Nothing Phone 2 is here: Price, specs, features, and all you need to know

Nothing’s second-ever Android phone launched in 2023. As expected, the Phone 2 looks much like 2022’s Nothing Phone 1 with a few subtle changes. The most significant differences, though, are under the hood.

Here’s everything you could ever want to know about the newest flagship from the young brand, be it specs, pricing, or where you can buy a Nothing Phone 2 for yourself.

Nothing Phone 2: Release date, price, and availability

Nothing fully revealed the Phone 2 on July 11, 2023. However, weeks before that full reveal, we saw plenty of the phone from Nothing itself as part of a long hype campaign. By the time we got to the launch livestream, the only thing we didn’t know was the price.

The price of the Nothing Phone 2 starts at $599 for the model with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. If you need more room to expand, the 12/256GB model will set you back $699. For folks with deeper pockets, you can get the top-of-the-line variant with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of internal storage for $799.

Pre-orders for the phone opened the same day it launched. General availability began on July 17.

US availability

You probably already guessed as much by us listing the pricing in United States dollars, but we’ll put it here just in case: yes, the Nothing Phone 2 is available in the US. This stands in contrast with the Phone 1, which didn’t see a full launch here. Months after launching the Phone 1 in Europe, India, and other areas, Nothing did bring the Phone 1 to the US in a beta program. This got you a Phone 1 for cheap but with significant limitations, such as minimal band access on the major US carriers.

The Nothing Phone 2 does not have these limitations. All three models in both colorways (White and Dark Gray) are available in the US right now. These units will have wide-reaching band support on Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile (see the specs sheet further down for the exact bands) with sub-6GHz 5G access (though it lacks mmWave 5G support).

Do note that this does not mean you’ll be able to get a Nothing Phone 2 from a carrier. Nothing hasn’t announced any US carrier partnerships, so you’ll need to get the phone unlocked from Nothing or a third-party retailer (such as Amazon) and then connect it to your existing account. It’s possible partnerships could come in the future, but we’ll probably need to wait until the Nothing Phone 3 or even the Phone 4 before the company has proved its appeal enough to end up on a carrier shelf in the US.

Either way, US availability now means consumers have a viable alternative to the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G and Pixel 7a — two proven, solid mid-range phones.

Availability and pricing in other countries

As with the United States, folks around the world could place a pre-order for the Nothing Phone 2 starting on July 11. General availability began on July 17.

Our friends up north in Canada will pay CAD $929 for the base 8/128GB model. The 12/256GB version will cost CAD $999, and the highest end 12/512GB version will cost CAD $1,099.

In the UK, the Nothing Phone 2’s 8/128GB model is £579, the 12/256GB model is £629, and the 12/512GB model is £699.

In Europe, you’ll need to fork over €679 for the 8/128GB variant of the Nothing Phone 2, €729 for the 12/256GB variant, and €849 for the high-end 12/512GB model.

The Nothing Phone 2 will also be available in India, Australia, and a few other areas.

Nothing Phone 2: Features

At first glance, the Nothing Phone 2 looks a lot like the Phone 1. However, there have been a few subtle design changes along with some significant changes internally. Be sure to check out our full comparison of the Nothing Phone 2 vs the Phone 1. Regardless, here’s what you need to know.

Camera

Nothing did not change the camera layout with its second phone. There are still two lenses on the back (wide and ultrawide) and one selfie camera. However, two of these cameras have seen significant internal upgrades.

On the back, the primary wide lens jumps from a 50MP Sony IMX766 sensor to a newer and better 50MP Sony IMX890. Granted, this is still a mid-range sensor, but it will offer better results across the board. Unfortunately, the other rear lens — the 50MP ultrawide with a Samsung JN1 sensor — remains unchanged. However, thanks to the chipset upgrade, we should see better results with this same hardware (more on that in a bit).

On the front, the selfie camera also gets a nice upgrade. The 16MP Sony IMX471 sensor on the Nothing Phone 1 is now a 32MP Sony IMX615 on the Nothing Phone 2, which should, once again, give better results across the board. Notably, this sensor allows for 1080p recording at 60fps, which the Phone 1 could not do.

How does the Nothing Phone 2 stack up against the best camera phones out there? Check out our full Nothing Phone 2 review for our opinion.

Performance

The chipset on the Nothing Phone 1 was one of its most contentious details. While the phone’s Snapdragon 778G Plus wasn’t terrible, it was far from the best. This was a curious move for Nothing to make since the power-hungry early adopters it was trying to court would all certainly rather have a premium-level processor.

Well, Nothing heard you loud and clear. The Nothing Phone 2 has the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset, which was 2022’s best processor in the Android world. Granted, it has since been one-upped by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and, in 2024, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, but that doesn’t mean the 8 Plus Gen 1 is bad — far from it.

The jump from the Snapdragon 778G Plus to the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 significantly increased performance. However, it also allows for better functionality across the board, including the faster capture of photos, higher-resolution video shooting, and better battery life.

Display

The display gets a ton of upgrades with the Nothing Phone 2. First, it is slightly larger than the Phone 1’s display — 6.7 inches for the Phone 2 compared to the Phone 1’s 6.55 inches. Also, Nothing moved the selfie camera display cutout from the left of the display to the center.

The display also is an LTPO OLED panel this time around. LTPO displays allow for variable refresh rates that go very low. In the case of the Phone 2, it can go as low as 1Hz. That means the display can dynamically change from 1Hz to 120Hz depending on what you’re doing at that moment. This helps to preserve battery life since your display won’t be refreshing 120 times each second when you’re reading an e-book, for example.

Additionally, the display is brighter. It has a peak brightness of 1,600 nits, which is much, much brighter than the Phone 1’s peak of 700 nits.

Unfortunately, one thing that didn’t change this year is the glass covering the front and back of the device. Both slabs are still Gorilla Glass 5, a pretty old grade. Premium flagships have Gorilla Glass Victus on at least the front, but Nothing needed to cut some corners to keep the price down. Check out our picks for the best Nothing Phone 2 cases for some options to protect it.

Design and build quality

Much to Nothing CEO Carl Pei’s dismay, one of the first reactions consumers gave to the Nothing Phone 1 was to note how much it looked like an iPhone. Pei tried numerous times to convince us that we were just looking at it wrong, but the flat sides, rear camera arrangement, buttons, and antenna layout were all clearly lifted directly from the Apple drawing board.

With the Nothing Phone 2, Pei and co. have made things slightly different. It still looks like an iPhone in many ways — the flat sides and antenna layout are still there — but the back glass now has a subtle curve to it. The buttons are different, and the tweaked Glyph design (the lights on the back of the phone) makes it more obvious that this is no iPhone.

Despite detractors poo-pooing the iPhone similarities, the Nothing Phone 1 was a phone that felt like it cost twice as much as it did. That’s true once again, as the Nothing Phone 2 feels like a $1,000+ device even though it costs nearly half as much.

Battery

The Nothing Phone 2 is slightly larger than the Nothing Phone 1, which is good news because it allows for a slightly bigger battery. The Phone 2 has a 4,700mAh cell, roughly 200mAh bigger than the one in the Phone 1. When you combine this with the new power-efficient chipset and display, you get significantly better overall battery life when compared to the Nothing Phone 1.

When your phone inevitably needs a charge, Nothing has made things better for you here, too. The Phone 2 charges with a cable and compatible Power Delivery PPS brick at 45W, a significant increase over the 33W speed of the Phone 1.

Meanwhile, wireless and reverse wireless charging speeds are the same: 15W and 5W, respectively.

Finally, do note that, like other flagship smartphones, there is no charger in the box with the Phone 2. You do, however, get a nifty transparent charging cable, which you can see in the image above.

The Glyph

The most notable aspect of a Nothing Phone is the lights on the back, which the company calls The Glyph. This year, The Glyph gets a slight refresh. There are more LED strips — 11, or six more than last year — and also more LED “zones,” or the number of lights contained within each strip. There are a whopping 33 zones this year when the Phone 1 had just 12.

With all these extra lights, Nothing is able to offer more precise control of them. This is how the company is offering two new features known as Glyph Progress and Glyph Timer. Glyph Progress allows third-party apps to present progress bars using the lights, with Uber being the first partner in the US. When you order a car with Uber, the back lights will count down until the driver arrives, giving you an easy visual reference of how much time you have until they arrive.

Meanwhile, Glyph Timer does the same thing, but with timers. You can easily access this feature from a Quick Settings tile.

Nothing Phone 2 specs

Despite the 2023 phone looking very much like the 2022 version, there are a lot of spec upgrades. Check them all out below.

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