Someone stepped on my trusted OnePlus Nord 2T at the gym, and the screen broke in 3 different places. It was my mistake in the first place, so after reflecting on my bad habit of throwing things around the gym, I decided to buy another phone.

I never buy flagship phones and stay within the medium-top range category. It’s not that I can’t afford a more expensive phone; there’s just not much justification for me to have a phone that costs more than 400 EUR.

There’s a new mobile maker underdog in Europe that offers phones in that range - Nothing.tech! So, I bought a Nothing Phone 2a to support a European hardware startup. Building phones in our day and age is not easy, especially for a company in Europe - we should support such underdogs.

It’s been a week since the Nothing Phone arrived at our house.

Nothing Phone 2a

There are things that threw me off immediately about the phone, but after a week together, I’m coming to terms with those quirks.

  • It charges slower than my previous phone (80W versus 45W). As I understand, charging speeds over 60W are not great for long-term battery health. After a couple of years, 80W charging started to show on my Nord 2T; it barely lasted a day. The Nothing Phone lasts me a couple of days on a single charge, and I assume with the compromise on charging speed, this nice feature would last longer.
  • The phone’s back is uncompromisingly plastic without any attempts to hide it. Nothing made it look cool, but the tactile feeling is so unusual that it still feels like a kid’s toy in my hands. But I’m getting used to this feeling!
  • The official case makes the phone rather bulky and heavy; the phone without it is lighter and thinner. I absolutely regret buying that case. It feels like an afterthought and an extra they make money on.
  • Most Android phones have a bottom bar with a couple of buttons that allow you to go back or see all active apps. Well, Nothing completely ditched that, replacing it with gestures. This gives more screen estate, but it still takes me a couple of attempts to get those gestures right. If only they had a setting to bring that bar back!

These 4 are my main complaints; everything else is praise.

I love this monochrome theme! The screen seems really good. Everything feels snappy. Their camera placement is actually very convenient; I hardly ever touch it with my fingers by accident. And the phone is running Android 15, while Nord still uses Android 12 (so much for promised updates, huh?).

But the strangest thing is that you can submit feedback, and the company actively answers it. More than that, they suggest how to resolve those complaints. I’m very actively submitting bugs and feedback about hardware and software in use, but Nothing is the only hardware company that actually responds!

I have little experience with flagship phones. I could probably get a better processor or a camera that would cost me 4x as much - but I absolutely don’t need any of that. If I numb my tactile feelings and forget that I’m holding a piece of plastic in my hands, the Nothing Phone 2a does feel premium!