Nothing Phone (2) Review: Flashy, Grayscale Fun Leave a comment
The one situation is that from the primary Glyph settings web page it’s not instantly clear how granular you may go in notifications. You may actually choose notifications from, say, Instagram Direct Messages (and not Direct Message Requests), however in apps like Telegram and Fb Messenger, you may select particular conversations. These don’t at all times present up within the Glyph settings, so when a notification comes by means of, you’ll have to press and maintain the down arrow on the notification itself to mark it as an “Important Glyph” notification.
Glyph lights additionally work with the Glyph Timer, which you’ll be able to set to your most well-liked size and begin by turning the cellphone face down. One of many LED strips will mild up and start fading in correspondence with the timer. No want to have a look at your cellphone! The LEDs can now even be built-in with third-party apps, though Nothing solely labored with Uber at launch. Proper now, if you happen to name an Uber driver, you received’t need to maintain checking the app to see how distant they’re—simply take a look at the LED strip to see the driving force’s progress. It labored completely on the few rides I booked final week, although I inevitably needed to examine my cellphone to verify I knew my driver’s title and license plate.
Nonetheless, these little options are intelligent methods that will help you keep current and keep away from unnecessarily checking your cellphone. One downside? It’s laborious to erase years of muscle reminiscence of placing a smartphone face up. Too typically I simply … forgot that Glyph lights are a factor. You’ll want time to get used to it. Additionally, if Nothing needs me to place its cellphone face down on each floor possible, the least it may do is embrace a transparent case that will maintain the Gorilla Glass 5 display contact-free. I don’t see any scratches but, however they appear inevitable.
Not utilizing the cellphone is a giant a part of Nothing’s ethos—the corporate needs to make its software program and {hardware} extra “intentional” so that you just’re solely utilizing your handset once you want it. Its new monochrome interface is a part of that play. It takes a web page from Google’s “Bedtime Mode” in Android, which converts the cellphone’s software program to grayscale to discourage you from doomscrolling earlier than mattress. There aren’t any app labels both.
Nevertheless, after utilizing a completely grayscale interface for a couple of weeks, I don’t assume this works. I’m already utilizing my cellphone much less as a result of my favourite third-party Reddit consumer shut down (and I cannot be downloading Reddit’s official app, thanks very a lot), however when your entire cellphone is monochrome on a regular basis, I don’t essentially get that Pavlovian jolt as I do with Bedtime Mode that I ought to actually fall asleep. As an alternative, it simply appears like a very elegant design.
Appears to be like are the place I’ve to provide Nothing props. Nothing OS 2.0 is attractive, notably with lots of Nothing’s personal widgets. Much more amazingly, you may put these widgets on the lock display, and it seems much better than something I’ve ever seen on some other Android cellphone. The notification and ringtone sounds are additionally distinctive. Nothing has additionally launched a “Glyph Composer,” and I spent far too lengthy making a couple of customized ringtones and notification alerts. It jogs my memory of the nice outdated days of Android, which fostered a “do-whatever-you-want-with-your-phone” mentality.
All or Nothing
The basics of the Nothing Cellphone (2) are fairly nice total. The 6.7-inch AMOLED display has a fluid 120-Hz screen refresh rate that appears wonderful and will get comfortably vibrant on sunny days. The 4,700-mAh battery cell simply lasted me a full day—after 4 hours of display time, I normally had over 40 p.c left within the tank. It will probably simply final a full day and a half.
It’s now powered by final 12 months’s flagship processor, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, with 8 GB of RAM (128 GB of inside storage). It’s snappy and appears like some of the responsive telephones I’ve ever used, with speedy animations and fast app launches. It’s tremendous clean.
