The Nothing Phone 2 has rekindled my interest in midrange phones.

The Nothing Phone 2, Nothing's second smartphone, has finally been released after months of hype-building leaks and teasers. Nothing has made a significant leap forward with The Phone 2: while the organization's past telephone, the Telephone 1, was just accessible in the UK, Europe, Japan, and India, the Telephone 2 is the organization's first to be authoritatively accessible in the notoriously extreme to-break US market. I have been using the phone for about a week and a half, and while I am unable to provide a comprehensive review at this time, I do have some initial impressions.

Nothing Telephone 2

The Nothing Telephone 2 Isn't anything's subsequent telephone, yet the organization's first to be sold in the US. At a beginning cost of $599, it brings a ton to the table, including a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset, a 120Hz OLED show, 45W quick charging, and a one of a kind plan.

SoC: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 Display: 6.7-inch 1080p LTPO OLED, 120Hz RAM: 8GB, 12GB Storage: 128GB, 256GB, 512GB Battery: 4,700mAh OS: Android 13 with Nothing OS 2 Front camera: 30MP f/2.5 Rear camera: 50MP f/1.9 primary; 50MP f/2.2 ultrawide

Aspects

162.1 x 76.4 x 8.6mm, 201.2g

Colors

White, Dim

Charging

45W wired (2.25A just), 15W remote

IP Rating

IP54

Cost

$599 (8/128), $699 (12/256), $799 (12/512)

In this active, I'll just be addressing a couple of parts of the Nothing Telephone 2: specs, hardware design, the Glyph interface, Nothing OS 2.0, pricing, and availability are all shown above. The details of the display, charging and battery, performance, and camera quality will all be covered in the review. Remain tuned for that.

Equipment plan

The Nothing Telephone 2 carries on the unmistakable plan language of the Telephone 1, with a comparable straightforward back flaunting some gussied-up internals and Nothing's brand name Glyph interface. The most promptly perceptible contrasts starting with one age then onto the next are the Telephone 2's size — it has a 6.7" show, somewhat bigger than the Telephone 1's 6.55" board — and variety choices. The Phone 2 is available in both black and white, while the Phone 1 was only available in black.

That gray hue highlights an additional new feature: The fact that the components beneath the transparent back panel have more texture than they did on the Phone 1 makes the Phone 2 even more appealing to the eye because light plays interestingly on the tiniest ridges and bumps. The back panel of the Phone 2 curves slightly at the edges to meet the metal frame, unlike the phone's predecessor, which featured flat glass.

This time around, the Glyph lights on the phone's back have a new layout and more zones that can be individually controlled than on the Nothing Phone 1. Despite this, they only illuminate in one color because these are not tiny RGB strips.

Other than those differences, this phone's design is very similar to the Nothing Phone 1. Nothing suggests to me that this was done with the intention of developing a solid, recognizable visual identity that can be extended to subsequent device generations. There, I can't complain: Despite not being significantly different from year to year, Nothing's design language still stands out in comparison to the majority of smartphones on the market.

Phone 2's Glyph interface is back in place of Nothing's. The fundamental idea remains the same: LED strips are hidden beneath the clear rear glass. At the point when you get a warning, they light up. Using Nothing's Glyph Composer, you can assign different notifications to different light patterns and make custom ringtone/Glyph combinations.

However, there are a few useful new features. As Essential Notifications, you can set notifications from any app to light up one of the Glyph strips and remain lit until you view or dismiss them. That alone makes the Glyph lights much more useful—you can still glance at your phone while keeping its face down to see if it requires your attention.

There's another Glyph Clock include that utilizes one of the Glyph strips as a kind of progress bar for clocks — however, peculiarly, only ones you set from a specific gadget or the telephone's settings, not from the Clock application. Nothing's likewise assembled a trial include for the Uber application that shows your ride's advancement utilizing the Glyph interface. That has not yet been tried by me; it's perfect in principle, yet I envision I'd in any case be watching out for my telephone's screen in the event that I were sitting tight for a ride.

Nothing operating system 2.0

Nothing's product appears to be identical on the Telephone 2 as it did on the Telephone 1. The company's approach to customizing Android 13 was similar to that of Android 12: The user interface resembles a lot Google's Android.

However, there are some minor distinctions. While the Telephone 2 for the most part utilizes Google's applications — Telephone, Messages, Mini-computer, Clock, and that's only the tip of the iceberg — there are several Nothing-marked applications and a modest bunch of gadgets in the organization's unmistakable speck grid style. Thankfully, there is no excess: no social media or games that come preinstalled, and no apps that double as apps.

You have the choice to Not add anything's gadgets to your lock screen, however I don't realize that any of them are sufficiently helpful to legitimize surrendering warning land. If you want, you can also blow up individual app and folder icons on your home screen to fill four spots instead of one. Nothing's launcher also has a feature that lets you force all of your app icons, even those that don't yet support dynamic themes, to be monochrome. You can likewise utilize standard symbols, appropriate Material You theming, or custom symbol packs from the Play Store.

Nothing operating system 2.0 doesn't definitely rethink the manner in which you'll collaborate with your telephone, however Nothing's made a few shrewd changes that unobtrusively enhance the stock Android experience with next to no expectation to learn and adapt. I believe it's an extraordinary methodology.

Price and availability The Nothing Phone 2 can be pre-ordered at nothing.tech beginning today. The base model with eight gigabytes of RAM and 128 gigabytes of storage costs $599 in the United States. For $699 or $799, you can get 12 gigs of RAM and 256 gigs of storage. On July 13, open availability begins.

Given its hardware, the Nothing Phone 2 starts at $599, which is surprisingly affordable. In light of my experience with it up until this point, it very well may be a decent option in contrast to other upper-midrange choices like the Pixel 7, and, surprisingly, pricier picks like the OnePlus 11, for a many individuals.

The phone is certified to work on AT&T and T-Mobile, but not Verizon, and is unlocked. All things considered, the telephone will in any case deal with Verizon's organization, however 5G is restricted to sub-6 — no mmWave.

That is all we can say for the time being, but I will tell you a lot more about the Nothing Phone 2 in the future. Keep an eye out for the full review for information about performance, camera quality, and other aspects.