Nothing reveals Phone 2a launch date with Carl Pei throwing shade at competition

Nothing’s hype train for the Phone 2a is full steam ahead right now. The company just posted a video highlighting why it’s making the more affordable Nothing Phone 2a, featuring an interview with CEO Carl Pei. Most of the 10-minute clip is spent belittling other smartphone brands like Samsung, vivo, HONOR, and more. However, we now know that the Phone 2a is launching on March 5 at 6:30 AM ET.

In the US, the Nothing Phone 2a will be “accessible to developers” through Nothing’s US Developer Program. “Participants will be provided a Phone (2a) and are encouraged to provide feedback on their experience and outcomes using the Glyph Developer Kit,” the company wrote in a press release.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like regular folks will be able to pick up a Nothing Phone 2a at launch. It’s expected to come first to markets like India.

Why Nothing Phone 2a? Carl Pei takes shots at competition

In his YouTube interview, Pei spoke about how Nothing really cares about its non-premium phone, unlike other brands.

“When was the last time you heard about a phone that wasn’t the top tier from any brand? I actually don’t know. Do you know why that is? Because they don’t care,” he said.

“I think a lot of people when they’re making products like this they’re assuming the user has low IQ so they’re putting useless things into the product that make it look good on paper but actually don’t help the user experience. So yes, this seems like it’s a very competitive space, there are a lot of products, but actually, if you think about it from a different perspective there’s actually no competition because there’s nobody that actually cares about these products,” he added.

The executive went on to describe how phones in this category have bulky camera housings with underpowered sensors inside and how they look like “Christmas trees” with bodies that are painted in different colors to hide their inferior build quality.

“They have this kind of cheap sheet material that makes the polycarbonate look like metal but you know it’s not really metal so we’re like if this is what we’re up against then let’s come and shake this market up.”

That said, Pei didn’t confirm if the Nothing Phone 2a will feature a metal build or not. The Phone 2 has an aluminum frame and a glass back. It unclear if the cheaper Phone 2a will get a similar build.

“Over the last couple of years, we’ve gained a lot of trust among our suppliers, and we’ve grown our business to a point where we’re getting much better pricing on our products. So it’s only natural that we take some of these efficiency gains and pass them on to our consumers,” Pei said hinting at the affordable price of the Phone 2a.

Nothing Phone 2a highlights

Pei went on to tease the performance and camera superiority of the Phone 2a. The device is expected to feature a MediaTek Dimensity 7200 chip, which stacks up just below MediaTek’s upper-midrange Dimensity 8000 series chips.

Nothing Phone 2a’s lead designer, Chris Weightman also shed some light on what to expect from the device. Phone 2a will carry forward the company’s transparency design aesthetics. The Glyph interface will also stick around. However, Weightman indicated that it might not be as elaborate as on the Phone 2.

“Eith the overall kind of design of the phone being quite different to phone 2 yeah we had to work a little bit to figure out exactly where the glyphs fit in this time,” he said.