Nothing’s Phone 2a looks like it’ll be an absolute steal

The Nothing Phone 2a budget phone is being launched next week but the design of the handset has already been revealed. As usual with Nothing, few secrets will be left until the launch event.

I got a sneak peek of the device at an event during MWC 2024 in Barcelona, where I was able to take these pics of the phone, albeit inside a glass case.

This phone is expected to launch at the top end of the budget range – leaks suggest either a €349 or €399 Euro price point for 8GB RAM/128GB storage and €100 more for 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.

It looks very thin and quite premium for such a budget handset – so could it be the smartphone bargain of 2024?

Nothing Phone 2a is expected to be 6.7in and uses the same design concept as Nothing’s more expensive devices. The core idea is to show off the phone’s components in its external design.

There are also clearly some light-up Glyphs as on Nothing Phone 2, but we don’t know what these will do as yet.

The two cameras are presented as ‘eyes’ and indeed Nothing’s launch event is dubbed ‘Fresh Eyes’ so it’s clear what the intent is there.

The company adds that the camera ‘bump’ is intended to stabilising the phone when it’s lying flat on a surface.

The phone also has more rounded corners – Nothing says it thinks it gives the phone a softer look. The ‘unibody’ design curves around the edges and Nothing says that by doing this it has significantly improved drop test results.

Coincidentally, the battery cover on the lower half of the phone was designed drawing inspiration from Massimo Vignelli’s New York subway map, apparently.

That’s well under the Google Pixel 7a or OnePlus Nord 3 5G at around $499/£449 let alone the not-yet-launched Samsung Galaxy A55 and Google Pixel 8a.

It’s expected that the phone will use MediaTek’s Dimensity 7200 having previously been big fans of Qualcomm tech. It’ll be very interesting to see which company’s tech is used in the upcoming Nothing Phone 3 which should appear later in the year.

• Check out our feature for full details on all the rumours around the Nothing Phone 2.