Nothing Phone 2 hands-on: Pro-repair styling without the functionality

After spending its first yr being restricted to Europe, the upstart Android producer Nothing is coming to the US. That means it is potential to purchase a Nothing Phone 2 and apply it to a GSM provider, so let’s take a fast have a look at one.

The worth begins at $599, which lets it slot into the area that was once occupied by the now out of date base-model Pixel 7. At this worth, you are getting a tool that appears like a flagship on the floor with a giant 6.7-inch, 120 Hz show and a last-generation Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. The lack of water resistance is de facto crippling, although. Even the $349 Pixel 6a has an IP67 score, so it is submergible, however this cellphone can solely deal with mild rain. Nothing is the second main firm from OnePlus founder Carl Pei, and OnePlus had a really unusual relationship with water resistance, too. If the firm would simply be regular and aggressive on this space, its units could be much more fascinating. Water resistance is a function individuals are used to now and positively one thing you’ll anticipate at this worth.

But there are some good options right here. I’m a giant fan of the flat entrance display, which bucks the pointless, year-long development of distorted screens which might be curved alongside each edges. Flat screens are hopefully going to be the development going ahead. The steel bands round the sides are additionally good if slightly iPhone-reminiscent.

On so many telephones, the again is a giant slab of nothing, and it looks like no thought in any respect is given to something aside from the digital camera bump. So I can admire the resolution to attempt to do one thing with this massive block of area. What you get on the again here’s a bunch of widgets and lights coated with a panel of Gorilla Glass. Just when it comes to day-to-day utilization, the again just isn’t good. It does not appear to have any type of oleophobic coating, so it’s only a massive greasy fingerprint magnet. The precise show glass, with a coating, is far nicer, however you are still touching the again rather a lot.

The factor that actually irks me about each Nothing telephones is that the design and functionality do not actually match. The greatest descriptor I can give you for the clear again is “restore cultural appropriation.” The cellphone clearly needs to go for a mechanical, techy look with all types of ins and outs on the again, together with seen wires and screw holes, however Nothing cannot again up any of these mechanical design cues with actual functionality. You can see the screws, however you may’t really contact them as a result of they’re embedded behind the glued-down glass panel.

It’s one factor in case you go for the opaque slab of glass or aluminum look of an iPhone, the place the picture is that each cellphone is a extremely locked-down equipment, and the inside is stuffed with magic. To look mechanical however not be mechanical is deeply uncool. It makes the Nothing Phone a poser—a phony, a cellphone for individuals who imagine the hacking scenes on CBS reveals. Don’t speak the speak if you cannot stroll the stroll.