
Android developer Dylan Roussel shares clips of animation illustrating the Nothing Phone (2a)’s new Glyph design on X. There’s also word about the company’s first MediaTek chip order (via The Verge). Brar also talks about seeing a prototype unit.
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