1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,960 Alright, so you're telling me the Nothing Phone 2a runs with the Pixel 7a in terms of performance, 2 00:00:04,960 --> 00:00:13,760 runs cool, and starts at 330 euros? I mean, yeah, I get it. There's some issues on paper. 3 00:00:13,760 --> 00:00:19,040 It's using a MediaTek chipset, which in the past has basically been a budget. 4 00:00:21,360 --> 00:00:25,520 But this is looking like a very complete package this time around. 5 00:00:26,080 --> 00:00:31,440 Oh, I like that it's not super heavy. Dude, I was looking for a phone to take with me on my trip, 6 00:00:31,440 --> 00:00:35,280 because I need one for my kids to borrow for the plane. I picked up one of the most recent iPhones. 7 00:00:35,280 --> 00:00:39,600 It'd been a little while. It was like, damn, these things are heavy. Packaging wise, you get a whole 8 00:00:39,600 --> 00:00:45,840 lot of... not much. It's not nothing, but it isn't much. You've got a sim removal tool. 9 00:00:45,840 --> 00:00:49,280 Apparently the cable is supposed to go here, but Ars didn't have one in the box. Maybe that's 10 00:00:49,280 --> 00:00:54,080 because it's an early unit. And you get a phone. There is a lot to like here. Obviously, 11 00:00:54,080 --> 00:01:00,160 nothing is design language is back in partial force. You're not going to get any of the fancy 12 00:01:00,160 --> 00:01:05,360 lights on the back, but personally, I love the transparent back. And I also love that this is 13 00:01:05,360 --> 00:01:09,600 one of the first bones I've seen in a little while that doesn't have a gigantic camera bump on it. 14 00:01:09,600 --> 00:01:16,000 We've got two 50 megapixel cameras back here, one regular, one ultra wide, both with Samsung sensors. 15 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:20,800 And that's not the only thing that they've done to help shave down costs. I already mentioned 16 00:01:20,800 --> 00:01:26,800 they've gone with a MediaTek chipset. So it's the Dimensity 7200. But while MediaTek doesn't 17 00:01:26,800 --> 00:01:32,400 have the same kind of brand recognition that Qualcomm might have, this is not exactly your 18 00:01:32,400 --> 00:01:38,400 Grandpa's MediaTek chipset. It's using the latest TSMC 4 nanometer process. It's got 19 00:01:38,400 --> 00:01:43,120 eight cores paired with eight or 12 gigs of RAM with their RAM booster feature that essentially 20 00:01:43,120 --> 00:01:49,040 allows apps to run over from memory into storage and practice. We found that in a phone configured 21 00:01:49,040 --> 00:01:53,680 like this with a decent amount of memory, it didn't make a measurable difference in anything 22 00:01:53,680 --> 00:01:58,480 that we were looking at. But hey, maybe it's a cool idea for Apple. You're going to take that, Andy? 23 00:01:59,520 --> 00:02:04,240 Apple doesn't put enough RAM in their devices. He has no defense even. Even the Apple fanboys 24 00:02:04,240 --> 00:02:09,680 can't defend it. There are more compromises. You won't find a coil here for wireless charging 25 00:02:09,680 --> 00:02:16,560 because there isn't any. And the USB-C port on the bottom is only USB to just like the 26 00:02:16,560 --> 00:02:22,400 non-pro versions of the latest iPhones. But it supports 45 watt wired charging and that's a 27 00:02:22,400 --> 00:02:28,000 5,000 milliamp hour battery in it that in our testing performed admirably. We ended up with 28 00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:34,800 about 14 hours in our longevity test, which is playing back YouTube videos at 250 nits and 29 00:02:34,800 --> 00:02:41,280 a full charge was only 63 minutes. Pretty nice considering what value phones used to be like. 30 00:02:41,360 --> 00:02:46,640 And the same can be said of the display. Yeah, the Pixel 7a outperforms it, hitting higher peak 31 00:02:46,640 --> 00:02:51,360 brightnesses and small Windows. So you're going to get a better HDR experience out of that phone. 32 00:02:51,360 --> 00:02:58,000 But the nothing phone 2a managed to hit about a thousand nits peak brightness full screen in SDR. 33 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:01,600 So you'll be able to use it under any conditions. I realize I'm getting ahead of myself a little 34 00:03:01,600 --> 00:03:04,880 bit here though. I haven't talked about the design pretty much at all. We've got the lock 35 00:03:04,880 --> 00:03:08,640 button on the right, volume rocker on the left. I already showed you guys where the 36 00:03:08,720 --> 00:03:14,480 sim location is. It's right next to that USB-C port and that's about it. Always canceling 37 00:03:14,480 --> 00:03:22,080 microphone here. And ah, yes, the glyph lighting interface does make a return, but in a much 38 00:03:22,080 --> 00:03:28,080 simplified form. So here, let's go ahead and, uh, oh, gestures are enabled by default. So no 39 00:03:28,080 --> 00:03:33,040 bottom buttons, although you can reactivate them if you really want to. And then let's, uh, 40 00:03:33,040 --> 00:03:39,520 let's see. Glyph lights on. Hey, there we go. And that's just a brightness slider. Okay, what the? 41 00:03:40,720 --> 00:03:43,840 Hello? That's on. Okay, what just happened? 42 00:03:45,520 --> 00:03:49,840 This is like, this must be like watching my grandparents use a computer. Okay, now they're on. 43 00:03:52,400 --> 00:04:00,080 What, they're gone now? No they're, okay. There you go. That's cool. 44 00:04:00,480 --> 00:04:07,600 You gotta get them full points for style, you know? This is one of those devices you look at and go, 45 00:04:07,600 --> 00:04:14,000 man, why would I pay a huge premium for design when this exists? It is so cool. And sure, 46 00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:18,080 I might not be the arbiter of what is cool and what isn't, but do you really disagree? 47 00:04:18,080 --> 00:04:23,440 It looks freaking awesome. I gotta say, as someone who doesn't really care that much about the skin 48 00:04:23,440 --> 00:04:29,440 on my phone, yeah, this makes less of a difference to me than it might to some people, but I can't 49 00:04:29,440 --> 00:04:34,880 deny that it looks really good. As cool as it looks, I'm more interested in how it slides though. 50 00:04:34,880 --> 00:04:40,320 It's not LTPO OLED. Okay, so you're not going to get those one hertz variable refresh rate values 51 00:04:40,320 --> 00:04:44,400 and you're not going to get that super high peak brightness, but you are still going to get inky 52 00:04:44,400 --> 00:04:48,880 blacks. It still manages variable refresh rate down to 30 hertz, so you will get some power 53 00:04:48,880 --> 00:04:54,640 savings there. And as we saw already, it gets, in my opinion, bright enough, especially when you 54 00:04:54,640 --> 00:05:00,880 consider the price. Some might complain about the 1080 by 2412 resolution, but in my opinion, 55 00:05:00,880 --> 00:05:08,080 even at this size, it's not a problem unless you are extremely keen eyed. The first thing that I 56 00:05:08,080 --> 00:05:12,240 tend to do with the device is turn the text size all the way down because I'm all about 57 00:05:12,240 --> 00:05:17,280 information density. So let's do that and have a look. I mean, come on, I get you want to show off 58 00:05:17,280 --> 00:05:22,000 how well you can see, but even if I had a screen that ran at a higher resolution natively, I would 59 00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:26,320 probably still turn it down to 1080 just for the power savings and increase in battery life. 60 00:05:26,320 --> 00:05:30,400 It's got Corning Gorilla Glass 5. It's flat. So if you're one of those people who doesn't like 61 00:05:30,400 --> 00:05:35,840 curved glass, then you can suck on my Note 9 and you can buy this phone. Personally, I like the 62 00:05:35,840 --> 00:05:40,400 curved glass, but I also get it. The bezels are pretty reasonable again for a more value-oriented 63 00:05:40,400 --> 00:05:45,360 device. A big question mark for me though is the camera. First of all, can I double tap for camera? 64 00:05:45,360 --> 00:05:52,320 Yes, I can. Thank you. Oh, interesting. It struggles a little more than some of the 65 00:05:52,320 --> 00:05:58,160 more premium phones compensating for the exposure issues that shooting into this light generally 66 00:05:58,160 --> 00:06:02,480 has. That's in case you guys were wondering why I'm always taking pictures in such suboptimal 67 00:06:02,480 --> 00:06:09,440 conditions on set. What I'm looking for is how much this light source blows out the rest of the 68 00:06:09,440 --> 00:06:15,440 image. And you can see the answer for this phone is at... I would expect, based on what I've seen 69 00:06:15,440 --> 00:06:20,720 so far, that under better conditions, it will fare quite a bit better. And the answer is, 70 00:06:21,360 --> 00:06:26,800 it does. That processing is pretty slow. That's one of the things that Qualcomm has done a really 71 00:06:26,800 --> 00:06:32,320 good job of over the last five years, is building neural processing and image processing capabilities 72 00:06:32,320 --> 00:06:37,920 into their chipsets that are just better than what you're going to get on a budget chipset. 73 00:06:37,920 --> 00:06:43,120 With that said, this is not behaving like a budget chipset either with respect to this. 74 00:06:43,120 --> 00:06:48,880 Sure, the processing times are taking a while, but damn, that is like really good. 75 00:06:49,600 --> 00:06:54,320 Here, just for context, okay? Just for context. I know it's an older flagship, 76 00:06:54,320 --> 00:06:59,440 but this is what passed for a flagship phone like five years ago. Come on, buddy. You can do it. 77 00:06:59,440 --> 00:07:05,280 Let the phone app open eventually. I take back all the nice things I just said. 78 00:07:06,160 --> 00:07:11,680 It just got crushed by a Note 9. Now, there's things people will like more about the nothing 79 00:07:11,680 --> 00:07:19,520 image. It's poppier, but like, that is not what that looks like. Okay, it's in shadow. 80 00:07:19,520 --> 00:07:25,200 That's what it looks like. This light, the Note 9 blows it out. You can see it's clipped, 81 00:07:25,840 --> 00:07:31,920 but the nothing phone just has no idea what's going on here. Like, this looks like too light 82 00:07:31,920 --> 00:07:36,160 side by side when it is not. That's a white wall with a little bit of spill on it, 83 00:07:36,160 --> 00:07:41,440 just like we're looking at here. Ironically, the ultra-wide handles that light source a lot better. 84 00:07:42,880 --> 00:07:47,520 If you're a shutterbub, this might not be the thing for you, but it'll definitely do in a pinch. 85 00:07:47,520 --> 00:07:55,280 Selfie camera, though? 32 megapixels and, you know what, again, maybe I'm getting bamboozled 86 00:07:55,440 --> 00:08:03,520 here, but all of this is very usable. Like, very usable. Let's say, for example, instead of a blank 87 00:08:03,520 --> 00:08:09,600 space, you had friends, you could put them there. Not bad. And to their credit, they're not overdoing 88 00:08:09,600 --> 00:08:14,480 the processing on the selfie camera. I see this so much, even from big brands, where they have 89 00:08:14,480 --> 00:08:18,480 all these effects and everything turned on. It's like, no, that's what a tech bro who's pushing 90 00:08:18,480 --> 00:08:23,680 40 looks like, for better or for worse. Feel like I've aged 10 years in the last decade. 91 00:08:23,680 --> 00:08:30,160 For video, she'll do 4K, 30fps, and the lab reported that the audio recording quality was 92 00:08:30,160 --> 00:08:37,920 actually surprisingly decent. So that's a pleasant surprise. What's up, y'all? 93 00:08:39,680 --> 00:08:44,640 Not bad at all. Really not bad. I mean, it's no iPhone, but it also caught, like, what the 94 00:08:44,640 --> 00:08:51,040 tricks did the iPhone start at these days? Okay, technically, the iPhone SE still exists for 429, 95 00:08:51,040 --> 00:08:56,320 but get real. So 13 starts at $600 US. 96 00:08:56,320 --> 00:09:03,520 13 starts at $600 US. Yeah, I would take this over that in a heartbeat. It's got an aluminum frame. 97 00:09:03,520 --> 00:09:09,600 It's IP54 rated, which admittedly is not really par for the course anymore. It's as good as the 98 00:09:09,600 --> 00:09:14,880 nothing phone 2, but I would like to see that up to an IP67 rating. And I guess now's the time 99 00:09:14,880 --> 00:09:19,760 for us to explore nothing OS a little bit. We ended up using this instead of the stock 100 00:09:19,760 --> 00:09:27,680 Android experience for our testing because, well, we liked it. It's more than just a theme on your 101 00:09:27,680 --> 00:09:34,960 desktop. There's kind of similar to Carl Payne's previous employer OnePlus, thoughtful customizations 102 00:09:34,960 --> 00:09:40,400 to the stockish Android experience. And we didn't find that it had a noticeable impact on performance 103 00:09:40,400 --> 00:09:49,120 or battery life, which is all we can really ask. Right there. Right there. Back button on the right 104 00:09:49,680 --> 00:09:56,560 side. Is that so much to ask? See, thank you. Nothing. Thanks for nothing. OS. And to everyone 105 00:09:56,560 --> 00:10:00,320 who can't be bothered to do that, thanks for nothing. I just, I like the back button on the 106 00:10:00,320 --> 00:10:04,160 right. Okay, we've got to do a quick audio test. Does it have an amplifier to your 107 00:10:04,160 --> 00:10:08,000 peace speaker? I guess we're about to find out. I wouldn't expect it at this price. I'll be impressed 108 00:10:08,000 --> 00:10:15,760 if it has it. It does. Not bad stereo imaging either. And that's something that has really 109 00:10:15,840 --> 00:10:21,200 improved in the last two, three years. My goodness, has it gotten a lot better across the industry. 110 00:10:21,760 --> 00:10:27,120 And not just phones, laptops too. Just these tiny little devices with these tiny little speakers 111 00:10:27,120 --> 00:10:35,600 sounding like they're coming from all around you. A little muddy, not the loudest thing I've ever heard. 112 00:10:38,960 --> 00:10:42,960 Very reasonable considering the price. You know, I didn't really think about it until I was sitting 113 00:10:42,960 --> 00:10:48,080 here using the phone some more, but the glyph interface is kind of perfect for me. I have this 114 00:10:48,080 --> 00:10:52,160 problem and you'll have seen it actually here. The editor will have seen it. Roll the clip of me 115 00:10:52,160 --> 00:11:01,520 getting interrupted by my phone notification. The nothing phone 2a. Look, I'm very popular. Okay. 116 00:11:01,520 --> 00:11:06,480 I forget what I have my phone set to very, very often. And so I'll end up with it on when I'm 117 00:11:06,480 --> 00:11:10,560 supposed to be filming and then I'll end up leaving it muted when I'm supposed to be accessible to 118 00:11:10,560 --> 00:11:16,240 my family or my colleagues. And so if I could just use their flip to glyph, see a little phone 119 00:11:16,240 --> 00:11:19,840 flashing out of the corner of my while I'm filming, but put it in my pocket and have the 120 00:11:19,840 --> 00:11:25,200 notifications go, that would be kind of awesome. Some of the functions of the glyph interface 121 00:11:25,200 --> 00:11:28,960 are less applicable to me. You can use it as a countdown timer, for example. Why do you need 122 00:11:28,960 --> 00:11:34,560 to spend more than 350 bucks on a phone? Oh, speaking of $350, it's unfortunately not available 123 00:11:34,560 --> 00:11:39,840 in the U.S. outside of their developer program where it costs $350. So it's not available, but 124 00:11:39,840 --> 00:11:44,960 it is. And the pricing is perfectly reasonable. So what does that even mean? I'm not even going 125 00:11:44,960 --> 00:11:49,280 to speculate why that is, but it's $350 for a developer membership and you get a phone, 126 00:11:49,280 --> 00:11:54,560 sure, whatever that means. This is cool. They apparently have NTFS optimizations for moving 127 00:11:54,560 --> 00:11:59,360 files to and from Android and Windows. That matters to me a lot. I'm one of those dinosaurs 128 00:11:59,360 --> 00:12:04,880 that still offloads my photos from my phone with a cable. And man, is it ever slow. Oh, 129 00:12:04,880 --> 00:12:07,760 ringtone sound pack. Glyph composer. 130 00:12:12,480 --> 00:12:15,520 I have the ideas to be annoying and get my attention. 131 00:12:19,200 --> 00:12:26,000 Wow, boy, would that ever be effective. Delete. Never exist again. Thank you. 132 00:12:27,520 --> 00:12:31,200 There's a few more lab's notes on the phone. It's Wi-Fi 6, but speeds were 133 00:12:31,280 --> 00:12:39,520 as expected for a device of this caliber. It uses Bluetooth 5.3 only, but at least Bluetooth 134 00:12:39,520 --> 00:12:44,400 connectivity was extremely stable. And so was the performance of the in-screen fingerprint 135 00:12:44,400 --> 00:12:49,440 sensor with it registering 28 out of 30 times across what is a mostly anecdotal test. They 136 00:12:49,440 --> 00:12:54,640 were also very pleased with call quality, which is something that, you know, it should be good for 137 00:12:55,520 --> 00:13:01,920 a phone. Now, that leaves the last big question, and that is, how long exactly will you be using 138 00:13:01,920 --> 00:13:07,920 this phone for? Nothing is promising three years of updates with four years of security updates, 139 00:13:07,920 --> 00:13:13,280 which is not on par with some of the really big players in the space anymore. But at this price, 140 00:13:13,280 --> 00:13:19,440 I consider to be extremely reasonable. Better than nothing, you might say. No, exactly the same as nothing. 141 00:13:19,680 --> 00:13:27,200 Look, if they don't want people making these jokes, then they should call their company 142 00:13:27,200 --> 00:13:33,360 something not stupid. Yeah, I don't mean stupid. I mean, meme-able.