TheNothing Phone 1was among the most impressive phones to launch in 2022. While the device failed to find a spot in our list of thebest budget phones, it stood out with its unique and premium design. Considering the Phone 1 was Nothing’s first smartphone, the company managed to nail many things, including the bloatware-free experience and performance. This doesn’t mean the phone is perfect. Its sub-par camera performance, limited availability, and other minor issues negatively affect the user experience.
Learning from its mistakes and targeting a more premium price tag, the Carl Pei-founded company launched the Nothing Phone 2 in mid-July. Unlike the Phone 1, Nothing’s second phone gets a lot of things right, making it an impressive mid-range device. Below is everything you need to know about the Nothing Phone 2: its design, specs, price, and availability.
Nothing Phone 2
Nothing’s second phone, the Phone 2, packs some big upgrades over its predecessor. But they are all the right improvements, delivering a much better experience overall. It’s also the company’s first phone to make its way to the United States.
Nothing Phone 2: Design and display
The Nothing Phone 2 builds on its predecessor’s design. And that’s not bad since the Phone 1 had a distinct design. You get a transparent back with the Glyph interface that has also been enhanced. Besides the slight layout tweak, you can individually control more Glyph lights than before, and the rear glass panel slightly curves at the edges to meet the flat aluminum chassis.
Unlike the Phone 1, which was available in white and black, the Phone 2 comes in gray and black. The plates at the rear are gray instead of white, giving the phone a smoky and attractive look. While the Phone 2 builds on its predecessor’s IP53 rating, it doesn’t take a big enough leap. The phone is only IP54 certified, making it splashproof. This is unlike the best Android phones, almost all of which carry an IP68 rating.
Apart from the minor design changes, the biggest difference between Phone 1 and Phone 2 is size. The latter houses a 6.7-inch panel, leading to a jump in size compared with the Phone 1’s 6.55-inch display. As for the 120Hz OLED screen, it’s a good panel with vibrant colors, good viewing angles, and FHD+ resolution. Nothing claims it has a peak brightness of 1,600 nits. It’s protected by Corning’s Gorilla Glass 5, but Nothing pre-installs a screen protector for additional safety. The optical fingerprint scanner is a tad lower than we like, but it works fine.
Overall, as our gadgets editor Taylor Kerns noted in ourNothing Phone 2 review, the hardware feels quality, and there’s no creaking or flexing. You won’t have any complaints about the Phone 2’s build quality. It builds on the Phone 1’s design in all the right ways, packing a more premium look and feel.
Last year’s Nothing Phone 1 was a mid-range device featuring a Snapdragon 778G+ chip and 8GB of RAM. Even before the Phone 2’s launch this year,Nothing’s CEO confirmedthe company’s plan to use aSnapdragon 8 series chipset on the Phone 2. While not the latest or fastest, the Phone 2 features a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC.
This chip powered many of our favorite phones from 2022, and given its stellar performance and efficiency, there’s nothing wrong with it. All 2023 flagship phones use the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, but they are more expensive than the Phone 2. Compared to the Phone 1’s Snapdragon 778G+ SoC, the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 brings a leap in performance.
Navigating around the phone is snappy, with apps and multitasking being a breeze. Performance shouldn’t be a concern with the Phone 2, as it punches above its weight in this department. Depending on the storage variant you opt for (128GB, 256GB, or 512GB), you can get the phone with 8GB or 12GB of RAM.
Thanks to the larger chassis, Nothing could bump the Phone 2’s battery capacity to 4,700mAh, a modest 200mAh jump from the Phone 1. While smaller than the rumored 5,000mAh cell, this is good enough to provide all-day battery life, especially since the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip is efficient. You get six to seven hours of screen time over 24 hours with little to no issues.
With 45W fast charging support, you can top up the Nothing 2’s battery from 0 to 100% in under an hour. The company doesn’t use a proprietary charging standard. As long as yourfavorite USB-C chargersupports the PPS standard, you are good. There’s also wireless charging at up to 15W and 5W reverse wireless charging.
On the connectivity front, the Phone 2 supports Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC, and 5G. But in the US, the phone is only certified to work on AT&T and T-Mobile networks. It lacks LTE band 13 support, so your experience on Verizon’s network will be spotty.
Nothing Phone 2: Software
If you were a fan of Nothing OS on the original Phone, you’ll feel at home on the Phone 2. The experience is almost the same, with the young company adding new features and customization options over Google’s flavor of Android. There are additional personalization options, and you get greater control over the Glyph interface. You can have different light patterns for notifications, can create custom ringtones and Glyph combos using the Glyph Composer, and more.
Another cool but gimmicky feature on the Phone 2 is for the Uber app to show your ride’s progress through the Glyph interface.
In Nothing OS 2.0, you can place the Nothing widgets on your phone’s lock screen. There isn’t support for third-party widgets, which would have improved the implementation. Placing widgets on the lock screen eats into the notification screen real estate.
Nothing OS was buggy initially, but with Carl Pei hiringmany of the OxygenOS team from OnePlus, things should be different now. The company has rolled outmultiple updates for the Phone 2since its launch to address reported issues.
Nothing promises three years of Android updates and four years of bi-monthly security patches for the Phone 2. While not as good as thebest Samsung phones, this is an excellent policy, though we would like to see a monthly rollout of the latest security patch.
With a more robust team in place and more experience under its belt, Nothing should be faster in rolling out Android updates for the Phone 2. The company isrunning an Android 14 open beta program for the Phone 2, which you can join to get a taste of the latest Android release. Based on Android 14,Nothing OS 2.5 introduces Glyph Progress integration for Google Calendar, improved Glyph Timer functionality, and support for the predictive back gesture for all Nothing apps.
Nothing took a long time to bring Android 13 to its first phone, but several factors were behind that delay. It is unlikely to repeat that same mistake with the Phone 2, and an open beta program signals that. There’s no word on when the stable Android 14 update will be out, but it should be released before the end of the year.
The Carl Pei-led firm also promised a Nothing OS 2.5 beta for the Phone 1 by the end of 2023.
There’s another incentive to get the Nothing Phone 2 over other Android phones. Nothing has a newNothing Chats app on the Play Storethat aims to bridge the gap between iMessage and Android. Made in partnership with Sunbird, a cross-platform messaging app that broughtiMessageto Android, Nothing Chats activates blue bubble conversations with your friends using an iPhone. Your messages remain end-to-end encrypted, so there is no privacy risk associated. At least, that’s what the company claims.
Within hours of Nothing Chats going live on the Play Store, security researchers found the app logged every message in plain text and stored unencrypted data, including media files. This made it a privacy disaster, forcing Nothing to take down the app, though it claimed it was doing so due to bugs.
Even worse for Nothing, within days of Nothing Chats going official, Apple announced that itwould add RCS support to iMessage in 2024. This won’t change the green and blue bubble divide since iMessage and RCS won’t be interoperable. But it will at least improve the experience of texting your iPhone friends.
Nothing Phone 2: Cameras
The Nothing Phone 1’s cameras were never its strong suit. While the young company rolled out multiple software updates to improve the phone’s imaging performance, it was nowhere as good as its primary competitors, theGoogle Pixel 6aand theSamsung Galaxy A53. The rear cameras fall apart while capturing photos in challenging situations, including low-light environments.
With the Phone 2, you get a 50MP Sony IMX890 f/1.9 primary camera with OIS and EIS. This is the same camera you get on theOnePlus 11. A 50MP f/2.2 Samsung JN1 ultra-wide sensor is paired with this. The company made substantial improvements in the imaging department with its second phone, but work still needs to be done. While the phone can take decent pictures in daylight, the results are sub-par in challenging conditions.
The HDR performance also needed some work initially, with the July Nothing OS update making things worse in this department. Nothing addressed thisissue with the Nothing OS 2.0.2a update in late August 2023. It introduced key camera enhancements, including improving the HDR performance.
While not the best, Nothing improved the Phone 2’s camera performance since its launch. There’s still room for improvement, and we could see Nothing making further tweaks to its image processing pipeline in future updates.
Nothing Phone 2: Price and release date
The Nothing Phone 1 debuted in mid-July of 2022. The Phone 2 debuted a year later, around the same time. The phone was announced on August 09, 2025, and went on sale in most markets starting June 18, 2025. As previouslyconfirmed by Nothing, the phone debuted in the US market this time. Pricing in the region starts from $599 for the base 8/128GB variant, with the top-end model setting you back $799.
In the UK, the phone retails for £579 to £629, depending on the variant you buy. European pricing starts from 679 EUR and goes up to 849 EUR.
Compared with the Phone 1, which was available for €470, the Phone 2 is more expensive. For the extra money, you get a better phone, packing a larger display, a more refined design, and delivering better performance. Despite the higher price, the Phone 2 is stiff competition for many of our favorite Android phones.
Nothing Phone 2 faces stiff competition from Samsung and Google
The Nothing Phone 2 is an upgrade over the Phone 1. Over the last year, the competition in the mid-range segment also improved. There’s theGoogle Pixel 7a, which packs a more efficient Tensor G2 chip, a 90Hz OLED display, and a 64MP primary camera. If the Nothing Phone isn’t available in your region or you want a less funky phone, Google’s offering is a better choice.
If you prefer Samsung phones, get theGalaxy A54. It doesn’t pack anymajor upgrades over the A53, but it’s still a good phone, especially if you want a stable and fuss-free experience. The phone is backed by Samsung’s solid software update policy, ensuring it gets four years of OS updates and five years of security patches. The Galaxy is nowhere as fast as the Nothing Phone 2, and its design won’t stand out in a crowd either.
Nothing’s second phone, the Phone 2, packs some big upgrades over its predecessor. But they are all the right improvements, delivering a much better experience overall.
