Nothing teases what upgrades to expect from Phone 2a Plus

Earlier this year, we saw the debut of the affordable Nothing Phone 2a. Swapping metal for plastic, and dialing a little back on processing power compared to the Nothing Phone 2, it still represented a very tempting proposition at just $350 or less. But more recently, we’ve been hearing rumblings about a follow-up, and evidence was quick to arrive for the Nothing Phone 2a Plus name. Just last week, Nothing officially confirmed launch plans for the Phone 2a Plus, set to debut at the end of the month. While we still didn’t have the complete picture on the hardware, new details are already starting to arrive.

Over on X, Nothing shares that the Phone 2a Plus will arrive running MediaTek’s new Dimensity 7350 Pro — and will be the first handset to feature this silicon. As you may recall, both the Nothing Phone 1 and 2 ran Qualcomm Snapdragon chips, while with the 2a, Nothing tapped MediaTek for its Dimensity 7200 Pro. That chip ran at a maximum clock speed of 2.8GHz, compared to the 3.0GHz of the 7350 Pro. Nothing claims that upgrade can result in a 10% boost to performance, and while the 7350 Pro uses the same Mali-G610 MC4 GPU as the 7200 Pro, its 1.3GHz clock here could offer what Nothing says is 30% faster graphics.

Back when the Phone 2a was about to land, we asked you for your opinions on Nothing’s decision to go with MediaTek. At the time, readers were cautiously optimistic, and while half of you were in the wait-and-see camp, a solid 37% thought Nothing was making the right move (so much for Snapdragon fanboys). We might want to revisit that question soon, as we’re curious if attitudes have shifted any.

The numbers Nothing shares today represent an improvement, sure, but is it one substantial enough to build a whole new phone around? Ever since Nothing went official with its plans, we’ve been wondering about exactly what changes and hardware upgrades might be in store for the 2a Plus. We see 12GB of RAM depicted in the image above, but it’s worth remembering that Nothing also shared an image exactly like this one when announcing the 7200 Pro for the original 2a — including the 12GB of RAM. And while the Phone 2a does, indeed, have a 12GB RAM option, there’s also a lower 8GB variant — so based on this, we really can’t say if 12GB will be the starting level of the 2a Plus or not.

We’ve also got big questions (pun slightly intended) about the phone’s size. Has the “Plus. More. Extra” language Nothing’s been employing just been about performance, and maybe features? Or could it also hint at a physically larger phone and screen? This is uncharted territory for Nothing, so for the moment we’re forced to speculate a little more than is comfortable. Thankfully, July 31 is just one week away, so we’ll be getting the full story on the Nothing Phone 2a Plus quite soon.