Nothing Phone (2a): Unlocked 5G Android Smartphone with Dimensity 7200 Pro, 50MP Dual Camera, 6.7” AMOLED Display, 5000mAh Battery, NFC – Black, 12+256GB

Best android brand imo fast and no unnecessary bloatware

I was looking for a mid-range phone to run the variety of apps I have loaded, and the Nothing brand had been popping up a lot on my feeds. I didn’t feel the need to go up to the Nothing 2 as it was out of my price range for what I needed.
Until now I’ve been settling around the £150-£200 mark on phones and having an okay time – they did what I needed. My Huawei ran for ages but had to drop that one due to limitations introduced. Blackview was where I went next until the phone bricked after about 2 years.
So I took a punt on the Nothing 2a. I liked the idea of the simplicity and the price point was not far out of my range to hold me back.

I have to say I was impressed from the first. The box was tiny compared to most with a funky embossed design on the inner carton. Paper packaging with the phone, charging cable and the usual small phone guides.
Setting up was simple and I easily transferred the data from my old phone, and I was away.
Nothing came with almost Nothing – the usual Android/Google basics, and some extras to run the phone and that’s it – no bloatware.
The interface is clean and responsive, and, having downloaded the Nothing icon pack, I also had a clean monochrome display – something I wasn’t sure I’d get on with, but there’s no distractions.
The options to customise the home screen were the best I’ve experienced so far – essentially the whole home page is your playground. This is the first time I’ve been able to organise ALL my regular apps on one page, and I’ve also had room to add 3 widgets for showing key information, and altered the settings so I have 5 columns, with my most used groups set larger to easily access commonly used apps like MFA.
The dot matrix style text is also clear and pleasing to read, and you can switch off the folder names to gain even more screen space.
You do have the option of also reverting to the Android style interface if that’s more your style, so you are not tied to the Nothing view, but I have no intention of switching!
I’m also liking the Always on display option – I can mow have my basic info at a glance without unlocking the phone – time, date, next alarm, and icons to show app notifications, as well as battery level, and flipping the phone over to show the Glyphs, it flashes and minimises the battery drain.
The ringtones and notification tones are in the same basic style – not overly keen on most of them, but you can add the composer app and then create your own complete with LED combos, or add in items from your music library, so you are not short of options.
The camera is okay for my needs – The front camera does seem to lack some focus close up (trying to capture some text from the back of a device while using the screen to see where I was aiming) but I got round this using the rear camera, capturing a video, then using the in-built tools to grab a screenshot from the video, so problem solved.
Battery for me generally lasts 2 days with the always on setup, and around 3-4 hours screen time according to the stats the phone gathers.
There’s plenty more for me to explore still
Overall, even though I’ve only had it a short time, I am extremely pleased with the phone and I’ve already added the Nothing CMF ear buds (which for me is unusual as I dislike in-ear buds normally, but I was sold on the option of not using noise cancellation – I’ll probably post a review once I have used them in earnest!)