Nothing Phone (2a) Plus review: A big nothing

This is going to be a fairly brief review, simply because the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus isn’t new enough to warrant a full breakdown. The latest mid-range smartphone from the London-based brand arrives mere months after the Nothing Phone (2a), with the additional “Plus” suffix indicating that it’s some kind of beefed-up variant of its predecessor. 

In reality, there’s very little new here for me to talk about. Aside from a new processor and a couple of minor tweaks to the camera system, this is the same phone as the standard Phone (2a). This is particularly disappointing given that Nothing blasted onto the phone scene with an exciting mandate to disrupt the status quo. If the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus is an indication of the direction in which the brand is heading, it’s safe to say that the status quo remains firmly unshaken.

Nothing Phone (2a) Plus review: What’s new?

That’s quite a dramatic take, so let’s run down exactly what’s new here to show you why I’m bothered by this. The Nothing Phone (2a) Plus is launching for £399 – £50 more than the Nothing Phone (2a) with equivalent storage cost at launch, although that model can currently be picked up for £329.

For that, you’re getting a new 3GHz MediaTek Dimensity 7350 Pro chipset, backed up by 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage space. The Nothing Phone (2a) also came in that configuration (albeit with a slightly weaker Dimensity 7200 Pro platform) as well as an option with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage that started at £319 but is now just £299. 

The rest of the changes are even more negligible. Charging speeds have improved from 45W to 50W, there’s an exclusive Grey colourway (which I like as it resembles the original PlayStation) and the 32MP selfie camera has been swapped out with a 50MP (f/2.2) unit. 

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Nothing Phone (2a) Plus review: What works?

It sounds like I’m complaining about these additions but they’re both decent features of the phone. My problem is that they’re nowhere near enough to justify the additional premium, or even really the existence of the Phone (2a) Plus at all. Because they’re so similar, I’m going to avoid retreading ground covered in my Nothing Phone (2a) review – if you want to see more, you can get the full rundown there.

The MediaTek Dimensity 7350 Pro is marketed as offering a 10% performance bump over the 7200 Pro but my testing showed it didn’t even manage that. In the Geekbench 6 benchmarks, the Phone (2a) Plus pulled a mere 4% ahead of its predecessor in the single-core results, while the multi-core scores were barely 3% ahead.

Equally, the GFXBench GPU stress test showed that in both the on-screen and off-screen portions, the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus scored a whole three frames per second more than the Nothing Phone (2a). Worthwhile? Sure. Worth (at least) an extra £50? I don’t think so.

The new processor appears to be a smidge more power efficient, as the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus lasted for 28hrs 36mins in our looping video battery test – an hour better than the Phone (2a). When recharging, that extra 5W of charging capacity brought the Phone (2a) Plus to full battery in 56 minutes – around four minutes faster than its predecessor.

The new 50MP (f/2.2) selfie camera certainly isn’t a bad addition but after testing the pair side by side, I’m not convinced that it’s much of an upgrade over the Phone (2a)’s 32MP shooter. As you can see below, the (2a) Plus produces notably warmer images and there is a greater level of detail but I feel that my skin tone is more natural in the Phone (2a)’s image. Overall, the new selfie camera has its advantages but this doesn’t feel like £50’s worth of difference.

The selfie camera can now also shoot 4K footage at 30fps, as well as 1080p at up to 60fps. This is a solid addition but I’d rather have seen 4K/60fps support on the rear shooter to match the Google Pixel 8a. 

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Nothing Phone (2a) Plus review: What doesn’t work?

As I’ve already hinted at several times, the biggest flaw of the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus is that you can get a very similar experience from the Nothing Phone (2a) for as much as £100 less.

Unfortunately, the similarities also extend to the two biggest problems I had with the Phone (2a). Even with the minor bump that the Plus’ new processor adds, the performance still doesn’t match that of the now-discontinued Nothing Phone (1), which launched for the same £399.

The same is true of the display issues I uncovered in testing. Despite the Nothing Phone (1) and Phone (2) both offering brilliant colour accuracy, the Nothing Phone (2a) dropped the ball somewhat, as does the Plus model.

In my display testing (on the Normal colour profile) the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus recorded an sRGB gamut coverage of 86.9% and a total volume of 87.1%. Neither of those is particularly impressive but the average Delta E colour variance score of 1.88 was more of a concern. This is both higher (and therefore worse) than the Phone (2a)’s 1.66 result and quite far from the target value of 1. You likely won’t see any colours looking dramatically out of place but this is still a disappointing result for a mid-range phone.

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Nothing Phone (2a) Plus review: What should you buy instead?

While I don’t recommend buying the Nothing Phone (2a) Plus, the brand is certainly not worth writing off if you’re after an affordable smartphone. If you’re interested in the UI design, glyph lighting and unique aesthetic of Nothing phones, ignore the Plus suffix and pick up a Nothing Phone (2a). The cheapest model is £299 right now, so you’ll save some money and still get one of the longest-lasting phones in this price range.

If you can spend a little more, the Google Pixel 8a is our favourite mid-range phone, due to its excellent software, phenomenal cameras and bright, colour-accurate display. Performance is also much better than you’re getting from the Nothing phones and you get access to Google’s varied and useful Gemini AI features. You can pick one up for as little as £419.

Finally, it’s worth considering the Motorola Edge 50 Fusion, which I proclaimed the best sub-£400 phone that I’ve tested this year. Gaming performance doesn’t quite match the Nothing phones but general performance is far superior, the cameras are superb and the display is vibrant and much more colour-accurate. Best of all, it’s currently down to just £300, making it even more of a bargain.

Whichever you choose, there are plenty of better phones for this kind of money, including one from within Nothing’s stable. I hope this will give the brand pause to reflect on its approach and return to a straightforward, easy-to-parse lineup. The focus should be on quality successions rather than iterative releases that muddy the water with confusing suffixes and ultimately make it harder for consumers to make an informed decision.