Nothing’s Flash Phone 2 retails for $599 in the US

Nothing’s Phone 2 hasn’t officially arrived. The company has already teased several details about the handset, so the big news today is the price and release date of the Phone 2. It will be available from $599 (£579 / €679), and unlike last year’s device, the Phone 2 will be available for purchase in the US. Pre-orders will start today and the phone will be publicly available on July 17.

There are two different variants of the Phone 2. The starting price gets you 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, but step-up models with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage also cost $699 (£629 / €729) and 12GB and 512GB of storage for $799 (£699 / €849). By comparison, the starting price of the Phone 1 for 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage was £399 (€469) in no-sell markets. So the Phone 2 has received a significant price hike to justify anything.

The Nothing Phone 2 isn’t a radical departure from last year’s device. It’s still got those flashing light strips that got so much attention for the Phone 1, it’s still got the dual-camera setup, and it’s still running Nothing OS, the company’s signature feature on Android. But the Phone 2’s specs are improved across the board, with a faster processor, bigger battery and bigger screen.

For example, the Phone 2’s illuminated glyph interface may use the same basic layout as last year, but this time with more lighting zones to provide more granular effects. A strip can now act as a progress bar, for example, showing a timer or a countdown of the volume level, and nothing allows other app developers to use the light strip with their own apps.

There’s also a new feature called “Essential Glyph Notifications,” which lets you turn one of the light bars into a notification light for the contacts or apps you choose, meaning you can flash it until you see an important ping. you Meanwhile, the new “Cliff Composer” feature lets you create your own ringtones on the phone with lighting effects. It’s nothing revolutionary, but if you liked the way Nothing Goes on the Phone 1, there’s more to offer here.

These kinds of upgrades will continue across the rest of the phone’s specifications. It’s powered by the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 at the moment, which claims to offer an 80 percent performance improvement over the 7-series Snapdragon chip in the Phone 1. Its screen measures 6.7 inches rather than 6.55 inches and offers claimed peak brightness. than 1,600 nits 700 nits rated at 1 end of the phone.

The Phone 2’s battery is now 4,700mAh (an increase of 200mAh) and can be charged up to 45W fast (an increase of 12W). Support for wireless and reverse wireless charging is still there, at the same 15W and 5W as before. The phone’s IP rating is slightly better this time around against IP54 and IP53, though functionally it’s still only protected against limited splashes.

On the camera side, the spec improvements are less eye-catching. The two rear cameras (main and ultrawide) are still 50 megapixels, while the selfie camera is 32 megapixels instead of 16 this time. But that doesn’t go without saying that some improvements have been made, including an improved image signal processor and better HDR. . The Phone 2 now supports 4K at 60fps from the rear camera and 1080p 60fps from the selfie camera, and video recording has also been boosted.

As with the Phone 1, three years of major Android updates and four years of security updates still promise nothing. Like last year’s phone, the Phone 2 is available in light or dark color schemes, though this year it’s dark. The color is gray rather than black.

Stay tuned for our full review of the Nothing Phone 2, coming soon.