One Year with the Nothing Phone 2
I’ve been using the Nothing Phone 2 for right around one year now. When I bought it I thought it would be a fun phone to try out, a phone that stood out from all the rest; but I also half way expected that its qualities would end up being at least a little in the novelty value category. I felt like I would probably be back with my flagship daily driver phone after maybe a week or two getting to know the Nothing Phone 2. I said as much when I posted about ordering it (excuse the typo in this quote from that post):
I doubt that the Nothing Phone 2 will replace my Pixel 7 Pro as my daily driver phone, or lure me away from the Pixel line - but I am very muck looking forward to spending some time getting to know it.
It felt like it might surpass those expectations right out of the box - just having the phone in my hand, seeing its delightful monochrome home screen and its creative UI. A few weeks in, it had already done more than that:
Last October I upgraded to the Pixel 8 Pro and ever since then I have switched back and forth between the 8 Pro and the Nothing Phone 2. The thing that still feels a little crazy to me after a year with the Nothing Phone 2 is that I have consistently used it more than the Pixel 8 Pro. I would say roughly 70% - 30% in its favor. That is not because the Pixel 8 Pro is not a great phone; it absolutely is.
Here is the short, simple list of reasons why I’ve been 70-30 for a year, and more like 90-10 over the last couple of months, with Nothing Phone 2 usage:
It is very fun to use - check out the words about the Glyph interface in my first post about it to see just one reason this is true:
It is very light, always feels great to hold even when using it for a good stretch of time - on a long phone call, doom scrolling, or lots of work related note taking and research efforts.
It’s fast. Very fast. It feels faster than the Pixel 8 Pro in nearly every interaction with it.
It’s very close to ‘pure’ Android - which I’m a bit fan of - but every tweak or addition just makes it a little more fun and efficient to use.
Great battery life and very fast 45W charging. It’s barely breaking a (battery level) sweat after a day of medium to heavy usage and I never bother putting it on charge overnight because I know it will get back to 100% while I workout for a bit in the morning. or while I walk the dog.
It’s different. It is the first smartphone I’ve seen that legitimately stands out as different since the OnePlusOne back in 2014. And I have confidence that Nothing will stick to the theme of keeping their phones very different / stand out from the pack devices:
Have any of you tried out the Nothing Phone 2? Or another phone - maybe a foldable or a flip phone that has this sort of fun, fast, efficient, and different feel for you?