Phone (2a)

I'm so impressed with this phone.

I smashed my iPhone 13 Pro Max and as I'm SIM only and didn't have insurance I need to get a new phone sharpish. As I had just had a baby. While wondering around London looking for a new phone I stumbled across an interesting store called.... Nothing. Peaked my interest, Wondered in spoke about the brand and looked at the handsets. Was blown away by the service, The design of the handset and most importantly as I'd just had a baby THE PRICE.

I don't miss my iPhone in the slightest. Use to charge it twice a day.. How about the Nothing 2A you ask. Well, I only charge it 3 times a week... Yeah you did read that correct. Oh and I forgot to mention I listen to Spotify & Watch YouTube for on average 10hrs a day while working... It's just unmatched for this price point.

Nothing, I salute you. FINALLY a brand not interested in ripping off the costumer and selling an impressive handset at unbeatable prices!

Can't fault it since getting it a month ago. Fast, great to look at (both screen and design), and a joy to use. At this price, I'd be amazed if it can be beaten.

In order of the title -

The Nothing Phone 2(A)'s aesthetics are excellent. My previous phone was the Pixel 4a as I was not a fan of large screen phones. The Nothing Phone 2(A) has changed my mind about screen size; curved corners, a uniform bezel and the milk colourway makes for a fantastic looking phone.

The hardware does everything I ask of it when I ask of it, in a timeframe that's fast or acceptable. The screen is outstanding, the selfie camera (compared to the Pixel 4a) a revelation in detail and automatic exposure (occasionally a touch bright).

Your customised software is brand specific without being obnoxiously different for the sake of it. I like the simple white and black with the red accent colour.

My perplexing issue is in regard to your widgets. I've opted to use Nova launcher (as I have on my previous 3 phones) to create an interface that I enjoy using, is functional and minimalist.

My expectation was to be able to incorporate the Nothing widgets into this interface, I enjoy minimalism and I felt the style of the widgets would fit right in.

Unfortunately, with the exception of the NothingX widget the Nothing widgets are unavailable on Nova launcher. I know nothing of how difficult it is to make widgets available across launchers.

However, seeing as the NothingX widget is available on the Nova launcher I suspect it's not a case of recreating the entire widget for each possible launcher.

If making the widgets available to launcher's other than the Nothing launcher requires a lot of work per widget I understand why you haven't.

However, if being able to the use Nothing widgets on other launchers is as easy as clicking a checkbox (or substantially easier than a lot of work on each widget) and you are gatekeeping being able to use Nothing widgets, that leaves you with 2 problems -

1) I paid £350.00 for your phone, that includes your style. Not making the widgets available on the launcher of my choice on the Android platform appears coercive at best and at worst means you're not really interested in what I want just that I'm representing your brand. I will point out I don't think that's true, I'm saying that's how it looks.

2) The widgets have already been broken down and reassembled in paid for third party apps (doubtless with significantly less functionality). I know, I've already paid for them. So if you want to sell the Nothing widgets in a bundle pack on the Google Store then do it, I'll buy them.

Bottom line -

Do not **** over people who bought your phone for the aesthetics of your software by undercutting the Android function of launcher choice. Personally I am somewhat perturbed by this choice but it's not a deal breaker, just an irk.

The internet however is not a forgiving place, I have no doubt there are people out there who will die on this hill and voice their opinions quite loudly while doing it.

If it is a lot of work to make the widgets available, no problem, communicate that.

If it's easy and you're trying to shoehorn people into using Nothing OS I would argue the people you're targeting are much more likely to at least give Nothing OS a try if you have mindshare; and that can be gotten with the pretty easy win of making your widgets available to any launcher, especially if those users have bought your hardware.

Taking it a step further I'd suggest the following - Your graphic style is already iconic, making the widgets available to all phones and launchers may even move people not aware of you as a company to look at your phones.

In a world where your company is looking to be different and promote fun, be open and share. Not doing so makes you just another brand.

My problem-

The rear-facing camera, my Pixel 4a is nearly 4 years old now and it takes better photos that the Nothing Phone 2(A) and (from the reviews I've seen) better photos that the Nothing Phone 1 and 2.

I realise that Google has the computational photography edge. They've been in the game for a long time and keep improving by researching and delivering on new software.

Sadly the audience for your phones isn't likely to take take industry disadvantages into account and just want to take good pictures. If they can do that using their old phone then they're going to feel like your phone, while better in all other regards, lacks a key utility.

The reason I know this is because I'm still carrying around my Pixel 4a and taking photos on that instead of the Nothing Phone 2(A). I don't want to be doing that. You don't want me to be doing that. You have updated the camera several times since I bought it and I applaud and am grateful for your work.

However at the moment most scenes in direct sunlight are over bright with the saturation cranked way to high, they're like photos from Samsung before the Galaxy 9 series. Your low light photography is better but again the overexposure of bright lights can be a problem.

Your camera hardware has better specifi...

I am loving the nothing phone 2(a). Excellent big 6.7 inch screen, 12GB RAM, 256GB storage. Took me a little while to configure the glyph UI but I like the old school look (takes me back to the 1980s). Having moved over from a Samsung a54 I am very happy - performance is snappy and the phone has been solid. This is an excellent phone, and for the £money I doubt it can be bettered. Excellent.

I love this phone, it just works. It feels fast, and has a distinctive look.