The Nothing Phone 1 made its debut in July 2022, and it had a reasonable amount of hype behind it due to the involvement of Carl Pei, a co-founder of OnePlus. It was a quirky phone due to the unique light show on the back that makes it stand out from the competition, but on the software front, it’s very similar to other Android phones out there. It received mixed reviews, though the consensus leaned more on the positive side.
This year, we’re expecting the Nothing Phone 2, as confirmed by Pei in January during MWC 2023. Here’s everything we know so far about the Nothing Phone 2!
Nothing Phone 2: design
So far, there haven’t been any leaked renders of what the Nothing Phone 2 will look like. However, we have seen a small glimpse of the Phone 2 in a recent teaser image shared by Nothing. In typical Nothing fashion, the teaser doesn’t give us much to go on. We can expect a white version of the Nothing Phone 2 and possibly the lights on its rear to be able to shine in multiple colors, as the image shows a red light flickering on what looks like the back of the phone.
However, if you’re looking for full renders of the Nothing Phone 2, you’ll need to stick with fan-made concepts for now. This one from YouTuber 4RMD is one of the better-looking ones out there — and Nothing should take it into consideration.
In 4RMD’s concept video, the Nothing Phone 2 looks to have flat edges like the current Nothing Phone 1, which is a very similar design to Apple’s iPhone 12, iPhone 13, and iPhone 14 lineups. We also still have the transparent glass back, with the wireless charging coil taking up the majority of the back, along with the signature LED light strips. The concept also has a lightweight aluminum frame and Gorilla Glass Victus on the front and back.
While the Nothing Phone 1 had a dual camera setup in the upper corner, this design concept has a triple-lens camera system lined up horizontally in the top center, with the LED lights surrounding it. In this triple camera array, the specs would be a 50MP main camera, as well as 50MP for both the ultra-wide and telephoto lenses, which may not be as likely. However, Nothing does want to make this sequel more premium than the first offering, so it’s up in the air.
Speaking of the LED lights, the concept adds colorful RGB lighting, which would be an upgrade over the regular white light on the original Nothing Phone 1. It also shows off setting up the glyph interface to use certain colors for specific app notifications.
On the display side, the concept shows off a sharp 6.65-inch display with thinner bezels than the original, and up to 1,200 nits brightness.
Again, this is all just a concept render from a YouTuber, but it’s one of the better ones that we’ve seen so far. Hopefully, Nothing considers some elements from this design concept for the Nothing Phone 2.
Nothing Phone 2: specs
The original Nothing Phone 1 used a Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G+ processor, which is a premium mid-range chip. But with the Nothing Phone 2, Pei revealed that it will be using a flagship Qualcomm chip, which would be in the Snapdragon 8 series. More specifically, Pei fully confirmed in May that it’ll be the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 inside of the Nothing Phone 2.
The Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 was Qualcomm’s flagship chipset for 2022 and was succeeded earlier this year by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. But even though it isn’t the latest chip in Qualcomm’s arsenal, it should still offer huge performance improvements over the Nothing Phone 1. Pei says that apps will open twice as fast and that there’s an 80% overall performance boost. Furthermore, the newer Image Signal Processor (ISP) will allow the Nothing Phone 2 to capture 4,000 times more camera data compared to the Nothing Phone 1.
Even though the Nothing Phone 2 may be using an older chip, we have high hopes for it. The UI on the Nothing Phone 1 was clean and snappy, even with a midrange processor. Our review unit of the Nothing Phone 1 also had 8GB RAM with 256GB storage, so we should have something similar for the Nothing Phone 2.
Nothing Phone 2: release date
While we don’t have a cemented release date for the Nothing Phone 2, the company recently announced that it would be launching this summer. While we had a hunch that might have been the case based on the Nothing Phone 1’s July 2022 release date, it’s good to have a more specific window confirmed by Nothing.
Though the Nothing Phone 1 was only released in the U.K. and not the U.S., that won’t be the case for the Nothing Phone 2. It’s confirmed that the top priority with the Nothing Phone 2 is to make it available in the United States.
A reason behind this decision is the fact that Nothing was only two years old by the time it launched the Nothing Phone 1, and it was too busy building up its team and products. Now the company has more solid footing, allowing it to take the steps needed to gain traction in the U.S. market.
Nothing Phone 2: price
There have been no rumors or leaks about what the Nothing Phone 2 could cost. But if we’re going by the brand’s history so far, the Nothing Phone 1 will likely cost under $500.
Since the Nothing Phone 1 is generally a budget flagship, we should expect the Nothing Phone 2 to follow a similar price point. It will definitely be more in line with the pricing for Google’s Pixel devices (like the Pixel 7) instead of Samsung’s Galaxy S-Series devices and even Apple’s iPhone.
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