Nothing Phone (2a) Plus review: what the upgrade really gets you

From the outside, the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus can only be distinguished from the Phone (2a) by its colour. On the inside, the device features a new processor and a slightly improved front camera. But are they better enough to warrant the premium?

Due to the many similarities, I’ll stick solely to the differences in this article. For information on all features other than the processor, front camera and charging performance, check out my review of the Nothing Phone (2a):

Grey mouse – or metallic chic?

Nothing says it has always wanted to create a smartphone with a metal back. So far, however, this hasn’t worked out in production – until the Phone (2a) Plus. The manufacturer's previous smartphones were black or white, while on the Phone (2a) Plus, conductor tracks gleam silver on the otherwise light grey back.

From the outside, the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus can only be distinguished from the Phone (2a) by its colour.

The Phone (2a) Plus runs on Android 14 with the Nothing OS 2.6 user interface, which is characterised by visual adjustments, namely a monochrome appearance and dot design. It also offers some additional functions, such as control of the three Glyph LED lights on the back and – newly – a news reporter widget. The latter’s an AI that reads out news from various sources. You can select the topics you’re interested in, but there’s currently only an English-language voice.

The Nothing Phone (2a) Plus will receive security updates for four years, alongside three Android updates (i.e. up to Android 17).

New processor, few advantages

A further difference in the Phone (2a) Plus is the processor, a MediaTek Dimensity 7350 Pro 5G. It differs from the Dimensity 7200 Pro 5G in the Phone (2a) mainly in its slightly higher clock rate. With its two performance cores, you get 3.0 gigahertz instead of 2.8 gigahertz, and its GPU gives you 1.3 gigahertz instead of 1 gigahertz.

I don’t notice any difference when using the two smartphones. So, I use the benchmark tests Geekbench 6 and PCMark Work 3.0 (Office) to check if they confirm my impression or tell a different story.

In Geekbench’s single and multi-core test, the slightly higher clock rate of two of the eight computing cores delivers slightly better results. In terms of graphics performance via the Vulkan and OpenCL interfaces, the pendulum swings somewhat more strongly in favour of the Phone (2a) Plus. On the other hand, the PCMark Work 3.0 benchmark, which simulates everyday use such as browsing, watching videos, data processing, actually gives the regular Phone (2a) a better score. In other words, while there are measurable improvements with the new chipset, there are also setbacks.

The Nothing Phone (2a) Plus comes in only one variant with 12 gigabytes of RAM and 256 gigabytes of storage. Meanwhile, the Phone (2a) is also available in an even cheaper version with 8 gigabytes of RAM and 128 gigabytes of storage.

5 extra watts, 4 minutes faster charging

The 5,000 mAh battery is the same in both phones, but the Plus’s new chipset allows it to be charged with up to 50 watts instead of 45 watts. Mind you, the time saved is minimal. According to Nothing, the battery on the Plus charges fully in 56 minutes instead of the usual 60 minutes.

The new processor also has no major impact on battery life. With the PCMark Work 3.0 battery test, I measured 10 hours and 31 minutes with the Phone (2a) Plus at maximum display brightness. That’s actually slightly less than the Phone (2a), which clocks up 10 hours and 56 minutes. Mind you, the values are so similar that I’d chalk them up to measuring tolerance.

Higher resolution, a tad more detail

While the cameras on the back remain unchanged, Nothing says that for the front camera, it paid heed to its users’ wishes, who wanted a higher resolution. The new Samsung JN1 sensor offers 50 megapixels instead of the previously installed Sony’s 32 megapixels. The aperture remains identical at f/2.2 and the sensor size is virtually unchanged at 1/2.76" instead of 1/2.74". Nothing uses the full resolution of 50 megapixels, not reducing it to 12.5 megapixels through pixel binning, as is often the case with other smartphones.

Higher-res selfies

The higher resolution of the Phone (2a) Plus’s front camera provides a little more detail. But that’s only relevant if I look very closely at my face in my selfies. Viewed on a smartphone or as social media posts, the difference compared to the 32 megapixels of the Phone (2a) isn’t noticeable.

However, the colours on the Phone (2a) are more vibrant, and HDR mode makes for a clearer and bluer sky than on the Plus. As a result, the lower-resolution Phone (2a) actually delivers what many would consider the more attractive image at first glance.

Portrait mode still good

Both cameras perform well in portrait mode. The statements about detail and colour in selfies hold true here, too, but have no effect on the blurring of the background.

If you look very closely, you can find two or three small areas on the Phone (2a) Plus that aren’t cut out quite as well. However, these are only noticeable on a large PC screen, viewed at 100 per cent size.

Nighttime selfies

In the dark, the 50-megapixel sensor’s higher resolution is no longer an advantage. You can see that the Phone (2a) counteracts the yellow light of the streetlamp more strongly in both auto and night mode.