Nothing CEO Carl Pei has exclusively revealed a few core details about the upcoming Nothing Phone 2a. As of today, we have a handful of allegedly official renders of the device courtesy of OnLeaks and Smartprix.
Now, OnLeaks is a fairly reliable source, but over the past few weeks, multiple contrasting leaks have emerged — and even Nothing executives have been particularly active at debunking them online. Also, OnePlus co-founder Akis Evangelidis has labeled these renders as “fake.”
Notably, the company has done the same in the past, but those leaks, particularly the one covering the Nothing Phone 2, turned out to be true despite the official denial. Naturally, take this leak saga with some skepticism.
On the positive side, the leaked design matches what some images of protective Nothing Phone 2a cases have predicted. Nothing has also confirmed officially that the transparent design elements are here to stay and so is the Glyph LED light interface at the back, but with a fresh twist this time around.
The company seems to have totally reworked the design of the hardware elements visible under the glass shell. The camera island now sits in the center surrounded by a circular ring element, which looks like a wireless charging pad, but we’re not sure if it’s just an aesthetic element given the raised camera hump at the back.
The flat side rails once again make an appearance, while the screen aesthetics are also as clean as ever, embracing uniformly thin bezels on all sides, with a circular cutout in the middle alongside the top edge for the selfie camera. Leaks suggest that the Nothing Phone 2a will have a 6.7-inch OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, up to 12GB RAM, and 256GB of onboard storage.
The company has also confirmed MediaTek’s Dimensity 7200 Pro chip, a silicon that is yet to appear inside any Android smartphone out there, for the Nothing Phone 2a. Given the processor’s placement in MediaTek’s portfolio, it seems the Nothing Phone 2a will turn out to be a fresh, but more affordable iteration of the Nothing Phone 2, which went straight for the budget flagship crown.
Based on the online chatter about the alleged pricing, it seems the Nothing Phone 2a is Nothing’s strongest contender yet — especially owing to its mass-market appeal. It’s just unfortunate that so far, the company only has plans of offering this phone to developers and other partners in the U.S., instead of a broad market release.
Meanwhile, I had some fun imagining what the Nothing Phone 2a could look like if it gets the same all-white treatment as its predecessor. Please make this happen, Nothing. It would look so good.
