Nothing Phone 2a Plus review: A lot of phone for not a lot of money

Nothing is still finding its footing in the smartphone world. The company has carved out a nice fanbase in the budget and mid-range spaces, and the Nothing Phone 2a Plus establishes its presence more solidly. It's not a perfect phone and suffers from spotty availability in the U.S., but it offers plenty of value for a low price.

The Pixel 8a is currently the best cheap phone you can get, and the OnePlus 12R is one of our favorite affordable phones, so Nothing has some steep competition with its Phone 2a Plus.

With the Google Pixel 9a looming, does it make sense to buy the Nothing Phone 2a Plus or wait for Google's next offering? I've set out to answer that burning question and more in this review so you can make the right decision for your smartphone needs.

Nothing Phone 2a Plus review: Specifications

Nothing Phone 2a Plus review: Price and release date

As is the trend with Nothing, the Phone 2a Plus comes with a lower price tag than most of its major competitors. It comes with a $399 price, which is $100 less than the Pixel 8a and OnePlus 12R, which have similar specifications and performance levels. Officially, the phone launched on July 31, 2024.

Unfortunately, getting the Nothing Phone 2a Plus in the U.S. is challenging. The company's website has a Sign-Up button on the order page to notify you when the phone arrives in stock. If you're willing to pay more than the $399 price, you can hit third-party sellers on sites like NewEgg and spend close to $799, but paying that much on the phone isn't ideal. You can also snatch it from Amazon for a little over $399.

At this point, if the phone appeals to you, patience is vital. Ideally, Nothing will stock the phone in the United States again, and you'll be able to snag one at the retail price. In the meantime, check out some of the best phone deals to grab a different device at a steep discount.

Nothing Phone 2a Plus review: Design

The design might be the most significant standout aspect of the Nothing Phone 2a Plus (though it looks almost identical to the non-Plus version of the phone). It has a translucent design that lets you see some of the inside of the phone. It has crazy LED strip lights that make up its Glyph Interface on the back of the phone, which can be used for various functions. It's clear that Nothing went out of its way to create a phone that stands out visually.

You can get the Nothing Phone 2a Plus in two different colors — a sleep gray and a dark black. We tested the gray version, and it's pretty striking and will grab anyone's attention if you're using the phone while out and about.

Nothing Phone 2a Plus review: Display

For the screen, Nothing fashions a 6.7-inch AMOLED (1084 x 2412) with an adaptive 120Hz refresh rate — the same screen found on the Nothing Phone 2a. For the $399 price, you can't be upset at the offering, as it's plenty large and vibrant.

Nothing claims the phone can peak at 1,300 nits of brightness, but our testing maxed out at 959 nits. That's still plenty of brightness for an affordable phone, but it's significantly different from the company's claimed brightness.

Brightness aside, the screen looks great. The adaptive refresh rate keeps everything running great for both games and videos. The AMOLED offers wide viewing angles and vibrant color saturation that screens of this type are known for.

Nothing Phone 2a Plus review: Cameras

The cameras fall right into the expected level for a phone at this $399 price point. However, the company didn't upgrade the Plus version — it has the same 50MP primary and 50MP ultrawide cameras as the other phone. Even though they're not an upgrade, they're still perfectly respectable cameras capable of capturing the moment in various lighting conditions. Except for low light — it could stand to improve substantially there.

Nothing did upgrade the selfie camera with this version of its phone, now offering a 50MP camera on the front of the phone instead of the 32MP shooter on the Nothing 2a. It's a nice improvement, but the difference in photos isn't all that noticeable between the two devices.

Image 1 of 8

All expected modes are included with the Nothing Phone 2a Plus — time-lapse, panoramic and slow-mo are all included, allowing you to capture all kinds of scenes and scenarios. An AI-driven algorithm (because you can't have a phone in 2024 without some AI feature) finds faces in the frame and increases the resolution, even if the face isn't in focus.

Video capture works well, with the camera offering 4K 30FPS capture, which is fine, but it would have been nice to get 4K resolution with 60FPS for action shots. You get some basic exposure adjustment when recording video to set up the shots you want, but the options won't rival those of more expensive phones.

Nothing Phone 2a Plus review: Performance

While this is a budget-friendly phone, performance is still a significant factor. Thankfully, Nothing offers solid performance for an affordable device. The company provided a MediaTek Dimensity 7200 Pro in the original Nothing Phone 2a Plus. It has jumped to the MediaTek Dimensity 7350 Pro 5G in the Plus, which the company claims is a 10% improvement.

We knocked the original phone out for its somewhat sluggish processor performance, and the upgraded chip has made a difference. I found this device to be pretty smooth, though the performance difference in the benchmark scores isn't massive. Still, the difference in the Wild Life Original Unlimited benchmark is 4FPS, which is noticeable during gameplay.

Nothing Phone 2a Plus review: Battery Life

Nothing tends to offer solid battery life with its phones, and the 2a Plus is no exception. It doesn't beat the OnePlus 12R, which provides some of the most absurd battery times we've ever seen, but it's respectable. After all, 14 hours and 8 minutes is nothing to snub your nose at in our battery drain test, and it absolutely demolishes the Google Pixel 8a's 11 hours and 21 minutes in the same test.

The budget-friendly 2a Plus offers 50W wired charging, which again falls short of OnePlus but is more than fast enough to fill the phone quickly. We managed to get 41% in just 15 minutes, so even if you only have a little time to charge, you can get enough juice to last through the night.

Nothing Phone 2a Plus review: Software

Visually, Nothing makes some of the coolest Android skins on the market. They fit in so well with the overall aesthetics of the phone. The eye-catching dot matrix design language covers everything from the icons of the apps to the font, and it looks incredible.

The Glyph Interface still gives it that extra layer of functionality to tie the light patterns to specific notifications so you can tell what's happening even when your phone is face-down.

The software is cool, but it's also speedy and smooth. In my testing, I never had any issues with the phone doing what I wanted quickly, which is always welcome from a budget-friendly phone like the Nothing 2a Plus.

The one drawback is the lifecycle. Nothing promises three years of software versions and four years of security updates, which is fine but weak compared with Samsung and Google's stellar offerings.

Nothing Phone 2a Plus review: Verdict

I'm happy with the Nothing Phone 2a Plus, but I can't say I love it. The upgrades over the original aren't massive, but neither is the price difference. If you take a lot of selfies, it might be worth spending the extra money (assuming you can find one because availability is almost nonexistent in the U.S.).

Ultimately, everything is in line with what I expect from a $400 phone, but nothing about it blows me away either. If you're a Nothing fan, you probably already went out on launch day and picked this up for the upgrades it offers, but I can't imagine this phone pulling anyone away from their beloved Pixel 8a or other phone in this price range.