The Nothing Phone 2A Plus has a new camera and upgrades, but limited US 5G support
Nothing is adding a new member to its budget line of phones, announcing its new Phone 2A Plus on Wednesday. The device will be available in the US as part of Nothing’s “beta program” for $399, and in the UK for £399.
Brits can get the device — which has 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage — in black or gray, while Americans are limited to just gray. Folks in the UK will also be able to get their hands on it first in a “limited drop” at Nothing’s London Soho store. Users in the US can place orders starting at 9am ET on August 7, before the rest of the world gets its hands on it in September (with exact global regions and pricing yet to be revealed).
Unlike other “Plus” phones, the 2A Plus keeps the same 6.7-inch display as the regular 2A, which cost $349 when it launched back in March. The improvements for this Plus phone lie in the rest of the specs. It gets a faster MediaTek Dimensity 7350 Pro 5G processor, upgrades the front-facing camera to a 50-megapixel Samsung sensor (up from the 2A’s 32-megapixel Sony camera), and has slightly faster charging speeds (50W versus 45W).
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There’s no longer any sign of the “glyph interface” of lights on the back of the device, but the company has retained other specs, such as the 5,000mAh battery that “lasts up to two days on a full charge and retains over 90% of its full capacity even after 1,000 charge cycles.”
The Phone 2A Plus runs Android 14, with Nothing promising three years of software updates and four years of security updates.
As with its previous phones, however, Nothing users in the US should expect limited 5G support. The carrier confirmed to CNET that “not all carriers will fully allow Phone (2a) Plus to work on their networks” and that even those that do may be limited.
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Over at AT&T, the Phone 2A Plus is limited to just 4G LTE, while compatibility with Verizon will be even tighter. Not only is there no 5G support, but you’ll also need to contact Verizon before you use your phone and have them add the IMEI for the Phone 2A Plus to their database. Even then, you’ll be limited to just a select few of the carrier’s 4G LTE bands (bands 4/5/66, with similar restrictions on AT&T’s 4G LTE network).
Nothing’s new phone will have limited 5G on T-Mobile, though the only 5G band it supports is at least the carrier’s N41 — the integral chunk of spectrum for its faster “Ultra Capacity” network (also known as “5G UC”). While better than the nothing you get in 5G support on AT&T or Verizon, the Phone 2A Plus is still missing key pieces of T-Mobile’s 5G network, like its low-band 5G, which is crucial for coverage.
People who are concerned about their connection may need to look elsewhere.
