I’ve written here a few times about how impressed I am with the Nothing Phone 2 and how much I enjoy using it. Google’s Pixel phones - specifically the Pixel 7 Pro and the Pixel 8 Pro - have been the subject of even more of my posts here. I’ve been a big fan of the Pixel phones for quite a while now. The first few generations were fun and promising, but not gripping. The Pixel 6 Pro was the one that got me fully onboard, and though I’ve tried out a few other non-Pixel phones since then, I didn’t like any of them enough to keep them or to displace a Pixel.
Until … I bought the Nothing Phone 2 in July and it quickly took over from the Pixel 7 Pro as my daily driver. Even when that happened, I still fully expected that the soon-to-be-released Pixel 8 Pro would get me right back to standard operating procedure. That feeling got much stronger when I watched Google’s launch day video for the 8 Pro, and got very excited about the 101 mentions of all the AI power and features coming to it.
This feels more than a little shocking
I’ve been using the Pixel 8 Pro for close to two months now - but not exclusively. Not even predominantly. I’ve been frequently switching back and forth between the 8 Pro and the Nothing Phone 2 - and the using the Nothing Phone 2 roughly 70 percent of the time.
There are still things that draw me to the Pixel 8 Pro. These include its AI features like AI powered voice to text, with the promise of more coming soon with this week’s update adding Android AI Core and (the horribly named) Google Assistant with Bard; and its dedicated security chip.
Here are some of the reasons why the Nothing Phone 2 is the phone I use much more often right now:
The Nothing Phone 2 is just a little lighter, nicer to hold. This makes one-handed scrolling a little nicer as well.
Somehow, voice to text feels better and more accurate more consistently on the Nothing Phone 2. It can’t recognize commands like “new line” that allow for a more continuous flow, but I’ve found that the accuracy level makes this a non-issue.
Nothing OS is a real joy to use. I would say it is very close to “pure” Android, but with some additional UI features and tweaks that make it easier and faster to use. Things like double-tap to wake and sleep the phone, more freedom to customize the home screen, the lock screen, widgets, all the way down to fun ways to customize app icons - like making an individual icon for your favorite app four times the size of all the other icons.
The glyph interface is different, original, fun, and also useful
The fingerprint reader feels faster when unlocking the screen or using biometric login to individual apps.
Battery life is great on both phones. I’m seeing the Nothing Phone 2 average around 7.5 hours of screen time or slightly more with my usage habits, while the Pixel 8 Pro gets 8 hours or more. The thing is, the Nothing Phone 2 charges way faster than the 8 Pro, which more than makes up for a little less screen time.
I like the Sound options for phone ringtones and notifications better on the Nothing Phone 2.
Then there are two things that I dislike about the Pixel 8 Pro that are in the mix here as well:
I can’t stand the Google Search bar being impossible to remove from home screens without using a third party launcher app.
I’ve seen some flaky app behavior on the 8 Pro. The most recent example is the Obsidian app showing zero and then only two recent files on the Pixel 8 Pro, while at the same time on the Nothing Phone 2 it shows numerous recent files, all the recent files.
With all that said, I’ll be keeping both of these phones - and absolutely reserving the right to continue my schizophrenic switching between them. Especially when Google releases Pixel-exclusive (and even Pixel 8 Pro exclusive) AI features that I will want to try out. I’m also going to be looking out for news on what a Nothing Phone 3 may bring.