Nothing Phone 2a Plus vs Phone 2a Comparison: Is Plus Really an Addition
Jul. 31, 2024From the budget CMF Phone 1 which launched recently to the most premium Phone 2, Nothing has had almost every vital price segment covered. But, the significant price gap between the Phone 2a and the Phone 2 demanded to be filled, and now, the newly launched Phone 2a Plus makes it happen in a rather odd fashion.
The latestNothing Phone 2a Plusis quite literally the Phone 2a’s doppelganger, stealing almost everything on the design front. But, is it all that there is to the new device? If you are planning on spending Rs 27,999 for the Phone 2a Plus, should you go for it or settle for the Phone 2a instead? That’s what this comparison should clear out for you, so let’s get right into the comparison between Nothing Phone 2a Plus vs Nothing Phone 2a
Nothing Phone 2a vs Phone 2a Specs at a Glance
I’ve called the Phone 2a Plus adoppelgangerof the Phone 2a (Review) for pretty solid reasons. Both phones are a tad too similar, starting from sharing the same dimensions, and weight, down to even the build quality. Yes, the Phone 2a Plus ismade out of plasticas well, so don’t expect to see a fancy glass back with a metal frame here.
Thevolume rocker and power buttons are still aluminumthough, in case you’re wondering. There’s been no improvement in the IP rating either, with the Phone 2a Plus sporting the sameIP54resistance.
However, the Phone 2a Plus is the shinier son, featuring aglossier metal-like finishon the internal coiling at the back. So, due to all that transparency, it certainly looks more premium and almost made me hallucinate it to be a glass back.
The Phone 2a Plus also stays truer to its colors, with thebrownish metallic glossytinge coating the power button and volume rockers. But, the premium mirage is real until it’s not.
Everything else, from the camera module design to the three glyph lights at the back is borrowed by the Phone 2a Plus, down to the T. I really do wish that the Phone 2a Plus had something unique going for it to stand out, like the CMF Phone 1 (Review). Sadly, that’s clearly not the case.
If you are not impressed by the design changes either, wait till you hear that both phones arrive with the EXACT SAME displays. Yes, there’s a6.7-inch flexible AMOLEDwith a 120Hz fast refresh rate support. There’sGorilla Glass 5protection on top of both displays, but I really do wish the Phone 2a Plus had at least used Victus here.
The display quality, although nice, is no upgrade, and that’s a pretty big con of the Phone 2a Plus. The segment it belongs to has phones offering 1.5K displays, with a lot of them like the Realme GT 6T and Motorola Edge 50 Pro even offering curved panels. So, you can see where my disappointment is coming from.
Even the brightness levels are identical here. Also, both phones have stereo speakers as well, with the receiver doubling down as the second speaker. So, for a detailed understanding of the displays, you can simply head over to my Phone 2a review.
Both phones come withAndroid 14-based Nothing OSright out of the box and will get to see Android 17. With the latestNothing OS 2.6, both phones get to see cool new additions like a Game Mode, pop-up view for apps, and a couple of other features that were long pending.
However, the Phone 2a Plus gets an extra AI News Reporter widget, which I’m a bit on the fence about. So, this particular widget offers you 1-minute AI-generated news story summaries from across 8 different genres. But, you get just 8 story summaries per day, rendering it pretty useless, if you ask me.
Everything else remains the same, from those fluid app opening and closing animations to that truly bloatware-free experience. The bad thing is that there’s still no haptic feedback integration in the UI, making it feel very hollow in comparison to a lot of other skins out there. Besides, the Nothing OS, although clean, is not nearly as feature-rich as skins likeMotorola’s Hello UIand OxygenOS.
One important point to note for Nothing Phone 2a Plus is that it starts with the 256GB variant as compared to the 128GB base variant of Nothing Phone 2a.
The Nothing Phone 2a Plus arrives with the 4nm-basedMediaTek Dimensity 7350 ProSoC. Now, according to Nothing, this chipset is 20% faster than theDimensity 7200 Propowering the Phone 2a. The chipset on both phones is paired with up to12GB of LPDDR4X RAMand256GB of UFS 2.2 storage. We’ve done an in-depth comparison of both chipsets. Check outDeminsity 7350 Pro vs Dimensity 7200 Pro. That’s about it for the technicalities. I’ve done some proper testing, so let’s take a look at the real deal now:
When it comes to benchmarks, apart from the general AnTuTu and Geekbench tests, I also ran AITuTu for the phones as they come with a few AI features as well. Here’s a rundown:
So, while you do get to see around the promised 20% increase in performance, it’s not as impressive. Besides, it does not even reflect in any way during day-to-day usage and games. That brings us to the next sections.
Since the performance increment is nothing spectacular on the Phone 2a Plus, you can’t tell it apart from the Phone 2a. They perform exactly the same, no matter how many apps, games, and Chrome tabs I have open in the background. Both phones manage to handle it all without breaking much sweat.
I remember how the Phone 2a used to lag back when it had first launched. But, after all those updates, it’s very stable. So, it’s good to see how stable the Phone 2a Plus is right out of the box, and I didn’t face any stutters or lags during my time with it.
The gaming performance is exactly the same on both phones. You get to see the same settings and frames on all the games. Take a look:
The familiarity is deeply rooted, extending well into the camera systems of the two phones. You see the same 50MP Samsung JN9 primary sensor with OIS, coupled with another 50MP Samsung JN1 ultra-wide.
So, as much as I’d like to say there’s some difference here, there’s not. Both phones capture shots that are impossible to tell apart. The good thing is that, unlike the Phone 2a, the Phone 2a Plus doesn’t have those terrible camera optimization issues at launch.
From a good dynamic range togood details on both sensorsas well as natural colors, these two phones have pretty commendable rear camera setups. There’s a veryslight color disparityin the two phones, with the Phone 2a Plus boosting the colors very slightly.
However, when it comes to human subjects, both phones are very inconsistent in capturing skin tones. But, mostly, while thePhone 2a Plus lightens the skin tones, thePhone 2a darkens them outa little too much.Nothing Phone 2a Plus (L) vs Phone 2a (R) Rear Camera Samples Comparison
However, it’s the selfie shooter on the Phone 2a Plus that has gotten a bit of an upgrade, straight from32MP to 50MP. But, the results are rather perplexing, with the Phone 2a’s shooter capturing better selfies.
While thePhone 2a Plus captures a bit more detail, it completely annihilates them withwashed-out colors and strangely grainy photos. The Phone 2a Plus selfie shooter definitely needs quite a bit of work. On the other hand, thePhone 2a captures pretty natural skin tones.
As for videos, both phones can shoot atup to 4K 30FPSthrough the rear setup, and at up to 1080p 60FPS through the front.
At this point, I think we’re done being surprised. Yes, the battery capacity is the same as well, with both phones packing a5000mAhunit. And, they both end up delivering similar screen-on-times as well, averaging at around 7 hours.
However, thePhone 2a Plus offers50W fast chargingcompared to thePhone 2a’s 45W chargingtech. That barely offers any significant difference in the charging speeds, with a 5-minute difference at most. Both phones will take you around an hour to fully charge.
You know it’s not an upgrade when a phone feels more like a limited edition extension of the base model. And, well, that’s the case here, with the phones sharing almost (if not over) 85% similarity in terms of both design and specifications.
TheRs 4,000 price jumpfrom thePhone 2a’s base 8GB/128GB variant(Rs 23,999) to thePhone 2a Plus’ 8GB/256GB base variant (Rs 27,999)is just not justified. You get double the storage, sure. But, that’s not what we’re here for. These are not supposed to be the same phones, and the Phone 2a Plus issupposedto be a proper upgrade.
But, the weak upgrades in the design, performance, camera department (which is also unoptimized right now, to remind you), and the addition of 5W reverse wired charging support are just not enough. This was a big miss by Nothing, and they could have easily made this a great device by simply the addition of a better IP rating, build quality, and a solid glass back + metal frame build.
Well, it is what it is, and if you ask me,settle for the Phone 2a instead. Then, get your hands on a good-quality charger preferably Nothing’s own 45W GAN charger (Buy Here), which costs Rs 2,500, which will still cost you less than getting the Phone 2a Plus. So, there you go. That wraps up this comparison.
Otherwise, this price segment offers several other good options like Motorola Edge 50 Pro and the top-of-the-segment OnePlus Nord 4. Yes, we did pit the Phone 2a Plus against the all-metal Nord 4, check out theNothing Phone 2a Plus vs OnePlus Nord 4 comparison.
Now, if you have any related queries, do drop them in the comments down below and I’ll get right back to you. Also, what’s your take on the comparison? I’d like to hear your side of the argument, so do let me know of that too.
Sagnik is a tech aficionado who can never say “no” to dipping his toes into unknown waters of tech or reviewing the latest gadgets. He is also a hardcore gamer, having played everything from Snake Xenzia to Dead Space Remake.
