The Nothing Phone (2a) is steadily being teased by the brand in true Carl Pei-drip-feeding-fashion. Here at MWC 2024, Nothing has put on an event and its new budget phone on display. Want a look? we’ve snapped it in the flesh.
Whether it’s teases from other sources or Nothing itself, if you’re a tech fan then you’ve probably peeped the supposed design of the new Phone (2a) already. Well, at an event held in Barcelona during MWC 2024, Nothing has invited us to take a look at the new phone in person.
Nothing Phone 2a First Look
There it is. The new phone was papped by our Computing Editor Adam Speight who attended the event. Unfortunately, the Nothing Phone (2a) remained behind the glass but seeing it in person gave a good impression of the new look device either way. The design matches up with what was reported beforehand, with the two lens camera and a rear that offers something different compared to the typical Nothing Phone (2). From this early look, it appears the glyph system is limited to just around the circular camera module with the (2a), compared with the flagship device and the lights that are sprawled across its whole rear.
Ahead of the event in Barcelona, Nothing actually officially showed its look off earlier in the day, with a giant virtual unboxing on the streets of London. It also revealed full unveiling would come on March 5th 2024, as well as what we can only assume is an actual unboxing at 10am GMT tomorrow (Feb 28th).
What we know so far
So, now, the design has been officially revealed, adding to information on the chipset and that all-important launch date. Up until recently, it was simply rumoured that the Nothing Phone (2a) would be using a MediaTek chip, before it was finally confirmed by Nothing and MediaTek.
The new Phone (2a) will be donning a MediaTek Dimensity 7200 Pro chip, built on a 4nm process. Nothing is touting that “the 8-core chip, clocking speeds up to 2.8 GHz, paired with up to an expansive 20GB RAM thanks to the new RAM Booster technology, ensures swift and responsive multitasking all day long. This results in a performance that is 18% more powerful than Phone (1) and 16% more efficient in terms of battery consumption compared to Phone (1).” Nothing even released a video chatting about its thought process as it landed on choosing MediaTek over a Qualcomm Snapdragon, which it had used for its two previous phones.
Nothing is also including something called “Smart Clean” technology, which sees the Phone (2a) “regularly clean out-of-order file fragments – an optimisation that boosts read and write speeds”. The aim is to have this phone feeling as fast after “years of us” as it did on your first day with the phone.
