Nothing Phone (2) is minimalist and low-key

Almost a year to the day, Nothing replaces its debut handset, the Nothing Phone (1) with – unsurprisingly – the Nothing Phone (2). We get hands-on with this evolution of the esoteric company’s latest device, noting its key features and the ways in which it diverges from the smartphone standard. 

The Phone (1)’s big point of difference was its disavowal of shiny solid materials in favour of a transparent look that revealed the (artfully arranged) inner workings of the device. Phone (2) is more of the same: once you’ve torn into the plastic-free packaging (which also tells us that 53 of the phone’s parts are made from sustainable materials) and shunned the hollow unboxing ritual, you’re greeted with a ‘naked’ device, with layered elements delineated by Nothing’s ‘Glyph’ interface. 

Nothing Phone (2): our hands-on review

The latter is a series of hieroglyphic-style lights that serve multiple functions in the Nothing OS 2.0, including caller ID, notifications and the intriguing Glyph Timer function, which turns the phone into a very high-tech egg timer. There’s also an experimental feature that uses the case lighting to countdown the arrival of an Uber or food delivery, as well as a Glyph Composer app for creating custom ringtones and notifications. Essentially a stripped-down beat sequencer, it reveals the creative synergy between Nothing and another glitch-tech pioneer, Teenage Engineering.

There are other advantages and features in Nothing OS 2.0, a jazzed up and re-skinned version of Android that ensures the Nothing ethos and aesthetic are mirrored across phone and software. The main screen is now monochrome and muted, removing the ‘crutch of colour cues’, in Nothing’s words, in order to focus the mind and detract from the chocolate box array of tempting app icons that so often lures us into wasted time. 

To this end, the new OS also features a number of custom widgets, effectively compartmentalising your most used apps into tiles you can check at a glance, without having to open them. These can also be put on the lock screen, further minimalising the need to fire up the phone. 

We were also impressed by the Phone (2)’s camera system, which has not only been upgraded with new filters, a document mode, and the ability to record 4K video at 60fps, but delivers impressive levels of detail and colour via the Advanced HDR function. This digital blend of eight varying degrees of exposure (up from three in the Phone (1)) creates vivid, crisp photographs, albeit with that sheen of processed perfection we’ve come to expect from our smart devices. The front camera sensor is also doubled in capacity. The screen size has also crept up (6.7in vs 6.55in) – this is not a small phone, by any stretch. 

Should you upgrade? Phone (1) fans will find more of what they love in the (2), but their enthusiasm might be tempered by the thought of replacing a perfectly good device with something so shiny and new; sustainability and transparency are central to the Nothing ethos. Amongst other initiatives, the company publishes the carbon footprint of its devices, giving the Phone (1) a figure of 53.45kg. This 8.6 per cent less than the first phone, and around 10kg lower than the figure Apple issued for its iPhone 13 back in September 2021.

These calculations are notoriously subjective. Of more importance are the levels of recycled materials used in the device itself (the frame is 100 per cent recycled aluminium, for example), and what happens at the end of a product’s lifecycle. If you’re attracted by Nothing’s ongoing journey to minimalist tech, the Phone (2) is a perfect place to get on board. True believers might want to hold on to their original device for a while longer, particularly as the Nothing OS 2.0 update will apply to all the company’s phones.